LaTeX and PDF

Staff Development Opportunity

David Arnold (Mathematics Department) is offering six one-hour lectures on LaTeX, the technical typsetting system designed by Leslie Lamport.  LaTeX  is a set of TeX macros, based on the TeX typsetting system by Donald Knuth, which enable writers to prepare camera ready copy with publishing house quality. After David finishes his introduction to LaTeX, professor Donald Story, from the University of Akron, will conduct a two-day workshop on portable document format (PDF). Be sure to examine Professor Story's work in PDF at http://www.math.uakron.edu/~dpstory/acrotex.html.

Important Note: Most of what Professor Story will do on his visit will depend on the groundwork laid by the preliminary mini-lectures given by David Arnold. All lectures will be held in the Physical Sciences building, room PS110.

I have placed a copy of lshort.pdf (849KB) on our server for your reading pleasure. A zipped copy, lshort.zip (519KB), is also available. This is an example of how LaTeX can create a fully linked PDF document. Take some time to browse this document to get an idea of the power that is inches away from your fingertips. This document was prepared with LaTeX and hyperref, a LaTeX package created by Sebastian Rahtz. Dr. Story will show you how to use the hyperref package during his visit.

I have placed a copy of epslatex.pdf (1.6MB) here for your perusal. It is absolutely the best thing that I have found on including graphics in a Latex document. Absolutely marvelous!

Rex Sinclair asked about using Latex to write examinations. In particular, he wanted to use more of the page and he also wanted some fancy headers and footers. If you'd like to see my solution, follow these directions:

  1. Download geometry.zip and unzip all of the files into c:\texmf\tex\latex\geometry.
  2. Download fancyhdr.zip and unzip all of the files into c:\texmf\tex\latex\fancyhdr.
  3. Select Start->Program Files->Miktex->Maintenance->Refresh Filename Data Base.
  4. Open c:\texmf\tex\latex\geometry\geometry.ins in WinEdt, select Project->Set Main File, and Latex.
  5. Select Start->Program Files->Miktex->Maintenance->Refresh Filename Data Base.
  6. Download RexExam.tex. Open RexExam.tex in WinEdt, select Project->Set Main File, Latex, and Preview.
Let me know if this doesn't work for you.

Tip of the Day

Today's Tip of the Day is provided by Dr. Donald Story's quiz macros that he will be showing at our upcoming PDF workshop. I designed this little quiz, with Dr. Story's help (I needed some advice on one of the macros). I found that my Acrobat Reader 3.01 that accompanies the Acrobat software on the CD-Rom does not install the latest forms plugin needed to view these quizzes online. After some conversation with Dr. Story, we discovered that the best cure is to simply download Acrobat Reader 3.02, uninstall Acrobat Reader 3.01, then install Acrobat Reader 3.02. Dr. Story recommends downloading the Acrobat Reader 3.02 at http://www.pdfzone.com/products/software/readerdownload2.html. Be sure to select English 3.02 Win95 -- NT.

Users who have upgraded to MikTeX 1.20 will probably want to upgrade to the Acrobat Reader 4.0, as they have no need for the Acrobat Reader 3.0 fonts (which are the same in Acrobat Reader 3.02) that are needed in the MikTeX 1.11 release (the latest release of MikTeX includes the URW fonts in place of Adobe's fonts---correct me if I am wrong). The correct Forms plugin also accompanies Acrobat Reader 4.0. After installing Acrobat Reader 3.02, if that is your choice, select Help>About Plugins>Acrobat Forms and make sure you have Forms 3.5 or higher installed. Otherwise, the online quiz will not work properly when viewed in your Reader.

With these thoughts in mind, download and enjoy intalg.pdf

Open in the Reader (either 4.0 or 3.02 with Forms 3.5 plugin installed), click on Begin Quiz, then click what you think to be the correct answer to each question. When finished, click End Exam and you will be provided with your score.

Yesterday's tip of the day is provided by Rex Sinclair. He quotes: "Warren Staley gave me the following Metapost file, for drawing blank grids for graphing problems. Save the file as grid.mp."

