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Welcome to the TeX.SX Community Poll thread!

This thread is used for opinion and usage polls around TeX and TeX.sx. The poll questions are added as "answers" to this "question". Their answers have been added as comments below them. To participate simply up-vote the comments which apply for you. If there is no suitable answer yet simply add it as comment by yourself. You can't up-vote your own comments but the comment author will be counted manually. Please do not add any other comments to these posts. General comments can be added to this "question".

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44 Answers 44

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73

My favorite (La)TeX editor is...

38
  • 117
    Vim/GVim, (Graphical) Vi Improved
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 7:05
  • 63
    TeXworks, cross-platform open source editor.
    – Stefan Kottwitz Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 7:07
  • 12
    gedit, the official text editor of the GNOME desktop environment.
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 9:20
  • 98
    emacs+auctex An extensible customisable text editor
    – Seamus
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 11:42
  • 7
    textmate for Mac OS X with the LaTeX bundle
    – Michael Ummels
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:21
  • 24
    TeXnicCenter, a free editor for developing LaTeX documents under Windows.
    – Paulo Cereda
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:58
  • 8
    Aquamacs, an Aqua-native build of Emacs with AUCTeX already included.
    – Paulo Cereda
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 19:02
  • 62
    TeXStudio (a.k.a TeXMakerX)
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 21:03
  • 33
    TeXShop for Mac OS X
    – Alan Munn
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 12:29
  • 16
    WinEdt (Windows)
    – Ignasi
    Commented Jul 25, 2011 at 9:49
  • 14
    Emacs but not with auctex
    – Andrew Stacey
    Commented Jul 27, 2011 at 18:41
  • 26
    Kile! KDE latex IDE, which rules!
    – oz123
    Commented Jul 30, 2011 at 3:02
  • 54
    Texmaker, a free cross-platform LaTeX editor.
    – DevSolar
    Commented Sep 13, 2011 at 7:25
  • 11
    sublime text 2.
    – topskip
    Commented Jul 3, 2012 at 9:36
  • 11
    Sublime Text 3
    – Marcel Korpel
    Commented Nov 7, 2014 at 22:40
59

I use the following fonts:

(Please link to font's page in the font catalogue http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/ which has examples and the necessary code, not to CTAN.)

34
51

I mainly use the following (La)TeX compiler and tool chain:

(Feel free to add combinations like latex+dvips+ps2pdf)

16
48

I use the TeX distribution ...

6
44

I have used the following packages / classes:
(more than once or twice)

Use format:
[<name>](http://www.ctan.org/pkg/<name>)

167
42

I use (La)TeX on the following platform(s):

22
  • 162
    Ubuntu Linux (diverse versions)
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 13:41
  • 83
    Mac OS X (10.4.x, 10.5.x or 10.6.x)
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 14:24
  • 131
    Windows 7 (any 'flavour')
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 14:24
  • 109
    Other Linux distros (Fedora, Debian, OpenSUSE, Slackware, and so forth.)
    – Paulo Cereda
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:30
  • 16
    Gentoo Linux
    – Andrey Vihrov
    Commented Jul 22, 2011 at 17:29
  • 16
    Windows XP (Prof.)
    – Stephen
    Commented Aug 21, 2011 at 13:47
  • 12
    Mac OS X 10.7 (Update Joseph's comment?)
    – qubyte
    Commented Nov 8, 2011 at 15:24
  • 22
    Mac OS X 10.8 (...)
    – Philipp
    Commented Nov 11, 2012 at 16:47
  • 22
    Windows 8 (any edition)
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Nov 12, 2012 at 10:31
  • 1
    Windows / Cygwin
    – David Carlisle
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 17:45
  • 2
    iOS (on iPad and iPhone)
    – Guido
    Commented Jan 13, 2013 at 15:04
  • 3
    Windows XP (Home)
    – Sverre
    Commented Mar 18, 2013 at 18:13
  • 17
    Arch Linux (any version)
    – user4514
    Commented Mar 7, 2014 at 19:20
  • 5
    Mac OS X 10.9.x
    – Ch'en Meng
    Commented Mar 15, 2015 at 4:43
  • 27
    Windows 10.....
    – CarLaTeX
    Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 18:59
41

I use (La)TeX mainly for ...

