Blogger Tips: Readability and Post Width

Alright well I am slowly cleaning up my blog, and I have started to notice how ugly and hard to read it was. Appearance is everything for things like this because you want people to stop and check your blog out. Usually people have googled something and are quickly scanning pages (this is what I do) so you want something to capture your reader which is easy to read and aesthetically pleasing.

First I have changed my font color and post background color. To me, from what I have mentally gathered, a dark font with a light background or vice-versa works best. I personally like a darker font with a lighter background. This all can be changed easily in the Design Tab in Blogger.

Screenshot from my blog:  I guess if you are reading this it probably looks the same, :P.

I had something like this before.  It was a darker grey with a yellow tinged font.  Not very easy to read...

This one is better, but I think, IMO, it is better not to get too fancy.

And please don't do something like this...it looks like a 14 y/o girl's MySpace or Xanga (sorry, no offense, just not professional).  Seriously, I saw a PhD student who was applying for a professorship at my school who presented his equations in this color in a font size of 8...really?

Next I changed the layout. I have a blog archive as one of my gadgets on the sidebar like most people do (it seems pretty standard, and you can see mine in the images and probably now of course). However, I first had the archive gadget in a small width gadget space which crammed it and made it ugly and unreadable.

So I finally figured out you could move the gadget to a wider gadget space in the layout design tab.  I also had columns on both sides of the post, but I found it is better if you have one column on one side because it will increase the width of your post area.  Also, I like the column on the left because I like to use X-Large picture formats and they spill over on the right side of the site.  Even though I figured out you (reader) can click on the image and it will enlarge.

Also, it is nice to use a decent size font.  Right now I am using Times Roman at an 16pt.  I think in my format it is the perfect size.  It is big enough, but not distorted like 18 or above.

Anyways, this post was supposed to be about how to widen your post.  I thought changing to the one column format helped a lot.  However, I went to the Design tab and under Edit HTML couldn't really follow this blog tip (John Deere Mom: How to widen your columns on Blogger) :

I am going to post some links and screenshots of some examples of what I am talking about.  Here is the link again to the one I just mentioned:

John Deere Mom: How to widen your columns on Blogger

See (image above) how she has a simple white background with a black font color.  Font is nice a big, very readable.  She also has a nice blend of her post area and gadget area.  I think this is due to the Design Template.  I use the Awesome, Inc.

Here is the Simple:

She also has some (it looks) customized stuff which I haven't gotten to yet but will post about when I get there.

This is a screenshot of Please Make a Note.

Tony also has a very nice layout.  Good font, background contrast.  Very readable.  He also has some nice customized stuff.  I also noticed his tab at the top on the internet browser has a blue sphere instead of the Blogger emblem.  Got to figure out that trick!!

Well, I just found the adjust width tab under the Design tab.  Geez, it couldn't have been any more obvious.  Haha, oh man, maybe it's new??  Anyways here are some screenshots:

One Advantage of Ubuntu over Windows: File Naming

A quick observation here.  One thing I have noticed between Ubuntu and Windows is that when naming files, I haven't (in Ubuntu) run into any problems with file length.  I think the Ubuntu file name system even takes some symbols like the colon (:).  Also, another small but helpful and cool thing (to me at least) is that when renaming a file, I can leave the PDF open in Foxit and rename it without any issues unlike in Windows with Adobe (it may be just an Adobe thing, I haven't checked).  However, if you are sharing files with a Windows user, the Windows system can't/won't copy the files.

My wiki page at Zoho

I love to share information and keep a central location for everything.  I decided to create a wiki page again inspired by Tony Saad. A wiki page seems like a good way to distribute a myriad of information in a website format. So instead of having to create a website from scratch a wiki page will give you a beginning format similar to Blogger. A wiki page seems to be more structure than a blog. However, after getting more into Blogger and my blog later they may be quite similar and competitive. I guess wikis are good for collaboration amongst a group or I have seen formats for educational purposes (grade school). I will post more later on differences once I come across them.

Anyways, there is a myriad of wiki host around the web that usually offer a free service. Both a wiki site and general website builder that I began with was Google's Sites. I began my site also named the same as my blog Scared to fly? But I love rocket science! At first I figured I would move on to a wiki site later, but I wanted to experiment and start a simple website/wiki which Google Sites seemed (and is) perfect. I began it by creating a simple about me, listing interest, education, and publications. In hindsight, I am glad I kept the site (I thought I had deleted it!) because after working with Blogger some more (Sites is obviously based on the same format) Sites seems to be just as good as any other wiki, that I have noticed so far.

A screenshot:

After experimenting with Google Sites, I first tried out Wikispaces but was not impressed by, IMO, the limited editor (I did end up deleting this one).

Screenshots:







I then found Zoho's Wiki. Zoho is, in their words,

"Zoho provides a wide, integrated portfolio of rich online applications for businesses. With more than 20 different applications spanning Collaboration , Business and Productivity applications, Zoho helps businesses and organizations get work done. Our applications are delivered over the internet, requiring nothing but a browser. This means you can focus on your business and rely on us to maintain the servers and keep your data safe."

They have online office apps, plus much more. I will blog on them later. I first saw Zoho from the Ubuntu repositories.

Anyways, I really like Zoho Wiki so far, and it looks very robust. I also named this one Hate to fly? But I love rocket science! I am keeping both a blog and the website, and I will update the differences/advantages of both.

Here is a screenshot:

Finally, my friend and mentor, Tony Saad, uses Wikidot for his wiki page Science Talk or SciTlk.

Some screenshots:

RSS Feeds for Facebook and Twitter

This is kind of random, but I wanted my Facebook status updates to link to my Twitter account. There is a Facebook app that does Twitter to Facebook, but not the other way around. I search the Facebook apps and found Twitter Feed which allows for blog or any other RSS feed to post to Twitter and/or Facebook. I then found how to do your status updates in Facebook as an RSS feed here:

Hacking Facebook Status Updates Into RSS Feeds

I now have my blog post updates and Facebook status updates linked to my Twitter!! Cool! You can also make RSS feeds for notifications and friend updates, etc.

I will blog more later on RSS feeds and Twitter Feed with images.

LaTeX Curriculum Vitae (CV) Template

I will post here any LaTeX CV templates that I come across surfing the web.

From Jason R. Blevins

http://jblevins.org/projects/cv-template/

From Ted Pavlic

http://www.tedpavlic.com/post_resume_cv_latex_example.php

LaTeX Line and Page Breaking

I did not write any of this by the way. I have only reposted from the following site:
did not write any of this by the way. I have only reposted from the following site:

LaTeX Line and Page Breaking

The first thing LaTeX does when processing ordinary text is to translate your input file into a string of glyphs and spaces. To produce a printed document, this string must be broken into lines, and these lines must be broken into pages. In some environments, you do the line breaking yourself with the \\ command, but LaTeX usually does it for you. The available commands are

\\ start a new paragraph.
\\* start a new line but not a new paragraph.
\- OK to hyphenate a word here.
\cleardoublepage flush all material and start a new page, start new odd numbered page.
\clearpage plush all material and start a new page.
\hyphenation enter a sequence pf exceptional hyphenations.
\linebreak allow to break the line here.
\newline request a new line.
\newpage request a new page.
\nolinebreak no line break should happen here.
\nopagebreak no page break should happen here.
\pagebreak encourage page break.

