[oscarBravo]

Originally Posted by Tar.Aldarion

Surely you have to manage the layout? Or it looks ****?

Only for values of **** where **** == "not how I would have done it in Word".

[Time Magazine]

Originally Posted by oscarBravo

Enlightenment is discovering that Knuth knows better than you do how you want your document laid out

Hear bloody hear!

Originally Posted by Tar.Aldarion

Surely you have to manage the layout? Or it looks ****?

Not at all. Have a gander at this, for example.

What are these algorithms peeople use

People have done their PhD dissertations on the topic. Or, for a quick and dirty guide, see here.

[Time Magazine]

Originally Posted by jasonorr

Just started writing my project up in LaTeX and it drives me insane

What are you trying to do that's causing problems?

[L'prof]

Originally Posted by Time Magazine

What are you trying to do that's causing problems?

I don't like the continual process of building your pdf's to make sure they look as you would like, I'm sure confidence comes with time and this becomes less of a necessity.

Also resizing images to make sure they fit where you want them is quite annoying but, I can see why it's done like that.

I'm currently using TeXnicCenter which is quite nice but, I was using LyX and that drove me insane.

Just there I read about a plugin for gedit and I installed it using the package manager but, it doesn't seem to be working.

[Time Magazine]

Originally Posted by jasonorr

I don't like the continual process of building your pdf's to make sure they look as you would like, I'm sure confidence comes with time and this becomes less of a necessity.

Can I ask what are you doing? Is it mostly text, mostly maths, mostly graphics?

If it's mostly text, then forget about formatting etc. Just type away and fix anything that might come up later. I do bunches of equations at a time for maths, about 6 lines at a go, then PDF to make sure I didn't make mistakes.

Also resizing images to make sure they fit where you want them is quite annoying but, I can see why it's done like that.

What code are you using for images?

I'm currently using TeXnicCenter which is quite nice but, I was using LyX and that drove me insane.

LyX also drove me mental.

[Thomas_S_Hunterson]

Doing my first serious bit of work with LaTeX at the moment, a report on a statistics project. Using LyX (don't laugh ) but the whole thing just looks delicious.

[L'prof]

Originally Posted by Time Magazine

Can I ask what are you doing? Is it mostly text, mostly maths, mostly graphics?

If it's mostly text, then forget about formatting etc. Just type away and fix anything that might come up later. I do bunches of equations at a time for maths, about 6 lines at a go, then PDF to make sure I didn't make mistakes.

Early days, so at the moment it's mostly text. I may throw in a bit of graphics and a few equations at a later stage.

Originally Posted by Time Magazine

What code are you using for images?

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{D:/Project/google_query.png}
\end{figure}

[DirkVoodoo]

Great idea, a lecturer of mine was a huge proponent of Latex and as a result I think nearly half of our graduating year wrote up their final year projects in Latex.

Unfortunately I have my undergrad and postgrad days behind me, but I'll let those who are finishing up their PhDs know about the forum.

Best of luck with it!

[Time Magazine]

Originally Posted by jasonorr

Early days, so at the moment it's mostly text. I may throw in a bit of graphics and a few equations at a later stage.

Grand so. Just type away, forget about formatting (bar the odd \section{My Lovely Horse}) and get the bulk of the work out of the way. No need to be PDF'ing it all the time, even if you make a mistake the good bits will remain in your .tex file.

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.48\textwidth]{D:/Project/google_query.png}
\end{figure}

Good stuff. I'm going to give you a few tips, whether you want them or not

The code I suggest for graphics is:

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\caption{Irish GDP, 1990-2000}
\includegraphics[width=5in]{gdp.png} \label{omg}
\end{figure}

The \label{omg} command tells LaTeX to keep this name, "omg", in mind. One way to alleviate fears about the precise placement of graphs is by making use of this. If you phrase you command like this:

"As can be seen in Figure \ref{omg}, Irish GDP rose considerably during the 1990s."

Then the \ref{omg} command will return a number, resulting in (something like):

"As can be seen in Figure 4, Irish GDP rose considerably during the 1990s."

When you have commands like that, it doesn't matter if Figure 4 goes onto the next page or whatever.

Just roll with it and don't be worrying

[L'prof]

Originally Posted by Time Magazine

Good stuff. I'm going to give you a few tips, whether you want them or not

The code I suggest for graphics is:

\begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\caption{Irish GDP, 1990-2000}
\includegraphics[width=5in]{gdp.png} \label{omg}
\end{figure}

The \label{omg} command tells LaTeX to keep this name, "omg", in mind. One way to alleviate fears about the precise placement of graphs is by making use of this. If you phrase you command like this:

"As can be seen in Figure \ref{omg}, Irish GDP rose considerably during the 1990s."

Then the \ref{omg} command will return a number, resulting in (something like):

"As can be seen in Figure 4, Irish GDP rose considerably during the 1990s."

When you have commands like that, it doesn't matter if Figure 4 goes onto the next page or whatever.

Just roll with it and don't be worrying

I had those in, but removed the label when I couldn't tell what it was doing and I removed the caption when it meant I had to reduce my image even more!

[oscarBravo]

Originally Posted by jasonorr

I don't like the continual process of building your pdf's to make sure they look as you would like, I'm sure confidence comes with time and this becomes less of a necessity.

At the risk of labouring the point, what comes with time is not worrying so much what it looks like, and accepting that it looks good - even if it's not how you would have done it in a word processor.

Also resizing images to make sure they fit where you want them is quite annoying but, I can see why it's done like that.

Again, "where I want them" is "in the document somewhere". I mostly use LyX ('cos I'm lazy), and it has nice shortcuts for inserting cross-references that come out like "Figure 4 on the following page" automatically.

[antiselfdual]

Placing images in LaTeX is surprisingly frustrating, another thing you can change is to declare it as

\begin{figure}[ht]

or

\begin{figure}[hb]

where "ht" means LaTeX will try to position the picture either here or at the top of the page, and "hb" means here or the bottom of the page. Generally though resizing the picture and then possibly moving it forward or back a paragraph so it turns up roughly where you want it is the only thing to do... If you're writing something lengthy you should definitely leave doing this to the very end when you have all the text you want.