LaTeX is an excellent software package for technical writing in engineering and mathematics. A convenient front end for LaTeX is LyX, a freely available WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean) editor. A LaTeX mailing list on campus is <tex-users AT eng DOT auburn DOT edu> (sign up at http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/tex-users).

• Automatic equation and figure numbering

• Automatic bibliography formatting and citation numbering

• easy to incorporate external graphics (like graphs from Matlab or octave)

1. Tutorials and background

Google search for latex tutorial, or you can click on the links below:

• LaTeX on wikipedia

• LaTeX wikibook

• Getting Started with LaTeX.

• Beginning LaTeX

• LATEX Tutorial

• Norm Matloff's LaTeX Tutorial(also talks about LyX)

• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e: lshort.pdf

• Essential LaTeX

• List of all LaTeX symbols

2. Related software packages

2.1. LaTeX installation, editors and front ends

• LyX "Front end" program for LaTeX that feels more like MS Word: LyX. Dr. Hodel has used this software and strongly recommends it.

• LaTeX on Windows: Many people recommend MikTeX to me.

• LaTeX on Macintosh: See Open source software on Macintosh

2.2. Bibliography managers

• JabREF (JAVA, runs on any platform)

• BibDesk (Runs on Mac OS)

• Also: (from the LyX mailing list: recommended bibliography packages: From the LyX mailing list:

  • I've tried a whole lot of these GUIs, and Pybliographer (http://pybliographer.org/) is by far my favorite. Pybliographer is written in Python, but with a Gnome GUI. I don't know if it actually needs more than the GTK libraries. If it does, then that should be fixed, as there's really no reason it shouldn't run on other platforms. In any event, Pybliographer is in active development and has a responsive mailing list. And since it's written in Python, it's pretty easy to hack on it. TkBibTex, which is written in Tcl/Tk. It's a bit old now, but still works reasonably well.

2.3. Conversion to and from MS Word

• See http://www.tug.org/utilities/texconv/textopc.html

• The packages TeX2Word and Word2TeX look impressive, but I haven't tried them. They are shareware ($99/$45 academic).

3. Prosper

Prosper is a LaTeX style add-on that permits users to use LaTeX and Acrobat Reader in much the same way one would use PowerPoint. I've used the package and find it very convenient.

• Prosper tour (.pdf file).

• Prosper reference (.pdf file).

4. Auburn

Here are some local resources that you may find useful if you use LaTeX/

• A LaTeX mailing list on campus is <tex-users AT eng DOT auburn DOT edu>. (Sign up at http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/tex-users )

• Example MS thesis LaTeX file with Example BibTeX file.

• Example PhD thesis LaTeX file (can also be used for MS)

• Auburn University MS thesis style file

• Auburn University PhD thesis style file

• Auburn University seal (eps file)

• Auburn University seal (.png image)

• Ginn College of Engineering seal (eps file)

• Ginn College of Engineering seal (.png image)

5. Questions and answers

See the LaTeX Questions and Answers page. You should read the tutorials above first.