---

\\

\\[*][extra-space]

The \\ command tells LaTeX to start a new line. It has an optional argument, extra-space, that specifies how much extra vertical space is to be inserted before the next line. This can be a negative amount. The \\* command is the same as the ordinary \\ command except that it tells LaTeX not to start a new page after the line.

---

\-

The \- command tells LaTeX that it may hyphenate the word at that point. LaTeX is very good at hyphenating, and it will usually find all correct hyphenation points. The \- command is used for the exceptional cases, as e.g.

man\-u\-script

---

\cleardoublepage

The \cleardoublepage command ends the current page and causes all figures and tables that have so far appeared in the input to be printed. In a two-sided printing style, it also makes the next page a right-hand (odd-numbered) page, producing a blank page if necessary.

---

\clearpage

The \clearpage command ends the current page and causes all figures and tables that have so far appeared in the input to be printed.

---

\hyphenation

\hyphenation{words}

The \hyphenation command declares allowed hyphenation points, where words is a list of words, separated by spaces, in which each hyphenation point is indicated by a - character, e.g.
\hyphenation{man-u-script man-u-stripts ap-pen-dix}

---

\linebreak

\linebreak[number]

The \linebreak command tells LaTeX to break the current line at the point of the command. With the optional argument, number, you can convert the \linebreak command from a demand to a request. The number must be a number from 0 to 4. The higher the number, the more insistent the request is.The \linebreak command causes LaTeX to stretch the line so it extends to the right margin.

---

\newline

The \newline command breaks the line right where it is. The \newline command can be used only in paragraph mode.
\newpage

The \newpage command ends the current page.

---

\nolinebreak

\nolinebreak[number]

The \nolinebreak command prevents LaTeX from breaking the current line at the point of the command. With the optional argument, number, you can convert the \nolinebreak command from a demand to a request. The number must be a number from 0 to 4. The higher the number, the more insistent the request is.

---

\nopagebreak

\nopagebreak[number]
The \nopagebreak command prevents LaTeX form breaking the current page at the point of the command. With the optional argument, number, you can convert the \nopagebreak command from a demand to a request. The number must be a number from 0 to 4. The higher the number, the more insistent the request is.

---

\pagebreak

\pagebreak[number]

The \pagebreak command tells LaTeX to break the current page at the point of the command. With the optional argument, number, you can convert the \pagebreak command from a demand to a request. The number must be a number from 0 to 4. The higher the number, the more insistent the request is.

Inkscape and Tex Text

I have found for Ubuntu the best software for drawing figures for research is Inkscape.  It is cross platform which is a big bonus, and of course it is free!   It is also found in the Ubuntu software repositories.

I wanted a vector graphics drawing program vs a raster graphics program which essentially means that the quality of the image holds up when zoomed in (aka no pixel-ation). Please see the Wikipedia article link and image below.

Vector graphics (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)



Another big requirement for me is that the drawing software should be able to handle equation input easily and quickly since I work a lot with math in my research. Inkscape does this flawlessly and uses LaTex math input!! However, there are two ways to go about this. The first is using the built in InkLaTeX (see InkLaTeX - Extensions for drawing LaTeX text on Inkscape for more info).

Unfortunately, the formula cannot be re-edited if need be.  However, the second option allows this and is what I recommend.  It is using Textext in Inkscape. To install simply download the files: textext.inx and textext.py. Then, depending on what version of Ubuntu you are using the files will go into ~/.config/inkscape/extensions/ for Inkscape 0.47 versions or later (the ~/.config folder can be found in your homefolder and will be named what ever you called it; mine for example is timbarber/.config since that is my login name; you will also have to click on "Show Hidden Files" under the View menu) and in ~/.inkscape/extensions/ for earlier versions. Also for Linux installations some additional requirements are: (see Textext for additional platform installation help as well; I do not know why these are needed either)

On Linux, you’ll need to have pdflatex and one of the following installed:

- Pstoedit with its plot-svg back-end compiled in, or,
- Pstoedit and Skconvert, or,
- Pdf2svg (the one by David Barton & Matthew Flaschen, not the one by PDFtron)

I think you can get all this done under the Ubuntu repositories for the Inkscape installation (see next image).

Once installed simply go to Extensions and there should be a separate Tex Text file.

The next few images is an example of inserting an equation and editing it.  Simply click the equation image and select Extensions->;Text Text again.  If an error or warning pops up like I have shown, I am not sure why or what it is for but just click "Ok" and everything should be fine.

For additional information please also see this blog post:

The Typethinker
Trying to make sense

Integrating Inkscape graphics in LaTeX

and this website:

LaTeX in Inkscape
jblevins.org » log » latex-in-inkscape
CHAPEL HILL, DECEMBER 10, 2007

by Jason R. Blevins

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AT THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

LaTeX - Math Commands

Here are a few more links for math in LaTeX. One day I hope to have uploaded pdfs and re-write some of the more common symbols and commands for quick reference. Now I just have some scattered and ugly posts, :P.

LaTeX:Commands WikiBook - http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Commands

LaTeX Math Commands - Drexel University Liki - http://physics.drexel.edu/liki/index.php/LaTeX_Math_Commands

Edit/Update: 7-6-11

This is a link for some quick reference math in LaTeX from a pretty cool sounding software called Aurora. Aurora, it seems, is a software capable of writing LaTeX math in Microsoft Word documents (boo) and more. Check it out if it sounds like it could be for you. Before I dumped Windows, I might have looked into this further. Not too bad a price either, $35 for academic and $45 otherwise.

Here is the description for the site. I can't believe I just stumbled upon this googling for LaTeX math commands.

"Aurora lets you use LaTeX in Microsoft® Word, PowerPoint®, Visio®, Excel®, and many other programs. It makes sure that your formulas look good, print prettily, and play nice with the rest of the text. Aurora takes care of the little things like numbering equations and positioning them on the page, and stays out of your way the rest of the time."

LaTeX basics

Common expressions

Commonly used symbols

A link to LaTeX special characters. Some are using/in the latexsym and amssymb packages.

Special LaTeX Characters - http://www.combinatorics.net/weblib/A.8/a8.html

Ubuntu - Numeric keypad stops working fix

Okay, just found this one out.  Was working and all of a sudden the numeric keypad stopped working.  At first I thought it was cause an update failed to upload correctly so I reinstalled that.  Still didn't work.  Thought I had hit a key on my keyboard, but no the numlock was on and the keypad would light up (normally does this) when I hit a button.  I remember now in hindshight that pressing the numbers and my mouse pointer once moved.  Stumped and frustrated I finally googled and found the solution:

Numerical keypad doesn't work w/8.04

Seems like there is a bug, still not fixed yet in 10.10 that somehow triggers the accessibility option to allow the keypad to control the mouse.  Weird.  Go to System->Preferences->Assistive Technologies->Keyboard Accessibility->Mouse Keys and uncheck the box next to Control Mouse with Keypad.

