Useful Software/Tools:

Writing papers in LaTeX:

• Writing LaTeX in Windows?
  • MikTeX - LaTeX for Windows ( http://www.miktex.org/)
  • WinEdt - LaTeX IDE, shareware ( http://www.winedt.com/)
  • TeXnicCenter from ToolsCenter.org - GPL ( http://www.toolscenter.org/front_content.php?idcatart=41)
  • LyX for Win32 (WYSIWYG TeX editor; need cygwin and X11) ( http://www.home.zonnet.nl/rareitsma/lyx/); or see instruction in this page ( http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/Windows)
  • Related links from MikTeX.org ( http://www.miktex.org/links.html)
• TeX FAQ ( http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?introduction=yes)
• Ghostscript - AFPL version for Linux/Windows ( http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/index.htm)
• GSView - PostScript viewer for Linux/Windows ( http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/index.htm)
• Creating PDF Files Using Only Available Free Software on Windows ( http://kenchiro.tripod.com/howtoPDF.html)
• IEEE Transactions LaTeX and MS Word Style Files ( http://www.ieee.org/organizations/pubs/transactions/stylesheets.htm)

Presentation with LaTeX:

• Beamer - LaTeX Class ( http://latex-beamer.sourceforge.net/)
• Beamer with PSTricks - Beamer guide ( http://www.geocities.com/kijoo2000/beamer.html)
• Quick Tutorial on the Beamer Package ( http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/beamer.html)
• Eric Malm's Beamer Demo - look for Beamer Links at the bottom of page ( http://www.math.hmc.edu/math198/)
• Prosper - LaTeX class for writing transparencies ( http://prosper.sourceforge.net/)
• HA-prosper - enhanced version of prosper ( http://stuwww.uvt.nl/~hendri/Downloads/haprosper.html)
• A Prosper tutorial ( http://www.math.umbc.edu/~rouben/prosper/)

Tips on LaTeX:

• PS files in latter size (instead of A4):
  • Modify config.ps (search under textmf/dvips/config), so these lines should appear before "@ A4size 210mm 297mm".

      @ letter 8.5in 11in
      @+ %%BeginPaperSize: Letter
      @+ letter
      @+ %%EndPaperSize
    		

  • Use "dvips -t letter myfile.dvi -o myfile.ps"
  • Add "letterpaper" your \documentclass,

      \documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
    		

• Fix problem with "fi" or "f." - add "-G0" to your dvips
• Low resolution of EPS figures in PDF: Try this

    latex myfile.tex
    dvips -G0 -t letter -Ppdf myfile.dvi -o myfile.ps
    ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress -dNOPAUSE myfile.ps myfile.pdf
  	

• Controlling LaTeX Floats - fitting more figures in one page ( http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/bibliog/latex/floats.html)

Plotting / Drawing

• Xfig - drawing/ploting software based on X11 (http://www.xfig.org/)
• WinFig - Xfig for Windows - shareware ( http://user.cs.tu-berlin.de/~huluvu/WinFIG.htm)
• Inkscape - open source drawing application, similar to Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, or Freehand - Linux, Mac, Windows (http://www.inkscape.org/)
• Mayura Draw Vector Drawing Program for Windows - shareware (http://www.mayura.com)
• gnuplot - ploting software for 2D/3D (http://www.gnuplot.info/)
• ploticus - ploting sofware for 2D ( http://ploticus.sourceforge.net/)
• OpenOffice - having trouble coverting charts in Excel, use Calc in OpenOffice instead; Draw is a replacement for Visio (http://www.openoffice.org/)
  • How to convert charts in Excel to EPS using Openoffice:
  1. Open Excel document in Calc
  2. Highlight and copy the chart you want
  3. Open Draw and paste the chart
  4. From menu, File->Export... and choose EPS as file format

Postscript / PDF

• Ghostscript and GSview - Postscript interpreter and viewer ( http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/) Also, check out related PS info sites ( http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/other.htm)
• PDFCreator - create PDF in Windows like printing a doc ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfcreator/)
• Foxit Reader - free PDF reader for Windows; smaller and faster than Acroread ( http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/rd_intro.php)
• pstoedit - translates PostScript and PDF graphics into other vector formats ( http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit)
• ps2eps - you can crop white space in PS via "ps2eps -B -C < infile.ps > outfile.eps", where "-B" ignores original bounding box, and "-C" inserts postscript code to clip white space ( http://www.tm.uka.de/~bless/ps2eps)
• Internet Resources for POSTSCRIPT and GHOSTSCRIPT - links to various tools for PS/EPS/PDF ( http://www.inkguides.com/postscript.asp)
• Converting Most Figures to *.eps Files - little out of date ( http://robot.me.gatech.edu/~kris/figure_conversion.html)
• Converting drawing in M$ Word to EPS - look for instruction at bottom of the page ( http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~pmg26/hpage/teaching/graphics_LaTeX.html)
• Word2Tex - this program can convert some drawings from Word; commerical ( http://www.word2tex.com/products/word2tex/)

Other useful software/tools:

• Total Commander - way better than Windows Explorer - shareware (http://www.ghisler.com/)
• PrintFile. Easy file printing in Windows; very good for printing source codes - freeware ( http://www.lerup.com/printfile/)
• Vim - Vi Improved; my favorite text editor - open source; *NUX, Windows (http://vim.org)
• Ultimate Boot CD ( http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)
• KNOPPIX - Live Linux Filesystem On CD ( KNOPPIX - Live Linux Filesystem On CD)
• The Open CD - Quality Open Source for Windows (http://www.theopencd.org/)
• IrfanView - picture viewer for Windows - freeware (http://www.irfanview.com/)

Miscellaneous tips/hints:

• Vim:
  • "/head\_s*tail": search phrase including newline as whitespace
  • "gq": reformate wrapped line (to fit in textwidth)
  • "gqap": reformate paragraph (to fit in textwidth)
  • ":set paste": disable all auto-indent when pasting; use ":set nopaste" to unset