42
  • 56
    Writing letters
    – Stefan Kottwitz Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 13:39
  • 129
    Writing my PhD thesis
    – Seamus
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 13:47
  • 160
    Writing [project|homework|lab] reports
    – Martin Tapankov
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 15:00
  • 175
    Writing articles
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:02
  • 38
    Writing LaTeX packages
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:37
  • 28
    Producing books for conference proceedings or textbook
    – egreg
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:41
  • 119
    Writing conference and journal papers
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:51
  • 117
    Creating presentations (e.g. for conference papers)
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:52
  • 32
    Creating vector-graphic-based illustrations
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 19:26
  • 105
    Writing materials for teaching.
    – Alan Munn
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 12:28
  • 20
    Manipulating existing PDF documents (such as extracting certain pages, trimming white spaces) with the help of pdfpages, graphicx packages and an external tool GhostScript directly (or pdfcrop script indirectly).
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 13:43
  • 93
    Fun :-) .....
    – morbusg
    Commented Jul 25, 2011 at 18:04
  • 42
    Writing a book.
    – DevSolar
    Commented Sep 13, 2011 at 7:34
  • 39
    writing lecture notes.
    – bodo
    Commented Nov 16, 2012 at 11:23
  • 75
    Writing my curriculum vitae/resume.
    – hakaze
    Commented Nov 23, 2012 at 9:22
40

I use the following version control software for my (La)TeX files:

11
  • 57
    Subversion (svn)
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:42
  • 193
    Git (git)
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:43
  • 31
    Mercurial (hg)
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:45
  • 3
    Bazaar (bzr)
    – Caramdir
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 4:16
  • 115
    none (I don't use any version control software for my (La)TeX files.)
    – doncherry
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 11:19
  • 6
    RCS
    – Charles Stewart
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 10:25
  • 7
    CVS
    – Paul Gaborit
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 15:27
  • 54
    Dropbox
    – Silke
    Commented Oct 29, 2012 at 10:07
  • 5
    Folders/Compressed files with date or version in their name.
    – yo'
    Commented Jan 12, 2013 at 0:48
  • Numbered backups produced by Emacs in a backup directory.
    – Thérèse
    Commented Jan 9, 2016 at 22:42
  • Vim + undotree
    – Firmin Martin
    Commented Aug 11, 2018 at 21:29
38

I use the following document viewer (to view PDF, DVI, PS and similar files)...

Please link to the viewer in answers and add the platform for which it is available. This might be interesting for other people. If you use an IDE's viewer write an answer in the form "the viewer of x".

23
34

I create the diagrams for my (La)TeX documents using ...

Possible choices: TikZ, PGF, PSTricks, xypic, picture environment, MS Visio, Inkscape, ...
Select 'PGF' if you really using the low level PGF commands, but 'TikZ' if you use that higher level interface.

34
30

I have read the following TeX/LaTeX books:

36
30

What do you dislike in (La)TeX?