A few general LaTeX help/tips page(s)

From Drexel University:

Liki LaTeX - http://einstein.drexel.edu/liki/index.php/LaTeX



LaTeX Community: http://www.latex-community.org/


Edit/Update: 7-6-11
An online html LaTeX guide/book with an MIT domain name by Alex Rolfe 1999.

http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb.mit.edu/project/www/latex/guide/node1.html

Another online html LaTeX guide/book by Rainer Schoepf 1997.

http://tex.loria.fr/ctan-doc/macros/latex/doc/html/usrguide/node1.html

http://texblog.net/

LaTeX/Labels and Cross-referencing

Great source for labels and figure, table, and equation referencing:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Labels_and_Cross-referencing

LaTeX tips: Displayed Math

Another great reference page for math display tips:

http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~hildebr/tex/displays.html


Note: Most of the tips below require the amslatex macros. These are automatically loaded if you use the "amsart" documentclass, but if you use other documentclasses, such as "article", put the following in the preamble, after "\documentclass{...}": " \usepackage{amsmath, amsthm, amssymb} ". For more about the amslatex macros, and as a general reference for the tips below, see Gratzer's "Math into LaTeX".

Single line displays

• The double dollar symbol ($$). In Plaintex and Amstex displayed math was set by enclosing it between a pair of double dollar signs. In LaTeX the double dollar sign does not exist as a valid command, and most LaTeX books don't even mention it, since it is not supposed to be used. However, the dirty secret is that it works just fine in most situations, and many authors use it with impunity. Nonetheless, there are a few situations where it causes problems, and it may not work under future versions of tex. If you come from a Tex/Amstex background and are in the habit of typing $$'s, try to gradually switch over to using the backslash/bracket pair. If you are new to Tex/LaTeX, learn it right from the start (i.e., use the backslash/bracket method)

• The backslash/bracket pair, \ [ and \ ]. (without the space; I am using a space since MathJax picks up this as a LaTeX formula and until I can figure out how to block it when needed this is how I will work around it) Use this for all unnumbered displays. It's a good habit to put each of these pairs on a line by itself. Though Tex doesn't care, this makes displays stand out visually and makes editing and revising the tex file easier.

• \begin {equation}\label{...} ... \end {equation}. Use this if you want the equation to be automatically numbered. You can later reference the equation with "\eqref{...}", where the text inside the braces is the equation label. (Note that no parentheses are required with "\eqref".) For more on equation numbering, see below.

• \begin {equation*}... \tag{...}\end {equation*}. Same as the equation environment, except that automatic numbering is disabled, and the "\tag{...}" command generates an explicit equation number. For example, to get equation number (4.1a), use "\tag{4.1a}". (Again no parentheses are needed.)

Multiline displays

While single line displays are pretty straightforward to typeset, there are at least a dozen different constructs to generate multiline displays with the amslatex macros, and it's easy for a beginner to be overwhelmed by the multitude of options. Fortunately, you can get by knowning only two of these, namely the "align/align*" and "cases" environments. Unless you are a professional typesetter striving for 110% perfection, you don't need anything beyond that.

• \begin {align} ... \end {align} and \begin {align*} ... \end {align*}. Nearly all multiline displays can be typeset with the one of these two environments, which are derived from the amstex "\align ... \endalign" construct, and follow (essentially) the same syntax. The difference between "align" and "align*" is the same as between "equation" and "equation*": The starred versions don't automatically generate equation numbers. Use those versions, if you don't want equation numbers, or if you want to number equations manually.

• Equation numbering and labelling in align/align*. By default, every line gets numbered separately in the "align" environment. If you want just a single equation number for the entire display (which would be appropriate if the display consists of a chain of equalities or inequalities), pick a line in the middle of the display that is to get the number, and put "\notag" right before the linebreak symbol ("\\") on all other lines. On lines that are to be numbered, you can put the label command, "\label{...}", before the linebreak. With "align*", it works the other way: By default, none of the lines gets numbered, so to number a particular line you must put an explicit "\tag{...}" command at the end of that line, before the linebreak symbol.

• \begin {cases} ... \end {cases}. Aside from align, the only other multiline construct that you may need with any frequency is "cases". It works in much the same way as the amstex "\cases ... \endcases" construct. Note that the "cases" environment is a "subsidiary" math environement and has to be enclosed by another, top level, display math environent, such as equation or align/align*. Here is a typical example:

\begin{equation*}
|x|= 
\begin{cases} x & \text{if $x≥0$,}
\\
-x &\text{if $x\le 0$.}
\end{cases}
\end{equation*}

\begin{equation*} |x|= \begin{cases} x & \text{if $x≥0$,} \\ -x &\text{if $x\le 0$.} \end{cases} \end{equation*}

Note that the part after the alignment symbol usual contains some text and is best typeset using "\text{... }", and enclosing any math material within the braces in dollar signs.

• eqnarray/eqnarray* and array. Avoid these. Before the advent of amslatex, multiline displays and cases constructs had to be typeset with "eqnarray" and "array". However, the above (amslatex) environments "align/align*" and "cases" are easier too use, provide greater functionality, and generate better looking output. There is no reason whatsoever to use "eqnarray" instead of "align", and, except in very rare situations, "array" is unnecessary.

• Other amslatex display environements. Amslatex provides several other environments for multiline displays, such as "split, gather, gathered, multline, aligned, alignat," as well as starred version of most of these. These may do a marginally better job in some special situations, but the (mostly cosmetic) gain that these environments provide in those situations is not worth the effort of memorizing the various alternatives to the "align/align*" environments.

Writing tips

• How to number equations. By default, LaTeX will number equations consecutively, as (1), (2), etc., assuming you use the automatic equation numbering mechanism. If the paper is very short, or if there are only a few numbered equations, this is fine, but once the numbers get into the twenties and higher, a scheme that numbers equations by section, as in (1.1), (1.2), ..., (2.1), etc., is preferable. In fact, for the vast majority of journal articles, the latter is probably the best numbering scheme. To get equations numbered by section, just put the following into the preamble: " \numberwithin{equation}{section} ". For books, theses, or very long papers, an equation numbering scheme that is three levels deep (with numbers like (4.1.1), etc.) may be appropriate. To get this, just replace "section" above by "subsection", or the corresponding innermost level. The same mechanism works for other counters, e.g., theorem counters, instead of "equation".

• When to number equations. It is (generally) bad style to number every displayed equation indicriminately. This is what you get if you would use "\begin {equation} ... \end {equation}" throughout. The reason for numbering an equation is to enable subsequent references to it. Thus, in general only equations that are being referred to in the paper should be numbered. However, there are situations where one might number an equation even if it is not referred to in the paper. For instance, it might be appropriate to number all equations inside theorems, for consistency of style, and to make it easy to refer to these equations in subsequent work. Similarly, if a reference to an equation occurs right after that equation, a number may not be necessary; one could get by saying something like "Since f(x) is positive, the last linequality implies that ...".

