Using Latex, Lyx, or Scientific Workplace for equation editing

Software for equation editing

  • Lyx is freely available on all standard operating systems and can be downloaded from http://www.lyx.org/ . It has very little learning curve.

  • Scientific Workplace: (Like Lyx this also has little learning curve, but unlike Lyx it can be expensive.)

  • Latex for Windows: You can download miktex for free from www.miktex.org. This needs to be used in conjunction with a text editor. While you could use notepad, an editor customized to miktex makes everything much easier. One I recommend is winedt (see also their FAQ)

  • On unix or linux systems a version of latex called tetex should already be installed.

    Presentation software for latex/lyx/swp

  • Beamer

    Software for automating citations and reference lists

  • Bibtex

    Software that helps convert between word and latex

  • latex2rtf converts latex to rich text format that can be used by any word processor software.

  • page with discussion and software links

  • Word2Tex

  • Mathtype TEXaide

  • Figures can be converted from word to latex by first converting the figure to an eps file: In word, print to a pdf file (requires adobe pdf writer) and then open the pdf file with pdf writer and re-save it as an eps file in the same directory as the tex file. Then include the eps figure in your latex file in the standard way (see instructions on importing graphics )

    Instructions on using latex

  • An on-line book on latex

  • latex cheat-sheet.

  • Useful Tips and Tricks in LaTeX

    Links to journal-specific style files

    The links provide style and bibliography style files for: some economics journals   some econometrics and economics journal (scroll down to "BibTex Files")   some economic theory journals   some statistics journals

    For help with latex commands, see the FAQ

    Notes on some very specific issues

  • For rotating Figures see http://www-group.slac.stanford.edu/techpubs/help/figures/latex2efigs.html#rotate
    Here is another example:

    \begin{figure}
    \centerline{\fbox{\includegraphics[width=4in,height=6in,angle=270]{figurefilename.eps}}}
    \caption{Figure Caption title}
    \label{figurelable}
    \end{figure}

  • To make sure floats (e.g., tables or figures) print out before a certain point (say the end of the section) look at: http://www.math.upenn.edu/tex_docs/help/faq/uktug-faq/FAQ241.html who suggest the package placins (add \usepackage{placeins} at the start of the document). Then put the command \FloatBarrier at the place where you want to stop the floats (e.g. at the end of the section).

  • Including Multible Bibliographies

  • saving space