18
  • 58
    (La)TeX syntax and programming style
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 15:49
  • 166
    Bad error messages.
    – Raphael
    Commented Oct 15, 2011 at 10:49
  • 33
    Backslashes. Macro expansion. \expandafter. Missing data structures.
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 20:58
  • 12
    Exessive numbers of [] and {}. My pinky hurts after a few hours of coding. This gets much worse when you start using LaTeX inline math instead of $ $
    – Canageek
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 1:47
  • 16
    real utf-8 without extra packages
    – Jonas Stein
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:26
  • 5
    nice tables that dont destroy footnotes without extra packages
    – Jonas Stein
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:27
  • 19
    long learning curve (I'm not the patient kind...)
    – Count Zero
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 11:00
  • 15
    The lack of a proper way to integrate libraries and making them agree on a set of common typesetting goals.
    – user10274
    Commented Jan 5, 2013 at 2:00
  • 35
    Compilation is too slow
    – Jonas Stein
    Commented Jan 11, 2013 at 1:49
  • 60
    Packages that conflict with each other
    – Ari Brodsky
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 7:54
  • 15
    To be seen as a geek instead of a cool guy that produces perfect documents ;-)
    – Penbeuz
    Commented May 15, 2013 at 15:53
  • 9
    Syntax for tables
    – Martin Thoma
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 13:15
  • 5
    Too much attention to "protecting" styles from modification, not enough attention to easy customizability.
    – alexis
    Commented Oct 21, 2013 at 18:40
  • 6
    Having few friends who use it or want to use it.
    – osjerick
    Commented Nov 29, 2013 at 3:24
  • 5
    Such a pain to draw a diagram. (Seriously, it took me, like, 30 minutes to figure out how to draw a rectangle with a diagonal line across it in TikZ). Though, maybe that's just me.
    – auden
    Commented Aug 14, 2016 at 21:29
29

I'm a member of the user group...

Please add 'none, I'm not in any (La)TeX related user group.' if it applies.

11
  • 30
    DANTE, Deutschsprachige Anwendervereinigung TeX e.V. (German TeX Users Group)
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 18, 2011 at 21:23
  • 36
    TUG, North American and international TeX Users Group
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 18, 2011 at 21:54
  • 7
    UK-TUG: "UK TeX Users' Group"
    – Joseph Wright Mod
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 6:06
  • 5
    GuIT, Gruppo utilizzatori italiani di TeX (Italian TeX Users Group)
    – egreg
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:40
  • 195
    none (I am not a member of any (La)TeX related user groups)
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 21, 2011 at 9:45
  • 3
    GUST Polska Grupa Użytkowników Systemu TeX (Polish TeX Users Group)
    – Martin Schröder
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 21:18
  • 2
    NTG Nederlandstalige TeX Gebruikersgroep (Dutch language oriented TeX Users Group)
    – Martin Schröder
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 21:20
  • 3
    ConTeXt group
    – Martin Schröder
    Commented Oct 4, 2011 at 6:39
  • Nordic TeX User Group
    – Karl Ove Hufthammer
    Commented Nov 10, 2011 at 11:51
  • 3
    Association GUTenberg (Groupe francophone des Utilisateurs de TeX)
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 14:11
  • 1
    CSTUG Československé sdružení uživatelů TeXu (Czechoslovak TeX Users Group)
    – Martin
    Commented Mar 9, 2013 at 13:35
28

My favorite aspects of TeX, LaTeX, ConTeXt, and related typesetting systems are...

19
  • 201
    Beautiful output.
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:58
  • 126
    The combination of programming and typesetting.
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:59
  • 140
    That it's free software/open-source.
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 19:08
  • 77
    Extensibility, e.g. the possibility to write or rewrite macros.
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 19:10
  • 4
    Their connection to this site (to participate in this community by using them).
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 19:12
  • 18
    Maturity and possibly long-term support.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:13
  • 80
    Stability - TeX doesn't crash and it never destroyed my files.
    – Stefan Kottwitz Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:33
  • 114
    That everything is stored in plain text files.
    – Caramdir
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 16:31
  • 19
    The durable value of Knuth's ideas about typesetting.
    – Charles Stewart
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 10:27
  • 18
    It's fun to use
    – mas
    Commented Aug 6, 2011 at 10:04
  • 5
    extensible by its users
    – mas
    Commented Aug 6, 2011 at 10:05
  • 19
    provides abstraction (not least the potential for the separation of content from presentation allows concentration on the logical structure and the content rather than on the appearance)
    – mas
    Commented Aug 6, 2011 at 10:07
  • 25
    Its versatility: articles, books, notes, resumes, presentation slides, sheet music, ... -- one tool for all!
    – Raphael
    Commented Oct 15, 2011 at 10:53
  • 42
    Their capability for mathematics — the things that (Open)Office and friends simply can’t do (let alone do well).
    – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
    Commented Nov 11, 2011 at 23:31
  • 11
    Potential to extend the degree of automation almost indefinitely.
    – Stephan Lehmke
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 18:03
27