• When to display a mathematical formula or equation. Formulas set inline are harder to spot, may cause problems with bad linebreaks (which one has to fix by inserting explicit linebreaks), and they may look poor, especially if they involve fractions, sums, integrals, or other "large" objects. On the other hand, one should not indiscriminately display every equation or formula. A judicious choice of what to display can make a a significant difference in the overall appearance and readability of a paper. Here are some guidelines. You should display formulas/equations in the following cases:

• A numbered equation. This is a no-brainer.

• A formula that is excessively long. If a formula takes up more than about half of a line of space, it would probably be good to display it. Formulas set inline should never be longer than one line (even though tex would accept multiline inline displays and probably do a reasonably good job in splitting the formula).

• A formula that takes up excessive vertical space. Formulas that involves complicated sums or integrals with multiple subscripts or superscripts, or stacked fractions, take up a lot of vertical space and cause subsequent lines to be moved down, if set as inline formulas. In these situations, it may be appriopriate to display the formula. Simple sums, integrals, or fractions, are usually not a problem; for example, an expression like "\sum_{k=1}^nk=n(n+1)/2" doesn't need to be displayed.

• A formula that you want to give special emphasis. Even if a formula would look fine inline from a typesetting point of view, it may be appropriate to display it for emphasis. This could be the case, for example, with an important definition, or a crucial condition/hypothesis in a theorem.

• How to break up long formulas. Breaking up overlong lines in displays can be very tricky, and requires a good knowledge of the underlying mathematics as well as a feel for good mathematical typesetting. For that reason, TeX doesn't break formulas, as it does with ordinary text. However, there are some general guidelines. Here are possible breaking points, in decreasing order of desirability:

• Right before an equal sign or equivalent (e.g., a "less than" sign). In this case, place the alignment symbol (ampersand) placed before the equal sign, i.e., " ... + x \\ &= ". The equal signs (or equivalent) should be aligned.

• Before a plus or minus sign. In that case, the continuation line should be shifted to the right by a \qquad. If the continuation line is very short, two \qquad's might be better.

• Between two large "chunks" that are multiplied. The chunks could be large parenthesized expression, sums or integrals. This should be used only as a last resort, and in that case the preceding line should end with an explicit multiplication symbol ("\times"), the continuation line should begin with "\times" symbol and be shifted as far to the right (by preceding it with a few "\qquad"'s after the alignment symbol).

• Punctuation in displays. Displayed mathematics should be properly punctuated. For example, if a displayed formula occurs at the end of a sentence, the display should be terminated by a period. No additional spacing (such as "\," or "\ ") is needed to separate the formula from the punctuation sign.

A good way to get the punctuation right is to replace the display by a place holder, such as "[DISPLAY]" and punctuate accordingly. Thus, for example, if the sentence surrounding the display is "Since f is monotonic, we have [DISPLAY], where ...", then no punctuation symbol is needed before the display, but the display should be terminated by a comma, since the phrase introduced by "where" following the display calls for a comma. A comma before the display would be wrong in this case (as would any other punctuation sign, such as a colon), since it would interrupt the continuity of the sentence.

Here are additional hints for some special situations:

• Punctuation in cases constructs. If a formula is set via a "cases" construct, each case ( = line) should be terminated with a comma; if the display occurs at the end of the sentence, the final comma should be changed to a period.

• Puntuation for "parenthetical" matter. Expressions indicating the range of validaty of a formula, or a limiting process can be set either in parenthesis with no punctuation separating the expression from the formula, or separated from the formula by a comma. The following examples illustrate the two options:

f(x) = \sqrt{1+x} \quad (x \ge -1)
f(x) = \sqrt{1+x}, \quad x \ge -1
f(x) \sim x^2 \quad (x\to\infty)
f(x) \sim x^2, \quad x\to\infty

It would be wrong to use both a comma and parentheses. (Note that, depending on the context, a punctuation sign at the end of the display may also be called for.)

Additional hints

• Spacing in displays. Usually it's best to leave the spacing up to TeX. However, if explicit horizontal spacing is needed (for example, to set an expression like "(n \to \infty)" apart from the rest of the display, or to separate two equations on the same line), "\quad" in most cases generates the right amount of space. Don't try to create spacing with a bunch of explicit spaces ("\ "); the spacing generated in this way is usually not optimal, and the explicit spaces will likely have to be removed (and possibly replaced by "\quad") when the paper is typeset at the publisher's end.

• Avoid blank lines before or after a display, unless you really want to start a new paragraph: It is tempting to surround displayed math material by blank lines in the source file, to make them stand out and easier to locate. However, this is usually wrong, since blank lines are interpreted as paragraph breaks, may generate some additional vertical spacing and cause the next line of text to be indented - something you usually don't want. If you want to set off displays in your source file, do so by inserting a line with comment symbols, such as

%%%%% equation 3.1 %%%%%%%%%%%%%%

before and/or after the display.

• Correcting underful vboxes and bad page breaks. By default, TeX does not break pages inside display environments such as align. If a paper has many multiline formulas, this may cause "underful vboxes", which can look very poor if the badness (reported by tex in the log file) is a few thousand. One way to remedy this is to put the command "\allowdisplaybreaks" in the preamble. However, this may cause some poor pagebreaks which may have to be fixed. A compromise solution is to use "\allowdisplaybreaks" locally, on the individual displays that cause problems: "{\allowdisplaybreaks \begin {align} ... \end {align} }." The best solution is to prevent this problem by avoiding excessively long displays (say, with five or more lines). It is often not hard to break up a very long display into two, for example by inserting a phrase like "By the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, the last expression is at most" in the middle of the overlong display, followed by the remaining lines of the display.

• Multiline subscripts on sums or integrals. Use the "\substack{...}" command, which works much like the "\sb ... \endsb" pair in amstex. It is much easier to use, and produces better looking output than an array environment or a construct using "\atop" (derived from plain tex).

More on matrices, arrays, cases, and multi-line equations in LaTeX

This is a great page for reference:

http://kogler.wordpress.com/2008/03/21/latex-multiline-equations-systems-and-matrices/

LaTeX – Multiline equations, systems and matrices
March 21, 2008 in Documentation | Tags: LaTeX
Series on Blogging with LaTeX

This is the 3rd post in the series. Previous ones:

Basics and overview
Use of mathematical symbols in formulas and equations
Many of the examples shown here were adapted from the Wikipedia article Displaying a formula, which is actually about formulas in Math Markup.
.

Multiline Equations
You can present equations with several lines, using the array statement. Inside its declaration you must :

Define the number of columns
Define column alignment
Define column indentation
Indicate column separator with & symbol &
Example: {lcr} means: 3 columns with indentations respectively left, center and right

\begin{array}{lcl} z & = & a \\ f(x,y,z) & = & x + y + z \end{array}



\begin{array}{rcr} z & = & a \\ f(x,y,z) & = & x + y + z \end{array}



\begin{array}{rcl} f: R^3 & \to & R \\ (x,y,z) & \to & x + y + z \\ f(x,y,z) & = & x + y + z \end{array}



\begin{array} {lcl} f(x) & = & (a+b)^2 \\ & = & a^2+2ab+b^2 \end{array}



.

