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<TITLE>RE: [OS X TeX] memoir class, Table questions, position of floats, line numbering</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Mr. Robertson (and anyone else wishing to join in the discussion), I have been using MikTex on a Windows 2000 system for close to a year now, but got a new Apple PowerBook two weeks ago and wish to migrate my existing documents to the TexShop or iTexMac. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Would you please send me your sample document so that I might see what changes are required to get my document to typeset in the new environment. I am especially interested in the treatment of graphics. I am using LaTeX to generate family history documents that contain lots of old family photos that I have scanned into my system as jpeg files. Any thoughts would be appreciated. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Thanks. Sam.....</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>=============================================== </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sam E. Bradley, Jr. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Program Manager, CEEIS Configuration Management </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>US Army Corps of Engineers </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Office: 601-634-3638 </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Mobile: 601-831-3846 </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Fax: 601-634-2301 </FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: MacOSX-TeX@email.esm.psu.edu on behalf of Will Robertson</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Thu 10-Jun-04 9:57 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: TeX on Mac OS X Mailing List</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: Re: [OS X TeX] memoir class, Table questions, position of floats, line numbering</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> </FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>On 11 Jun 2004, at 11:39 AM, Denis Chabot wrote:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> One first question that comes to my mind is: why does the sample </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> document use the memoir class, which is not described on most LaTeX </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> guides? I found a 300 p document on memoir, but before digging into it </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> (it is not light reading...), I'd like to know if there are </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> significant advantages over the article class which would make this a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> good time investment.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>The memoir class is like an amalgamation of the book class and the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>article class and a bunch of often-used packages. The reason I </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>recommend it is *because* of the 300 page manual --- note that the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>first half is typesetting fundamentals, and not specific to typesetting </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>in LaTeX.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>It provides an *integrated* way of customising your document. Rather </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>than with the article class, if you want to change the section heading, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>you go and find a package that does this, read its manual work out how </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>to use it. Repeat ad nauseum if you want to edit the headers/footers, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>page margins, table of contents formatting, etc etc.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Your mileage may vary. If you just want a lightweight class that </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>provides the basics, but all means start off with the article class. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>It's certainly more simple.</FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> I had to make a few tables. I noticed that if you choose the Table </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> macros in TeXShop, you get the elements of a Table pasted into your </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> document, and the first line is:</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> \begin{table}[htdp]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> What does the d do? I only found the description for h, t, b and p, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> not d.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> To continue with Tables, is there a way to merge two cells vertically?</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I didn't know TeXShop came with a table template! Anyway, that d is a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>typo. You are correct, the only ones you can choose are h t b & p. You </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>can use ! to tell LaTeX to try really hard to do what you want, at a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>slight expense to good looks.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Unfortunately, there's no way to merge cells vertically.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I had to trim the column headings quite a bit to get a table to fit </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> within the width of the text. Maybe I could have reduced the font size </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> (maybe this will be ugly, but I'd like to try). Is there a way to </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> reduce font size for a whole table? Maybe the same technique would </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> allow me to make headings of a table bold, but the rest plain, when </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> journals want this style?</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>To make everything smaller, you can use a \small command at the same </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>place as the \centering command. As for styled headers, I'd make a new </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>command in the preamble like \newcommand{\head}[1]{\textbf{#1}} and use </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>that for all of your table headings --- if you ever need to change them </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>all, just edit the command definition to however you like.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> I found how to center headings that happened to be multicolumn, but </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> how do you center a column heading when you want the remainder of the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> column to be right aligned?</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Anyway, my tables worked quite well for a first attempt, but I must </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> say it is slower to make a table this way versus a graphical </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> interface.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>There is probably a more elegant solution, but this came to mind </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>immediately: (it also shows the bold header thing)</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>\documentclass{article}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>\newcommand{\head}[1]{\hfill\textbf{#1}\hfill}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>\usepackage{booktabs}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>\begin{document}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>\begin{table}[htbp]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \small</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \centering</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \begin{tabular}{@{} llr @{}} % Column formatting, @{} suppresses </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>leading/trailing space</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \toprule</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \multicolumn{2}{c}{Item} \\</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \cmidrule(r){1-2}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \head{Animal} & Description & Price (\$)\\</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \midrule</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> Gnat & per gram & 13.65 \\</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> & each & 0.01 \\</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> Gnu & stuffed & 92.50 \\</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> Emu & stuffed & 33.33 \\</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> Armadillo & frozen & 8.99 \\</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \bottomrule</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \end{tabular}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \caption{An example of a table generated with the \textsf{booktabs} </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>package:}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \label{tab:booktabs}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>\end{table}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>\end{document}</FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>> I love not having to worry about where my figures end up (one of my </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> main beef with Word). But many ended up alone on a page, when I </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> thought there was enough space for a few lines of text on the same </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> page. I have a very small sample size, remember, but it looks to me </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> that text will be placed with my floats only if whole paragraphs can </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> fit. Is there a way to have parts of paragraph accompany floats on a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> page, or if this a behavior that insures better looking document and I </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> should not mess with it?</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>To quote epslatex.pdf:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2><<</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>1. Don't handcuff LATEX. The more float placement options are given to </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>LATEX, the better it handles float placement. In particular, the [htbp] </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and [tbp] work well. See Section 16.2.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>2. Many people find the default float parameters are too restrictive. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>The following commands</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \renewcommand{\textfraction}{0.15}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \renewcommand{\topfraction}{0.85}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{0.65}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> \renewcommand{\floatpagefraction}{0.60}</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>set the float parameters to more-permissive values. See Section 17.2.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2> >></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> Finally, although I don't need this right now, in biology we often </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> have to submit documents that have lots of space between the lines </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> within paragraphs (double interligne in French). It is not pretty, but </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> journals want the manuscripts that way. How would you do this? And if </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> the journal also wants line numbers to appear in the left margin, can </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>> this be done with LaTeX?</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>For the first, look at</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=linespace">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=linespace</A></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>That something I think I forgot in my sample document. The TeX FAQ </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>*will* have answers to almost anything you have questions about. Find </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>it at the link about.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>For the second:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2><A HREF="http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=linenos">http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=linenos</A></FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Hope that helps!</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Will</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>-----------------------------------------------------</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Post: <<A HREF="mailto:MacOSX-TeX@email.esm.psu.edu">mailto:MacOSX-TeX@email.esm.psu.edu</A>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Please see <<A HREF="http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/">http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/</A>> for list</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>guidelines, information, and LaTeX/TeX resources.</FONT>
</P>
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