[OS X TeX] Setting up dissertation text

[Dr. Clea F. Rees]

In general, my committee (philosophy) did not care very much what I
used, so long as it worked. I wrote the first couple of chapters in
Word. This was on a Mac. Despite Word for Win and Mac allegedly using
exactly the same file format (given the versions we had), none of my
files were readable on department machines running Word on Win. I
therefore had to export everything to PDF anyway (or do strange things
like sending files via the teaching lab). I suppose by the time I
switched to LaTeX,  people were used to PDF from me.

Campus IT did not support LaTeX and only one other graduate in my
department used it. I found that making contact with the mathematics
department - especially the graduate students, though a couple of
faculty members saved me at a critical printing deadline when nothing
would process - was crucial. People were very helpful and sympathetic.
If people in mathematics are using LaTeX, see if you can get hold of
the style file. If it needs updating/creating, see if you can work with
others to minimise the work involved. If your university has a standard
format for dissertations, it won't matter that you are working in
different departments.

Just a thought.

Good luck.

- cfr

On 08/04/08, you seem to have written:

> On Tue, Apr 08, 2008 at 03:20:35PM -0400, Charilaos Skiadas wrote:
>> And even if this template does not work for some reason, surely there
>> must be some other grad student in your school using LaTeX and having
>> had to match these requirements! You could use the system they use.
>
> Don't be so sure of this :)  I had to fight very hard to have my
> committee accept PDF files generated via LaTeX (I'm working on my EdD,
> and the education folks simply did not have the slightest clue of what
> I wanted to do, even after explaining it to them several
> times...they typical response was "What?  No Microsoft Word? How can
> you possibly write a dissertation without Word?")
>
> I've noticed many of the list participants here are math/CS
> related...I would imagine LaTeX has a much higher level of recognition
> in these programs than in liberal arts programs...
>
>  --Brian
>