I use TeX mainly in the following academic or professional field:

32
  • 137
    Mathematics ...
    – Stefan Kottwitz Mod
    Commented Jul 27, 2011 at 7:44
  • 19
    Electronic Engineering
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 27, 2011 at 7:44
  • 73
    Computer Science
    – Michael Ummels
    Commented Jul 27, 2011 at 10:06
  • 3
    Philology (languages & literatures)
    – doncherry
    Commented Jul 27, 2011 at 10:53
  • 9
    Philosophy.....
    – Seamus
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 11:49
  • 98
    Procrastination ;-)
    – Caramdir
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 15:50
  • 9
    Linguistics....
    – Alan Munn
    Commented Jul 30, 2011 at 17:15
  • 53
    Physics (is too short to be accepted as comment)
    – Stephen
    Commented Aug 21, 2011 at 14:36
  • 14
    Mechanical Engineering
    – matth
    Commented Oct 28, 2011 at 11:42
  • 14
    Chemistry (is too short to be accepted as comment)
    – cgnieder
    Commented Feb 15, 2012 at 10:50
  • 10
    Statistics/Applied Probability/Bioinformatics/Computational Biology
    – Faheem Mitha
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 17:55
  • 4
    IT Enterprise Solutions
    – Stephan Lehmke
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 17:57
  • 5
    Earth Sciences.
    – Peter Jansson
    Commented Dec 27, 2012 at 14:27
  • 3
    Aeronautical Engineering
    – nnunes
    Commented Jan 18, 2013 at 8:15
  • 3
    Space Engineering
    – Ingo
    Commented Apr 11, 2013 at 6:06
26

This poll is used to know the distribution of TeX users based on their nationalities. Please carefully choose only one option per person, don't make a mistake, and someone with administrative privilege might be watching you!

There is also a Data Explorer query that uses the information entered in the user profiles. Top ten countries by user numbers as reported on 2023-05-13:

Country Number of users
United States 7153
Germany 4917
United Kingdom 3204
India 2457
France 1869
Canada 1703
Brazil 1223
Netherlands 1105
Australia 952
Switzerland 890

Or you can monitor the statistics of this polls at Top countries of Meta.TeX.SX members.

259
  • 7
    (015) Australia
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:02
  • 7
    (016) Austria .
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:02
  • 12
    (033) Brazil ..
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:09
  • 10
    (043) Canada ..
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:21
  • 6
    (064) Czech Republic
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:29
  • 5
    (065) Denmark .
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:30
  • 15
    (082) France ..
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:38
  • 73
    (090) Germany .
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 10:43
  • 19
    (111) India ...
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 11:43
  • 18
    (118) Italy ...
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 11:46
  • 17
    (166) Netherlands
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 20, 2013 at 13:22
  • 7
    (193) Russia ..
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 21, 2013 at 15:38
  • 10
    (215) Spain ...
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 21, 2013 at 16:20
  • 11
    (243) United Kingdom
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 22, 2013 at 4:44
  • 39
    (244) United States
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 22, 2013 at 4:44
25

Tips that may be regarded as best practices in LaTeX.