Case definitions
Used when a definition have two or more cases. Use the case statement. Notice that the spaces after the instances of if were included inside the mbox declarations.

f(n) = \begin{cases} n/2, & \mbox{if } n\mbox{ is even} \\ 3n+1, & \mbox{if } n\mbox{ is odd} \end{cases}



.

Simultaneous Equations
Here we have a very simple application of the case statement.

\begin{cases} 3x + 5y + z \\ 7x – 2y + 4z \\ -6x + 3y + 2z \end{cases}



.

Matrices
Matrices can be assembled by using the array statement, like in this example:

\left| \begin{array}{cc} x_{11} & x_{12} \\ x_{21} & x_{22} \end{array} \right|



Matrix frames are provided by \left and \right. If you suppress these statements, it will be displayed like:

\begin{array}{cc} A & B \\ C & D \end{array}



However, there is another statement, the matrix declaration, slightly easier to use:

\begin{matrix} x & y \\ z & v \end{matrix}



The frames of the matrix can be displayed in several forms, by just changing the matrix declaration to vmatrix, Vmatrix, bmatrix, Bmatrix or pmatrix, as shown ahead:

\begin{vmatrix} x & y \\ z & v \end{vmatrix}



\begin{Vmatrix} x & y \\ z & v \end{Vmatrix}



\begin{bmatrix} x & y \\ z & v \end{bmatrix}



\begin{Bmatrix} x & y \\ z & v \end{Bmatrix}



\begin{pmatrix} x & y \\ z & v \end{pmatrix}



As a final example, let us construct more complicated matrices and matricial expressions:

\begin{bmatrix} 0 & \cdots & 0 \\ \vdots & \ddots & \vdots \\ 0 & \cdots & 0 \end{bmatrix}



Now, we will show a first matricial expression:

\left[ \begin{array}{c} x_1 \\ x_2 \end{array} \right] = \begin{bmatrix} A & B \\ C & D \end{bmatrix} \times \left[ \begin{array}{c} y_1 \\ y_2 \end{array} \right]



and, here is another example, now using two kinds of vectors:

\begin{bmatrix} xz & xw \\ yz & yw \end{bmatrix} = \left[ \begin{array}{c} x \\ y \end{array} \right] \times \left[ \begin{array}{cc} z & w \end{array} \right]

LaTeX Spaces and Boxes

Courtesy of: http://www.personal.ceu.hu/tex/spacebox.htm

Commands manipulating horizontal and vertical spaces, and holding material in boxes:

\vspace{length}, \vspace*{length} 

leave out given vertical space

\smallskip, \medskip, \bigskip 

leave out certain spaces

\addvspace{length} 

extend the vertical space until it reaches length.

\vfill 

stretch vertical space so that it fills all empty space

\hspace{length}, \hpace*{length} 

leave out given horizontal space

\hfill, \hrulefill, \dotfill

fill out all available horizontal space with a line or with dots

\rule{width}{thickness}

draw a line

\makebox{text}, \mbox{text}

enclose text into a box and then print, can be used in math mode.

\framebox{text}, \fbox{text}

enclose text into a framed box and then print.

\parbox{width}{text}

insert several paragraphs into a box of given width

\raisebox{dist}{text}

raise or lower (if dist is negative) the box created from text.

\newsavebox{boxname}

define the holder boxname to store a box.

\savebox{boxname}{text}, \sbox{boxname}{text}

save text int the holder boxname

\usebox{boxname}

use material stored in box holder boxname

More in detail:

\vspace

\vspace[*]{length} 

The \vspace command adds vertical space. The length of the space can be expressed in any terms that LaTeX understands, i.e., points, inches, etc. You can add negative as well as positive space with an \vspace command.

LaTeX removes vertical space that comes at the end of a page. If you don't want LaTeX to remove this space, include the optional * argument. Then the space is never removed.

\smallskip, \medskip, \bigskip

The \smallskip command is equivalent to \vspace{smallskipamount} where smallskipamount is determined by the document style.

The \medskip command is equivalent to \vspace{medskipamount} where medskipamount is determined by the document style.

The \bigskip command is equivalent to \vspace{bigskipamount} where bigskipamount is determined by the document style.

\addvspace

\addvspace{length} 

The \addvspace command normally adds a vertical space of height length. However, if vertical space has already been added to the same point in the output by a previous \addvspace command, then this command will not add more space than needed to make the natural length of the total vertical space equal to length.

\vfill

The \vfill fill command produces a rubber length which can stretch or shrink vertically..

\hspace

\hspace[*]{length} 

The \hspace command adds horizontal space. The length of the space can be expressed in any terms that LaTeX understands, i.e., points, inches, etc. You can add negative as well as positive space with an \hspace command. Adding negative space is like backspacing.
LaTeX removes horizontal space that comes at the end of a line. If you don't want LaTeX to remove this space, include the optional * argument. Then the space is never removed.

\hfill, \hrulefill, \dotfill

The \hfill fill command produces a rubber length which can stretch or shrink horizontally. It will be filled with spaces.

The \hrulefill fill command produces a rubber length which can stretch or shrink horizontally. It will be filled with a horizontal rule.

The \dotfill command produces a rubber length that produces dots instead of just spaces.

\rule

\rule[raise-height]{width}{thickness} 

The \rule command is used to produce horizontal lines. The arguments are defined as follows.

raise-height: specifies how high to raise the rule (optional)
width: specifies the length of the rule (mandatory)
thickness: specifies the thickness of the rule (mandatory)

\makebox, \mbox

\makebox[width][position]{text} 

\mbox {text} 

The \makebox command creates a box to contain the text specified. The width of the box is specified by the optional width argument. The position of the text within the box is determined by the optional position argument.
c - centered (default)
l - flushleft
r - flushright

The \mbox command creates a box just wide enough to hold the text created by its argument.

\framebox, \fbox

\framebox[width][position]{text} 

\fbox{text} 

The \framebox command is exactly the same as the \makebox command, except that it puts a frame around the outside of the box that it creates.
The framebox command produces a rule of thickness \fboxrule, and leaves a space \fboxsep between the rule and the contents of the box.

The \fbox command is exactly the same as the \mbox command, except that it puts a frame around the outside of the box that it creates.

\parbox

\parbox[position]{width}{text} 

A parbox is a box whose contents are created in paragraph mode. The \parbox has two mandatory arguments:
width: specifies the width of the parbox; and
text: the text that goes inside the parbox.

LaTeX will position a parbox so its center lines up with the center of the text line. An optional first argument, position, allows you to line up either the top or bottom line in the parbox.

A \parbox command is used for a parbox containing a small piece of text, with nothing fancy inside. In particular, you shouldn't use any of the paragraph-making environments inside a \parbox argument. For larger pieces of text, including ones containing a paragraph-making environment, you should use a minipage environment.

\raisebox

\raisebox{distance}[extend-above][extend-below]{text} 

The \raisebox command is used to raise or lower text. The first mandatory argument specifies how high the text is to be raised (or lowered if it is a negative amount). The text itself is processed in LR mode.

