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From the Editor: In this issue; Next issue: Fonts

Lance Carnes

In this issue

Next Issue: Fonts

Thanks


This is the fourth issue of The PracTeX Journal. The Editorial Board deserves congratulations for getting this project off the ground late last year, and sticking with it for four issues. And of course the Journal would not be here without the contributions of the numerous authors. (If you're curious, Dave Walden has organized the site nicely so you can view the author index, back issues, and other useful indexes -- see the Archives section on the home page.)

You may notice a new look to some of the papers in this issue. Will Robertson, a new Editorial Board member, designed some new features into the pracjourn style. View the PDF files for Flom, Hefferon, and Mertz/Slough to see the new format. Will also helped with production editing for this issue.

PracTeX Journal readers provided insightful feedback, and some of their questions were answered in Ask Nelly and in Travels in TeX Land. As you read the articles and columns please use the response links to send comments. The authors and editors appreciate feedback from readers.

Three articles in this issue deal with using TeX for practical documents: composing meeting minutes, making overhead slides, and designing a brochure. Jim Hefferon's Minutes in Less Than Hours describes how he transformed the mundane task of recording minutes for a committee meeting into an intriguing LaTeX document project. Andrew Mertz and William Slough show how to get started making overhead slides with the popular beamer package in their presentation Beamer by Example. A frequent contributor, Michael Guravage, describes his experiences designing A Brochure using ConTeXt.

A fourth article by our once-fledgling LaTeX user, Peter Flom, is aimed at academics and researchers who probably wouldn't ordinarily come into contact with LaTeX, and shows how it can work well for them.

Steve Peter's \starttext column describes a typographic flourish called a swelled rule and how it can be constructed using MetaPost and used in a ConTeXt document. In Travels in TeX Land Dave Walden explores a number of topics: the Word2TeX and TeX2Word converters, using plain TeX, and thought breaks. Ask Nelly answers reader questions about the use of hyperlinks and the apa (American Psychological Association) document style. And finally, for those who like puzzles and challenges, Distractions introduces a typesetting contest involving Sudoku puzzles, and also announces the winners of, and the answers to, last issue's Pitfalls and Web Treasure Hunt contests.

As you read the articles and columns please use the response links to send us feedback. If you use a technique from an article or column, be sure to contact the author and report how it worked for you. The PracTeX Journal is still evolving and your feedback will help us as we strive to improve it.


Next Issue: Fonts and other topics

We have a few articles on fonts lined up for the next issue, so we will try our first theme issue. If you would like to contribute an article or technical note on any aspect of font usage with LaTeX, TeX, or ConTeXt, please send an article outline to the editors.

Articles on any other aspect of TeX usage are also welcome.


Thanks

The Editorial Board and I want to thank the authors, columnists, and Ask Nelly answerers for their excellent pieces which make this journal possible. We also want to thank those who worked behind the scenes:

Reviewers and copy editors: Karl Berry, Jon Breitenbucher, David L Elliott, Peter Flom, Baden Hughes, Tarcisio Praciano-Pereira, Will Robertson, and David Walden

See also other key people who make this publication possible.

The PracTeX Journal project and numerous other TeX-related projects are sponsored by the TeX Users Group. Please show your support by joining TUG and participating in TUG conferences. If you're already a member, thanks for your support.



Lance Carnes
Editor


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