I found some teething issue with this template that I thought would be wise
to post in the same thread than start another.
Firstly is the authors preamble:
I am having trouble compiling this because if a change anything it complains
there is no \begin{} etc.
Secondly(and more importantly) as I have 3 authors of my paper I can just
substitute the names and all is well. However the text does not abide by the
margins for the document. Since I have very little knowledge of Latex I am
lost here. Is there a command I can use to constrain the width of the
authors to be in line with the columns or at least the margins?
Thirdly can I ask if there is anyway to keep figures and tables (especially
tables) from going over the column margins?
Fourthly I am having major headaches forcing lyx to position diagrams and
tables and equations at the tops of pages. Yes I know there is a command in
the float properties but sometimes it is just plainly ignored. Is there a
rule that float position is governed by?
Thanks again for all your help
pdf
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul A. Rubin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 10 March 2008 15:32
To: Phillip Ferguson
Subject: Re: Latex template on 1.5.4
Phillip Ferguson wrote:
> Paul,
>
> Thank you very much. Your instructions were clear, to the point and
exactly
> what I was looking for.
>
You're welcome.
> Should I worry about the ert highlights in the document?
The ones in section 6 (\verb...) are strictly for the specific content
in that section and will presumably disappear when you replace the text
with your own. As to the others ...
> There are a few
> around the equations and within the bos that is in the figure? Since lyx
> handles these anutomatically, can I just delete them and insert graphics
as
> normal?
>
The \begin{subequations} ... \end{subequations} thing is necessary if
you want to number parts of a mathematical formula using a single
equation number and letters (e.g., eq1a, eq1b, eq1c, ...). I don't
think LyX has intrinsic support for it, so if you want subequations you
will need to put the environment begin/end statements in ERT. I suspect
it does not matter whether use use ERT boxes before/after the math inset
or put the commands inside the math inset, but outside looks a bit
cleaner to me.
As to the graphics, they say epsfig is "highly recommended".
Personally, I would just do it the usual LyX way and, if the output
looked right, leave well enough alone. If they get crabby about it, you
can always try to mimic what they did.
> What are the purpose of the boxes? I don't see any effect on the end
> document? Are they used to scale the figures into the correct column
widths?
>
You mean the minipage inside the figure float and table float? I'm not
sure what if any purpose they serve. It might have something to do with
stretching the floats to fill the available space, or it could just be
that the author of the document "overengineered" it. If you have a
propensity to insert footnotes in tables, I think you will need a
minipage in order to get the footnotes to print. Otherwise, the only
other time I think I've used minipages inside floats had to do with some
weird alignment problem involving two objects being wedged into the same
float, and I don't recall the details now. So this is another case
where I would be tempted to take a minimalist approach and, if the
output looked correct, leave well enough alone.
> What I was trying to attempt was to create a document class within lyx
that
> duplicated spconf.sty. I suspect this will happen again with various
papers
> I am submitting so I had hoped that I would be able to find a systematic
way
> of using latex .sty and .cls files in lyx.
>
> What I was trying to do previously was modify the article.layout file to
use
> the spconf.sty and so creating a spconf.layout that is selectable in the
> document classes of lyx.
>
This is the correct approach if you are going to use the new document
class on a somewhat regular basis. It's not incorrect for a one-off use
but IMHO is more work than it's worth. The main reason to create a new
layout file is that you will be using features (frequently environments)
unique to that class, and you want LyX to be able to display them in a
user-friendly way (and, in the case of environments, to make them
available on the drop-down list). It's usually a fair bit of debugging
and requires an understanding of how layouts work, so if all the new
style does is change a few settings in a standard class (margins,
heading fonts, ...), I think it's easier to stick with the base class
and sprinkle in a little ERT.
> Thanks again
> Pdf
>
> p.s. I really think a few developers should look at a import application.
> With the amount of latex templates going about I am surprised there isn't
a
> more streamlined option in lyx to accommodate these, but then again I
> wouldn't have had the fun I've had trying to figure this out!
>
A LaTeX template is really just a LaTeX document using some new style
and/or class, and so LyX's LaTeX import feature (which runs an external
program called tex2lyx) should work. That's basically what I did:
installed the conference style file, imported the sample document, and
then did some cleaning. The tex2lyx program is a work in progress, and
is known to have limitations, which is why the cleanup is necessary.
Authors of templates also have different ways of doing things, which
means the cleanup is likely to remain necessary. For instance, the
authors of your template put the author stuff in the preamble, before
the \begin{document} command, whereas I think it's more typical to put
the author info inside the document body.
A more involved project would be to develop a program that parsed a
style or class file and generated a matching layout file. AFAIK that's
not on the table, at least not yet. Someone turned some students loose
on developing an interactive application to let a user design a layout
file, but that's at a primitive stage as I understand, and since the
developers keep changing the layout file syntax, it's a bit of a moving
target.
Meanwhile, there's a wiki page where people who do roll their own
layouts can share them. So far, it's received rather minimal donations.
Cheers,
Paul