Sometimes it's useful to make LaTeX think something has a different size than it really does - or a different size than LaTeX would normally think it has. The \raisebox command lets you tell LaTeX how tall it is.

The first optional argument, extend-above, makes LaTeX think that the text extends above the line by the amount specified. The second optional argument, extend-below, makes LaTeX think that the text extends below the line by the amount specified.

\newsavebox

\newsavebox{cmd} 

Declares cmd, which must be a command name starting with a \, that is not already defined, to be a bin for saving boxes.

\savebox, \sbox

\savebox{cmd}[width][pos]{text}, \sbox{cmd}[text] 

These commands typeset text in a box just as for \mbox or \makebox. However, instead of printing the resulting box, they save it in bin cmd, which must have been declared with \newsavebox.

\usebox

\usebox{cmd} 

Prints the box most recently saved in bin cmd by a \savebox command.

LaTeX Math Symbols & Packages

A few websites for LaTeX Math Symbols and some math help:

http://web.ift.uib.no/Teori/KURS/WRK/TeX/symALL.html

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Symbols

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Math

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Mathematics

http://www.andy-roberts.net/misc/latex/latextutorial10.html

http://www.personal.ceu.hu/tex/math.htm

http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~hildebr/tex/course/intro2.html

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Advanced_Mathematics


Mathematical Text and other Special Symbols - http://stuff.mit.edu/afs/sipb.mit.edu/project/www/latex/guide/node38.html

Special Symbols - http://www.math.harvard.edu/texman/node21.html

Here is some information on the LaTeX math packages:

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Packages

Matrices and arrays:

http://selinap.com/2009/05/how-to-create-a-matrix-in-latex/

Some More Helpful BibTeX Entry Examples

Found this information here:

http://bib2web.djvuzone.org/bibtex.html


@inproceedings { lecun-99,
original = "orig/lecun-99.ps",
author = "LeCun, Y. and Haffner, P. and Bottou, L. and Bengio, Y.",
title = "Object Recognition with Gradient-Based Learning",
booktitle = "Feature Grouping",
editor = "Forsyth, D.",
publisher = "Springer",
year = 1999,
note = "(original is ps)"
}

@article { bottou-98,
original = "orig/bottou-98.ps.gz",
author = "Bottou, L. and Haffner, P. and Howard, P. and Simard, P. and Bengio, Y. and LeCun, Y.",
title = "High Quality Document Image Compression with DjVu",
journal = "Journal of Electronic Imaging",
volume = "7",
number = "3",
month = "July",
pages = "410-425",
year = 1998,
note = "(original is ps.gz)"
}

@article { chellappa-98,
original = "orig/chellappa-98.pdf",
author = " Chellappa, R. and Fukushima, K. and Katsaggelos, A. and Kung,S.-Y. and LeCun, Y. and Nasrabadi, N. M. and Poggio, T. A.",
title = "Applications of Artificial Neural Networks to Image Processing (guest editorial)",
journal = "IEEE Transactions on Image Processing",
volume = "7",
number = "8",
year = "1998",
month = "August",
pages = "1093-1097",
note = "(original is digital pdf)"
}

@incollection { lecun-simard-pearlmutter-93,
original = "orig/lecun-simard-pearlmutter-93.ps.gz",
author = "LeCun, Y. and Simard, P. and Pearlmutter, B.",
title = "Automatic learning rate maximization by on-line estimation of the Hessian's eigenvectors",
booktitle = "Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems",
volume = 5,
publisher = "Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Mateo, CA",
editor = "Hanson, S. and Cowan, J. and Giles, L.",
year = 1993,
}

@article{ drucker-lecun-92,
original = "orig/drucker-lecun-92.pdf",
author = "Drucker, H. and LeCun, Y",
title = "Improving Generalization Performance Using Double Backpropagation",
journal = "IEEE Transaction on Neural Networks",
pages = "991-997",
volume = 3,
number = 6,
year = 1992,
note = "(original is scanned pdf)"
}

@article{ lecun-kanter-solla-91,
original = "orig/lecun-kanter-solla-91.tiff",
author = "LeCun, Y. and Kanter, I. and Solla, S.",
title = "Eigenvalues of covariance matrices: application to neural-network learning",
journal = "Physical Review Letters",
year = "1991",
month = "May",
volume = "66",
number = "18",
pages = "2396-2399",
note = "(original is scanned tiff group-4)"
}

@inproceedings{ lecun-88,
original = "orig/lecun-88.djvu",
author = "LeCun, Y." ,
title = "A theoretical framework for Back-Propagation",
booktitle= "Proceedings of the 1988 Connectionist Models Summer School",
address = "CMU, Pittsburgh, Pa" ,
year = "1988" ,
editor = "Touretzky, D. and Hinton, G. and Sejnowski, T.",
publisher = "Morgan Kaufmann",
pages = "21-28",
note = "(original is a djvu file)"
}

@inproceedings{ lecun-86,
original = "orig/lecun-86.pdf",
author = "LeCun, Y." ,
title = "Learning Processes in an Asymmetric Threshold Network",
booktitle= "Disordered systems and biological organization",
address = "Les Houches, France" ,
year = "1986" ,
editor = "Bienenstock, E. and {Fogelman-Souli\'e}, F. and Weisbuch, G.",
publisher = "Springer-Verlag",
pages = "233-240",
}

How to Cite References using AIAA Format

Found this helpful information here:

http://www.engrlib.uc.edu/instruction/classes/aero/cite.html

How to Cite References using AIAA Format

Book
Williams, F. A., Combustion Theory, Benjamin/Cummings, Menlo Park, CA, 1985.

Book chapter
Turner, M. J., Martin, H. C., and Leible, R. C., "Further Development and Applications of Stiffness Method," Matrix Methods of Structural Analysis, 1st ed., Vol. 1, Wiley, New York, 1963, pp. 6-10.

Chapter in a book in a series
Sutton, K., "Air Radiation Revisited," Thermal Design of Aeroassisted Orbital Transfer Vehicles, edited by H. F. Nelson, Vol. 96, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA, New York, 1985, pp. 419-441.

Conference paper
Lazar, R. S., and Faeth, G. M., "Bipropellant Droplet Combustion in the Vicinity of the Critical Point," Thirteenth (International) Symposium on Combustion, The Combustion Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, 1971, pp. 801-811.

Soo, S. L., "Boundary-Layer Motion of a Gas-Solid Suspension," Proceedings of the Symposium on Interaction Between Fluids and Particles, Institute of Chemical Engineers, New York, Vol. 1, 1962, pp. 50-63.

Conference paper in conference with a thematic title
Rockwell, D., and Lin, J.-C., "Quantitative Interpretation of Complex Unsteady Flows via High Image-Density Particle Image Velocimetry," Optical Diagnostics in Fluid and Thermal Flow, Proceedings of SPIE, The International Society for Optical Engineering, Vol. 2005, Bellingham, WA, 1993, pp. 490-503.