9
  • 88
    Consider define a macro for a thing that you use repetitively throughout your document so you can modify its setting in one place later and the changes can affect thoroughly.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 13:55
  • 66
    Don't manually adjust line breaks and page breaks until you prepare the final version, which means no changes in page layout or font size can be expected.
    – Stefan Kottwitz Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:30
  • 45
    Avoid writing a lengthy document in a single input file. Instead, prepare the document structure in advance by creating a separate file for each chapter and/or section and imports them from within a single main input file; This method has some benefits: (1) easing us to rearrange the contents, (2) speeding up the compilation during the development phase by commenting/uncommenting \input or by using \includeonly.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:58
  • 31
    Use "code formatting" to make the LaTeX source more readable, such as aligning similar lines in a displaymath environment.
    – Jaap Eldering
    Commented Aug 13, 2011 at 10:52
  • 15
    Read the Latex obsolete commands pdf or Latex Sündenregister, original german version
    – matth
    Commented Oct 28, 2011 at 11:50
  • 2
    Do never put a blank space after a left parenthesis or before a right parenthesis.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Jul 30, 2012 at 13:39
  • 6
    Use structured writing. Use \include and \includeonly and consider using a folding editor.
    – user10274
    Commented Jan 5, 2013 at 2:10
  • 13
    Instead of several-hour struggle with some LaTeX problem, ask here.
    – yo'
    Commented Jan 8, 2013 at 15:47
  • 5
    When encountering a problem, quickly extract the actual problem into a minimal working example (MWE), and solve it there, then port the solution back into the whole document.
    – Turion
    Commented Feb 15, 2018 at 15:18
24

My favorite document class is...

21
  • 54
    scrartcl - an extensive article class of the KOMA-Script bundle
    – Stefan Kottwitz Mod
    Commented Jul 27, 2011 at 19:01
  • 90
    article – plain and classic
    – doncherry
    Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 12:21
  • 32
    memoir (for large documents)
    – Alan Munn
    Commented Jul 30, 2011 at 17:14
  • 7
    report (for large as well as short documents)
    – Stephen
    Commented Aug 21, 2011 at 14:37
  • 11
    scrbook of KOMA-Script.
    – DevSolar
    Commented Sep 13, 2011 at 7:42
  • artikel3 from the NTG document classes
    – user2574
    Commented Oct 15, 2011 at 7:47
  • 32
    beamer for presentations
    – Raphael
    Commented Oct 15, 2011 at 10:48
  • 8
    moderncv, just beautiful.
    – Raphael
    Commented Oct 15, 2011 at 10:48
  • 24
    standalone to test TikZ graphics
    – Ignasi
    Commented Nov 8, 2011 at 9:36
  • 9
    book, just a simple one for lecture notes etc
    – Stefan Waldmann
    Commented Mar 7, 2012 at 17:11
  • 4
    tufte (for the great layout and font choice)
    – Count Zero
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 10:59
  • 3
    amsart formats things nicely and automatically loads amsmath etc.
    – Ari Brodsky
    Commented Feb 8, 2013 at 7:40
  • 1
    the one I maintain ;)
    – yo'
    Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 18:26
  • 1
    IEEEtran (Too short for comment)
    – Mario S. E.
    Commented May 7, 2013 at 22:55
  • 1
    revtex for articles in physics
    – Igor Kotelnikov
    Commented Jan 7, 2015 at 13:06
23

I find the usage of the following (La)TeX code should be avoided:
and I'm annoyed seeing other users, especially beginners using it.

Expected answers: Most content from l2tabu, bad Word-like typesetting, ...

20
  • 67
    {figure}[H!] or similar (trying to place a float at the current position; typical behavior of someone coming from MS Word etc.)
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 10:50
  • 72
    Using LaTeX2.0 style font macros like \bf, \it, ..., instead of the proper LaTeX2e macros \textbf/\bfseries, ...
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 10:51
  • 98
    Misusing math mode to get italic text: $text$.
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 14:00
  • 52
    Using eqnarray instead of the math environments provided by amsmath
    – lockstep
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:33
  • 25
    Inserting a blank line right before & after a displayed equation.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:43
  • 48
    Using \begin{center}...\end{center} instead of \centering in figure environment.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:44
  • 96
    Using multiple instances of \\ to make blank lines.
    – Alan Munn
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 15:56
  • 14
    Using single instances of \\ after each source line to break the output line, too (outside of tables).
    – Paŭlo Ebermann
    Commented Jul 31, 2011 at 4:09
  • 41
    \"{a} notation for umlauts instead of utf-8
    – Jonas Stein
    Commented Nov 1, 2012 at 21:23
  • 34
    $$...$$ for displayed equations
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 13:48
  • 20
    Using utf-8 for umlauts instead of \"{a} notation. @JonasStein Sorry I coudn't resist. What's the problem.
    – user10274
    Commented Jan 5, 2013 at 1:58
  • 6
    Using math ellipsis for non-mathematical context such as "I am lazy $\ldots$". The correct one is "I am lazy \ldots".
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 23:01
  • 19
    Using < and > as "angle brackets" instead of \langle and \rangle.
    – Zev Chonoles
    Commented Jul 24, 2013 at 8:13
  • 10
    Using " and " as quotation marks instead of `` and ''.
    – osjerick
    Commented Nov 29, 2013 at 3:32
  • 9
    Using \Large or \textit{} inside \chapter{} or \section{} to format the headings.
    – Sigur
    Commented Dec 1, 2013 at 21:20
23