\beginfig(1);
u=6 pt;
pickup pencircle scaled .3 pt
for i=0 upto 70:
    draw (i*u,0)--(i*u,70u) withcolor .6white;
    draw (0,i*u)--(70u,i*u) withcolor .6white;
endfor;
pickup pencircle scaled .7 pt;
for i=0 upto 7:
    draw (10u*i,0)--(10u*i,70u) withcolor .1white;
    draw (0,10u*i)--(70u,10u*i) withcolor .1white;
endfor;
endfig;
end
Rex goes on to say: "It gives a rather nice output of 10 tics per inch in dotted lines in a 70 by 70 grid with each 10 lines accented. The over all size can be changed by the commands I have added, including centering and sizing. This is done in the LateX file that calls this grid:"
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\begin{document}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=2in]{grid.1}
\end{center}
\end{document}
Rex also shares: "PS. Dave's Tip 17 gives the Metapost sequence and "Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX2e" by Reckdahl (page 20) is useful to embellish on this."

Previous tips are also available!

One-Hour Lectures on LaTeX

 
Lecture #1 March 5, 2-3pm Installing a TeX\LaTeX system on your home or office machine. Click here for lecture notes (PDF format). Updated 3/4/99. On Friday you may want to print these notes in your office, then bring them with you to the first lecture.
Lecture #2
March 12, 3-4pm
Structuring Your Document. Lecture notes are now available (3/6/99). Click lecture2.pdf for lecture notes (PDF format). On Fiday (3/12/99) you may want to print these notes in your office, then bring them with you to the second lecture. You can also click lecture2.tex for a copy of the source code for the lecture notes.
Lecture #3
March 19, 2-3pm 
Typesetting Mathematics. Lecture notes are now available (3/14/99). Click lecture3.pdf for lecture notes (PDF format). On Fiday (3/19/99) you may want to print these notes in your office, then bring them with you to the third lecture. You can also click lecture3.tex for a copy of the source code for the lecture notes.
Lecture #4
March 26, 3-4pm
AMSLaTeX. Lecture notes are now available (3/21/99). Click lecture4.pdf for lecture notes (PDF format). On Friday (3/26/99) you may want to print these notes in your office, then bring them with you to the fourth lecture. You can also click lecture4.tex for a copy of the source code for the lecture notes.
Lecture #5
April 16, 2-3pm 
Because of the importance of referencing in Donald Story's upcoming lectures, I have decided to move up by one week our lecture on referencing in LaTeX documents. Hopefully, this will give people a little more time to practice this all important skill in preparation for our upcoming workshop. Lecture notes are now available. Click lecture5.pdf for lecture notes (PDF format). Source code is also available. Download lecture5.tex and clown.eps.
Lecture #6
April 23, 2-3pm
Graphic Images in LaTeX. Our last lecture is on importing graphics into a LaTeX document. Click lecture6.pdf for lecture notes (PDF format). Source code is also available. Download lecture6.tex and clown.eps.

Donald Story's Lectures on PDF

Dr. Story has come and gone, leaving us with a wealth of material to digest in the upcoming months. The workshop was a tremendous success, packed with a number of useful PDF techniques.

Dr. Story had made some modifications and corrections to his packages web.sty and exerquiz.sty and added some online documentation in webeqman.pdf. A printable form of the manual is available in p_webeqman.pdf. Source files of the exercises and activities perfomed at the workshop are available in the lecture notes that follow.

If you want to simply download everything at once, then download the file story.zip. This file contains the packages, the documentation, and all of the exercise and activity source code.