Dissertation
Chyu, C.-K., "A Study of the Near-Wake Structure from a Circular Cylinder," Ph. D. Dissertation, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 1995.

Segerman, A. M., "Complete Analytical Theory for the Satellites of Neptune," Ph. D. Dissertation, Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 1995.

Journal article
Walker, R.E., Stone, A.R., and Shandor, M., "Secondary Gas Injection in a Conical Rocket Nozzle," AIAA Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1963, pp. 334-338.

Patent
Cartland, William H. (To Rheem Manufacturing Company), "Solar Heater Freeze Protection System," U. S. Patent 4,138,996, February 13, 1979.

Society Paper
Bhutta, V. A., and Lewis, C. H., "Aerothermodynamic Performance of 3-D and Bent-Nose RVs under Hypersonic Conditions," AIAA Paper 90-3068, Aug. 1990.

Tech report
Book, E., and Bratman, H., "Using Compilers to Build Compilers," Systems Development Corp., SP-176, Santa Monica, CA, Aug. 1960.
Gnoffo, P. A., "An Upwind-Biased, Point-Implicit Relaxation Algorithm for Viscous, Compressible Perfect-Gas Flows," NASA TP-2953, Feb. 1990.

Web site
Mulvihill, M. L., and Ealey, M. A., "Electroceramic Actuators for Operation at Low Temperatures," MFS-31634, Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, December 2001. [http://www.nasatech.com/Briefs/Dec01/MFS31634.html. Accessed 1/31/02.]

Ubuntu and LaTeX Update: Ubuntu Releases and Bibliography Management (Mendeley Desktop and BibTeX)

Ubuntu Update:

So it has been a few months since switching to Ubuntu from Windows...and I haven't looked back. It is working out great and I love it. However, it is not perfect and I still need windows to do a few things, like my timesheet program and play some old games. This is easily done by either dual boot (install Windows first, then Ubuntu) or using a virtual machine installation software like WINE or Virtual Box. I don't really like WINE because it only displays or uses an XP version of Windows, and I didn't really find it useful or user friendly.

Ubuntu Releases:

Ubuntu releases new versions every six months. The latest went from 10.04 LTS to 10.11. The LTS versions are Long Term Support versions while others are not. For the best quality and less hassle in making sure everything works fine, I believe the developers recommend sticking to the LTS versions for stability.

The Ubuntu developers name their releases in a alliterated fashion, usually after animals.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Home

Releases

This is THE definitive place for members of the Ubuntu community to discuss ideas and store team-related information.

Released (Current & Stable)

Dapper Drake

6.06 LTS

June 1, 2006

Supported until June 2011 (Server)

Hardy Heron

8.04 LTS

April 24, 2008

Supported until April 2011 (Desktop) or April 2013 (Server)

Karmic Koala

9.10

October 29, 2009

Supported until April 2011

Lucid Lynx

10.04 LTS

April 29, 2010

Supported until April 2013 (Desktop) or Supported until April 2015 (Server)

Maverick Meerkat

10.10

October 10, 2010

Supported until April 2012

To be Released

Version

Release Schedule

Support Date

Natty Narwhal

11.04

April 2011

Supported until October 2012

Some like the often releases (like me, I get bored quickly sometimes) while others don't because they think it is too hasty and buggy. It's like I said before it's mostly up to personal preference.

LaTeX Update:

Well on to LateX. Haven't looked back on this either. Love, love, love LaTeX. At first it might seem a little antiquated and/or intimidating, but this is a superior alternative to Word, OpenOffice, or any other word/document processor. I love the freedom, independence, and best of all it's free as in beer and . It is not totally unorganized, in which I mean LaTeX was written to automatically take care of many formatting issues I constantly run into with Microsoft's Word. Writing papers and theses are a breeze, and LaTeX probably is best for longer documents like these. Formulas, sections, fonts, figures, are easy and wonderful once you get the hang of it. I don't have to worry about Word crashing, or EndNote not working, or MathType giving me problems.

Now Latex is not perfect, and it is a learning curve, but I recommend it to anyone who writes scientifically. No more worrying about Word moving figures or whatever it does on its own. You have full control.

Bibliography Management: A Little on Mendeley Desktop and BibTeX

Now bibliographies, as I understand it today, are worked by BibTeX. I just learned something that I would like to quickly pass along. I use Mendeley Desktop to store my reference library information. There are others like Zotero, etc., and I chose MD because I like the way it looks and how it operates to store information. It is personal preference. My advice is to briefly try and look at many as you can then choose ONE and STICK with it. MD is not perfect either, but has a good community and is active in developing its software for updates. Other reference library software include JabRef and KBibTex for LaTeX/BibTeX users. I will try to review the software at a later time in more depth.

More on BibTeX here:

http://www.bibtex.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BibTeX

http://amath.colorado.edu/documentation/LaTeX/reference/faq/bibstyles.html

Now MD has a export feature to export your reference in a BibTeX format. Beware that MD is far from perfect in this, and you will need to manually do some tweaking. For example, MD has a field or category called institution so that you can, as I do it, store the authors' affiliation information. MD exports this as institution or organization which refers to the publisher so you will have to manually change it to the appropriate BibTeX field of affiliation. Also, for conference locations MD exports city as address (publisher) when it should be the field location. So this isn't so bad to do every time you export one reference, but is quite overwhelming when you already have hundreds of exports and have to manually correct them like me, :(, :). Just be consistent with your Bibtex and MD listings and maybe MD with one day be more consistent with BibTeX. For example, I prefer in MD to have the authors' full name if possible, but in BibTeX the generated bibliography doesn't look good with full names plus I don't have all the full names so I prefer to use just initials for first and middle names.

Also, I would make two all reference listings in BibTeX. One for where the titles of papers are capitalized and one where they are not because journals require different preferences (whether caps or not). This will save you lots of time genereating the bibliography for certain papers. I would also make a separate BibTeX file for each paper, thesis, report you write so you only have the necessary references to look at and not your complete list.

BibTeX Links for Fields and Referencing

Here are some links to BibTeX fields and reference labels:


From:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BibTeX

BibTeX uses a style-independent text-based file format for lists of bibliography items, such as articles, books, and theses. BibTeX bibliography file names usually end in .bib.

