I get depressed because of LaTex

[Tom.G]

Be careful about copying images into MS-Word. ALL images are converted to a medium resolution .JPEG format... definitely NOT publication quality.

I ran across this several years ago when I was proofing a book for the author. For instance, many screen captures were unreadable. The author gave up on MS-Word and converted the manuscript to a different editor (don't recall which one for sure, but we ended up transferring files in .PDF format).

Cheers,
Tom

 

[pbuk]

Be careful about copying images into MS-Word. ALL images are converted to a medium resolution .JPEG format... definitely NOT publication quality.

This is not true. If you import a PNG, it stays as a PNG. And you can select the quality in File -> Options -> Advanced -> Image Size and Quality: you can select "do not compress" if you want, although I have found "High Fidelity" is good enough in practice, even for professional printing. To view on screen 96dpi is enough (the lowest available setting).

I ran across this several years ago when I was proofing a book for the author.

Must have been a long time ago, at least before Office 2007. Or the settings were wrong, or perhaps the wrong settings had been chosen when printing to PDF?

 

[Tom.G]

It could well have been settings made by the author. I don't know which software versions were used but the book copyright date is 2014, so software versions between 2010 to 2013 would be likely.

I agree 96dpi for a display screen is adequate; however rule-of-thumb for color images on good quality paper is 300dpi. Black and White on paper needs 600dpi. These are the recommendations from the publishers/printers and reflect the visually discernable resolution for 'young eyes.'

Cheers,
Tom

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Want to be a Physicist? Learn LaTeX. It is the language.

 

[DEvens]

What is going on here? Why did that bold text appear? Why did my attempt at saying "build a vertical vector $[ b ]$" give me so much aggravation? Is this going to go on for ever? Not for ever.

Part of the issue with LaTeX is that this place implements more than LaTeX. If you put [ b ] but don't leave blanks, that turns on bold. Then [ /b ] turns it off again. This can screw up equations as well. Using [ i ] does the same for italics. [ u ] does underlines. [ s ] does strikethrough.

 

[FactChecker]

The shortcuts here for bold and italics are for a different markup system and are not compatible inside LaTex. Also, Latex is not compatible inside the other. So make sure that you have finished one before starting the other. I don't use the shortcuts here unless I am sure that I will not use LaTex. I primarily stick with LaTex.

 

[epenguin]

Want to be a Physicist? Learn LaTeX. It is the language.

By the time some of the students here graduate or write publications the archaic non-wysiwyg system, out of kilter with the spirit of the times, will no longer be used - at least at user interface.
A valuable step in this is the one brought to our attention by gleem #21, 29.
First time I've seen and I wish I'd known about it earlier than now.

I think this should be incorporated in the instructions for use for students where the use of LaTeX is recommended Or the introductory guide mentioned.

Apart from that, as parts of formulae are often carried forward from one part of a calculation or maths reasoning to another, you can economise effort by cannibalisation.

 

[Tucker121]

Hi,

Here is how I learned latex,

Go to stackexchange for your favourite topic, look at the questions and answers.
You can right click the code on that website and it will display the equation in latex.
This is a good start, there is also this: http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html
where you can draw and symbol with your mouse and it will show you the code.

This will cover the basics like algebra symbols, fractions, powers, d-operators and the like.
The greek alphabet is self-explanitory, alpha is just \alpha \alpha etc.
For matrices, this resource covers all of the types of determinants and co-ordinate or co-ordinate free matrices/arrays: https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Matrices

Integal symbols: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_symbol
Derivatives are used as combination of fractions and d-operations like \partial \partial

After that there's not many more expressions for mathematics. Perserve with research whilst typsetting and you'll be fluent faster than you think.

 

[fresh_42]

Go to stackexchange for your favourite topic, look at the questions and answers.
You can right click the code on that website and it will display the equation in latex.

This works here, too. Click on reply and look at the code. It's also possible to mark the equation, right click and then show math as e.g. Tex code; at least it works for chrome.

 

[Keith_McClary]

More references:
https://math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5020/mathjax-basic-tutorial-and-quick-reference
https://pic.plover.com/MISC/symbols.pdf