Software

• Windows - You are recommended to download a software package from http://www.ctex.org/CTeX which includes the Latex compiler (MikTex), an integrated editor (WinEdt), as well as GSview and Ghostscript. The Chinese extension (fonts etc) is not needed for writing English papers.
• Linux/Unix - Emacs/vim + the latex package (coming with Linux distribution) usually is sufficient.

  To Start With...

• Start with a template (see below for more ACM/IEEE templates)
  • Download IEEE templates from http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/IEEEtran/
  • Start a conference or journal paper with bare_conf.tex or bare_jrnl.tex provided.
• Familiarize yourself with the following essential structures
  • Title: \title, \author, \thanks ...
  • Section: \section, \subsection, \subsubsection ...
  • Lists: \begin{enumerate} \item ... \item ... \end{enumerate}; or use itemize instead of enumberate.
  • Figures & Tables: \begin{figure[*]) ...\end{figure[*]}, \begin{table[*]) ...\end{table[*]}, etc. (Use * to spread the figure across two columns)
  • Include EPS figures: \includegraphics{}, \epsfig{}, etc. (see below for how to create an EPS figure)
  • Labels: use \label to label ALL section headings, figures, and tables, and use \ref for ALL cross-references.
  • Bibliography: BibTex is recommended. All bibliography entries could be compiled in a separate file such that it could be used for multiple papers.

  Frequently Used Templates

• ACM Proceedings Templates
  • http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates
• IEEE Transactions
  • IEEETran Home page: http://www.michaelshell.org/tex/ieeetran/
  • Official IEEETran Readme  &  HOWTO
• IEEE Computer Society Conferences
  • http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/IEEEconf/

Useful Tips

• How to convert Word (.doc) documents to Latex:
  • wsW2LTX developed by Ingo H. de Boer and distributed by CTAN.org.
• How to convert OLE (Visio, Excel, PowerPoint...) figures to EPS
  • I recommend the OLETeX Utility.
  • You can always use a PS printer (e.g., HP ColorJet 5 PS) to print any document into a .ps file, then open it using GSview to convert it to .eps (don't forget to calculate the bounding box!!).
• Hyphenation
  • To avoid frequent broken words, use \hyphenpenalty, and \tolerance. For example:
    • \hyphenpenalty=5000
      \tolerance=1000
  • To avoid incorrect hyphenation for a particular word, use \hyphenation. For example:
    • \hyphenation{op-tical net-works semi-conduc-tor}

Additional Reading Materials

• Latex Help from U. Florida: http://web.image.ufl.edu/help/latex/
• A web based LaTeX help, based on George D. Greenwade's LaTeX help for VMS machines.
• LaTeX cookbook: tricks and methods, LaTeX construct and their results.
• Essentials of LaTeX by Jon Warbrik; a LaTeX file which can be downloaded, processed and printed out. Requires the hndout.sty style file.
• A gentle introduction to TeX by Michael Doob; a plain tex file, process it by TeX.
• symbols.tex is a LaTeX file which lists all (i.e. most of) available symbols in LaTeX with their names.
• An introduction to TeX and friends by Gavin Maltby, a LaTeX file which was also used as a course handout.
• Making double spacing in your document
• www.dante.de a German web site with a use collection of TeX related material.
• www.tex.ac.uk is a TeX archive in English, with almost anything you might want in connection with TeX.