Bibliography entries each contain some subset of standard data entries:

• address: Publisher's address (usually just the city, but can be the full address for lesser-known publishers)
• annote: An annotation for annotated bibliography styles (not typical)
• author: The name(s) of the author(s) (in the case of more than one author, separated by and)
• booktitle: The title of the book, if only part of it is being cited
• chapter: The chapter number
• crossref: The key of the cross-referenced entry
• edition: The edition of a book, long form (such as "first" or "second")
• editor: The name(s) of the editor(s)
• eprint: A specification of an electronic publication, often a preprint or a technical report
• howpublished: How it was published, if the publishing method is nonstandard
• institution: The institution that was involved in the publishing, but not necessarily the publisher
• journal: The journal or magazine the work was published in
• key: A hidden field used for specifying or overriding the alphabetical order of entries (when the "author" and "editor" fields are missing). Note that this is very different from the key (mentioned just after this list) that is used to cite or cross-reference the entry.
• month: The month of publication (or, if unpublished, the month of creation)
• note: Miscellaneous extra information
• number: The "(issue) number" of a journal, magazine, or tech-report, if applicable. (Most publications have a "volume", but no "number" field.)
• organization: The conference sponsor
• pages: Page numbers, separated either by commas or double-hyphens.
• publisher: The publisher's name
• school: The school where the thesis was written
• series: The series of books the book was published in (e.g. "The Hardy Boys" or "Lecture Notes in Computer Science")
• title: The title of the work
• type: The type of tech-report, for example, "Research Note"
• url: The WWW address
• volume: The volume of a journal or multi-volume book
• year: The year of publication (or, if unpublished, the year of creation)

In addition, each entry contains a key that is used to cite or cross-reference the entry. This key is the first item in a BibTeX entry, and is not part of any field.

Entry Types

Bibliography entries included in a .bib file are split by types. The following types are understood by virtually all BibTeX styles:

article

An article from a journal or magazine. Required fields: author, title, journal, year Optional fields: volume, number, pages, month, note, key

book

A book with an explicit publisher. Required fields: author/editor, title, publisher, year Optional fields: volume, series, address, edition, month, note, key

booklet

A work that is printed and bound, but without a named publisher or sponsoring institution. Required fields: title Optional fields: author, howpublished, address, month, year, note, key

conference

The same as inproceedings, included for Scribe compatibility. Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year Optional fields: editor, pages, organization, publisher, address, month, note, key

inbook

A part of a book, usually untitled. May be a chapter (or section or whatever) and/or a range of pages. Required fields: author/editor, title, chapter/pages, publisher, year Optional fields: volume, series, address, edition, month, note, key

incollection

A part of a book having its own title. Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year Optional fields: editor, pages, organization, publisher, address, month, note, key

inproceedings

An article in a conference proceedings. Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year Optional fields: editor, series, pages, organization, publisher, address, month, note, key

manual

Technical documentation. Required fields: title Optional fields: author, organization, address, edition, month, year, note, key

mastersthesis

A Master's thesis. Required fields: author, title, school, year Optional fields: address, month, note, key

misc

For use when nothing else fits. Required fields: none Optional fields: author, title, howpublished, month, year, note, key

phdthesis

A Ph.D. thesis. Required fields: author, title, school, year Optional fields: address, month, note, key

proceedings

The proceedings of a conference. Required fields: title, year Optional fields: editor, publisher, organization, address, month, note, key

techreport

A report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series. Required fields: author, title, institution, year Optional fields: type, number, address, month, note, key

unpublished

A document having an author and title, but not formally published. Required fields: author, title, note Optional fields: month, year, key

From: http://texblog.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/how-to-use-a-bibtex-file/

BibTeX offers a whole list of entry fields, entry types and different bibliography styles.

Entry fields (standard):

• address: Publisher’s address (usually just the city, but can be the full address for lesser-known publishers)

• annote: An annotation for annotated bibliography styles (not typical)

• author: The name(s) of the author(s) (in the case of more than one author, separated by and)

• booktitle: The title of the book, if only part of it is being cited

• chapter: The chapter number

• crossref: The key of the cross-referenced entry

• edition: The edition of a book, long form (such as “first” or “second”)

• editor: The name(s) of the editor(s)

• eprint: A specification of an electronic publication, often a preprint or a technical report

• howpublished: How it was published, if the publishing method is nonstandard

• institution: The institution that was involved in the publishing, but not necessarily the publisher

• journal: The journal or magazine the work was published in

• key: A hidden field used for specifying or overriding the alphabetical order of entries (when the “author” and “editor” fields are missing). Note that this is very different from the key (mentioned just after this list) that is used to cite or cross-reference the entry.

• month: The month of publication (or, if unpublished, the month of creation)

• note: Miscellaneous extra information

• number: The “number” of a journal, magazine, or tech-report, if applicable. (Most publications have a “volume”, but no “number” field.)

• organization: The conference sponsor

• pages: Page numbers, separated either by commas or double-hyphens

• publisher: The publisher’s name

• school: The school where the thesis was written

• series: The series of books the book was published in (e.g. “The Hardy Boys”)

• title: The title of the work

• type: The type of tech-report, for example, “Research Note”

• url: The WWW address

• volume: The volume of a journal or multi-volume book

• year: The year of publication (or, if unpublished, the year of creation)

Entry fields (non-standard):

• affiliation: The authors affiliation.

• abstract: An abstract of the work.

• contents: A Table of Contents

• copyright: Copyright information.

• ISBN: The International Standard Book Number.

• ISSN: The International Standard Serial Number. Used to identify a journal.

• keywords: Key words used for searching or possibly for annotation.

• language: The language the document is in.

• location: A location associated with the entry, such as the city in which a conference took place.

• LCCN: The Library of Congress Call Number.

• mrnumber: The Mathematical Reviews number.

In addition, each entry contains a key that is used to cite or cross-reference the entry. This key is the first item in a BibTeX entry, and is not part of any field.

Entry types:

• @article

An article from a journal or magazine.
Required fields: author, title, journal, year
Optional fields: volume, number, pages, month, note, key

• @book

A book with an explicit publisher.
Required fields: author/editor, title, publisher, year
Optional fields: volume, series, address, edition, month, note, key

• @booklet

A work that is printed and bound, but without a named publisher or sponsoring institution.
Required fields: title
Optional fields: author, howpublished, address, month, year, note, key

• @conference

The same as inproceedings, included for Scribe (markup language) compatibility.
Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year
Optional fields: editor, pages, organization, publisher, address, month, note, key

• @inbook

A part of a book, which may be a chapter (or section or whatever) and/or a range of pages.
Required fields: author/editor, title, chapter/pages, publisher, year
Optional fields: volume, series, address, edition, month, note, key

• @incollection

A part of a book having its own title.
Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year
Optional fields: editor, pages, organization, publisher, address, month, note, key

• @inproceedings

An article in a conference proceedings.
Required fields: author, title, booktitle, year
Optional fields: editor, pages, organization, publisher, address, month, note, key

• @manual

Technical documentation.
Required fields: title
Optional fields: author, organization, address, edition, month, year, note, key

• @mastersthesis

A Master’s thesis.
Required fields: author, title, school, year
Optional fields: address, month, note, key

• @misc

For use when nothing else fits.
Required fields: none
Optional fields: author, title, howpublished, month, year, note, key

• @phdthesis

A Ph.D. thesis.
Required fields: author, title, school, year
Optional fields: address, month, note, key

• @proceedings

The proceedings of a conference.
Required fields: title, year
Optional fields: editor, publisher, organization, address, month, note, key

• @techreport

A report published by a school or other institution, usually numbered within a series.
Required fields: author, title, institution, year
Optional fields: type, number, address, month, note, key

• @unpublished

A document having an author and title, but not formally published.
Required fields: author, title, note
Optional fields: month, year, key

Hopefully, I can update more later on this (more in depth like screenshots) and other topics/tidbits because I have lots to write!!