2-3pm Desert, coffee, meet the speaker
3-3:50pm
AcroTeX, Exploring the Possibilities, Setting up Acrobat: Distiller, Distiller Assistant, Exchange, Type 1 fonts, font subsetting and optimization. Participants worked on "assignments" provided in the file ws11.tex.
3:50-4:00pm
Break
4:00-5:00pm
Designing your document, hyperlinking with Hyperref. The macro package webplain.styis introduced in the file ws21.tex. Dr. Story introduced color to our documents through the assignments in the file ws22.tex. The hyperref package is introduced in ws23.tex. Some options to hyperref are discussed: bookmarks, pagecropping, coloring links, and back referencing in the bibliography. The automatic changing of \ref, \pageref, and \cite into hyperlinks is discussed, as well as the disabling of these automatic link creating facilities. Finally, the \hyperlink, ... \hypertarget combination is discussed.
9:00-10:00am 
Coffee, donuts, free play (work on stuff from previous lectures, etc.)
10:00-10:50am
Jazzing up your hyperlinks; Hyperref Options. In this third lecture, Dr. Story used the file ws31.tex to demonstrate the hyperref command, a command used to format hyperlinks. The hyperref package contains a number of other referencing tools that automatically format links. The \href command is a powerful tool that enables linking to files, URLs, and email. Some further hyperref options are also discussed, including those used for identifying the title, author, keywords, etc., as well as exhibiting some control over Acrobat's toolbar and menubar. The files ws32.tex needs to be changed to a pdf file, ws32.pdf. This is used in the exercises in ws31.tex for a remote document jump.
10:50-11:00am
Break
11:00-12:00pm
Creating on-line exercises with solutions. In ws41.tex, Dr. Story introduces his Navibar, which is particularly useful for navigating through PDF dcouments that are being veiwed full screen. Creating authoring document info is easily done from Latex.  Setting a configuration file makes for easier use of Dr. Story's web package. Dr. Story also creates some navigation buttons in this exercise. Of course, the highlight of this exercise is the introduction of Dr. Story's exerquiz package, which allows instructors to create online question--solution pairs is a neatly formatted PDF file, optimized for reading on the World Wide Web.
12:00-1:00pm
Lunch
1:00-2:00pm
Free play (work on stuff from previous lectures, etc.)
2:00-2:50pm
Creating on-line quizzes with/without solutions. In ws51.tex, Dr. Story addressed some improvements in the hyperref package in handling non standard symbols in section headings. Then we began our work on multiple choice quizzes, with or without solutions.
2:50-3:00pm
Break
3:00-4:00pm
Creating on-line graded quizzes with JavaScript. In ws61.tex, Dr. Story showed how to use the \hypersetup command to change options to the hyperref package, including accessing Acrobat menus from within the PDF file. We then delved further into his exerquiz package and constructed graded quizzes with solutions. Further work was done in formatting our output with a variety of options.

Participants

I am adding names to this list as I receive them. Be sure to reserve a place by contacting me (David Arnold , Ext. 4222 or darnold@northcoast.com). Seating is limited.
  1. David Arnold
  2. Mike Butler
  3. Todd Olsen
  4. Don Hickethier
  5. Jim Fischer
  6. Sandy Vrem
  7. Warren Staley
  8. John Anderson
  9. Erik Sorenson
  10. Dan Calderwood
  11. Steve Jackson
  12. Sandra Taylor
  13. Marykay Osborn
  14. Kevin Yokoyama
  15. James Jutila
  16. Miles Mackey
  17. Rex Sinclair
  18. Bob McPherson
  19. Doug Smith
  20. Abe Ali

Participant Efforts

Some of our participants have crafted some documents that they wish to share online. These are some excellent first efforts!
  1. Kevin Yokoyama has written about some complex number properties he has been exploring in KevinY.pdf and KevinY.tex.
  2. Rex Sinclair wants to share some outline notes he is preparing for Upward Bound in RexS.pdf. He is also sharing his source files in RexS.zip
  3. Peter Gent is putting together some notes on pursuit curves in pursuit.pdf. He has graciously provided source files in pursuit.zip.
  4. Megan Levine wants to share some notes she has written on Euler's contributions to differentials in Euler.pdf. Source file is also available: Euler.tex.
  5. Don Hickethier wants to share some pretty nice mathematical symbol work in SinAndCos.pdf. Source file is also available: SinAndCos.tex.
  6. Jim Fischer shares an excellent paper on the Euler-Lagrange identities in calcvarb.pdf. Sources available in JimF.zip.
  7. David Arnold has written a pretest for his final exam in college algebra. It uses a number of features of Dr. Story's exerquiz and web packages and can be used to produce both online and printed versions with the simple change of four lines of code. Miktex users will need to change the line

    \usepackage[dvipsone,nodirectory]{web}

    which is appropriate for YandY users, to

    \usepackage[dvips,nodirectory]{web}

    Here are the Source Files.

Last Modified 3/2/99
Questions? darnold@northcoast.com