[texhax] LaTeX

[Philip G. Ratcliffe]

> Thanks so much for your help.  I typed in the commands I list below and it
> looks okay, but I really need it all to be vertically centered on
> the title
> page.  The \bigskip command apparently doesn't work prior to the
> first line.

Vertical skips are, by default, ignored at the top and bottom of pages as
are horizontal skips at the beginning and end of lines (for obvious
reasons - think about it).

To force their observance use the \vspace* and \hspace* commands in
combination, in this case, with the \stretch command (see below).

> Is there a way to get everything to the center of the page?

Yes, try this (I've also done a little tidying):

\begin{titlepage}
  \vspace*{\stretch{2}}
  \begin{center}
    A FRENET--SERRET APPARATUS FOR CURVES ON $\mathbb{S}^2$\\[6ex]
    Thesis submitted to\\
    The Graduate College of\\
    Marshall University\\[6ex]
    In partial fulfillment of the\\
    Requirements for the degree of\\
    Master of Arts\\
    Department of Mathematics\\[4ex]
    by\\ Misty D. Wood\\[4ex]
    Dr.~Judith Silver, Committee Chairman\\
    Dr.~Bonita Lawrence\\
    Dr.~John Drost
  \end{center}
  \vspace*{\stretch{2}}
\end{titlepage}

> And if you
> don't mind...I have another question I can't seem to find the answer to in
> the LaTeX books I have.  I need the pages of the front matter (after the
> abstract) to be numbered with lower case Roman numerals and the
> pages of the
> body to be numbered beginning with 1.  How do I get it to number
> some pages
> continously in Roman and the others in Arabic?

\renewcommand\thepage{\roman{page}}

Some introductory remarks ...

\newpage
\setcounter{page}{1}
\renewcommand\thepage{\arabic{page}}

The body of the text ...

HOWEVER, as William suggested a different class (such as "memoir" or simply
"book") would have helped immensely.

Indeed, since "article" class does NOT support chapters, I'm wondering just
how you managed with a thesis.

Cordialmente,  Philip G. Ratcliffe

P.S.  Most of this is all really rather basic stuff and a decent read of any
of the simple manuals available free on-line would have helped.

"A mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which
isn't there."  --  Charles Robert