What features do you miss in (La)TeX?

31
  • 47
    Automatic paragraph flow around arbitrary shapes (like images)
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:04
  • 24
    Autokerning based on the shape of the glyphs
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:04
  • 21
    good multi column support (balancing, images/formulae crossing multiple columns)
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:04
  • 9
    text areas with overflow capabilities ("read more on page 3")
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:04
  • 8
    Output to an "open" format such as InDesign (for editing afterwards) or XML
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:04
  • 4
    Some way of splitting a vbox at a point (should break an image in two parts for example)
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:05
  • 4
    XML input (hey, it's 2011)
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:05
  • 7
    Word's track changes feature. The accept/reject changes functionality blows diff away.
    – Canageek
    Commented Oct 29, 2012 at 0:50
  • 20
    A real document tree, and a high-level language for arbitrary manipulations thereof – instead of TeX's single-pass traversal and macros.
    – Philipp
    Commented Nov 12, 2012 at 23:48
  • 16
    More complete implementations of Unicode algorithms and OpenType features.
    – Philipp
    Commented Nov 12, 2012 at 23:49
  • 15
    A proper grid layout (\grid package doesn't work for me).
    – user10274
    Commented Jan 5, 2013 at 2:11
  • 3
    JSON input (hey, it's 2013, @topskip)
    – BeniBela
    Commented Feb 19, 2013 at 18:20
  • 2
    Designing support. You get a book design from a designer and you have to implement it in your document all by yourself.
    – Pygmalion
    Commented Sep 28, 2013 at 9:00
  • 2
    Tidier syntax, so that external tools can parse a tex file more easily.
    – Federico Poloni
    Commented Jul 4, 2015 at 15:01
  • 2
    A proper tool-chain
    – r0estir0bbe
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 13:50
22

I manage my bibliography using...

16
  • 66
    JabRef jabref.sourceforge.net -- cross-platform standalone bibliography manager.
    – Martin Tapankov
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 11:53
  • 13
    Reftex an emacs plugin
    – Seamus
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 13:47
  • 24
    BibDesk for Mac OS X, included in MacTeX
    – Michael Ummels
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:24
  • 117
    a plain text file (directly editing the .bib file).
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:37
  • 25
    Zotero, a Firefox plugin
    – Jake
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 22:23
  • nbibtex - Norman Ramsey's substitute for Bibtex that allows a bibliography database to be represented by a set of .bib files.
    – Charles Stewart
    Commented Jul 24, 2011 at 10:17
  • RefBase
    – Andrew Stacey
    Commented Jul 27, 2011 at 18:41
  • 3
    Citavi for Windows, free for databases with up to 100 titles, often free for university students.
    – Tom Bombadil
    Commented Aug 21, 2011 at 9:37
  • 1
    Bibsonomy.org - a social bookmark and publication sharing system. It has some nice features, among them a JabRef plugin. Biber can even fetch the .bib file from BibSonomy on the fly
    – matth
    Commented Oct 28, 2011 at 11:41
  • 14
    Mendeley.com - A desktop, web and mobile application for handling and sharing your collection of scientific papers.
    – Speldosa
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 14:47
  • CiteULike - A web based library management solution, with the ability to upload and store documents. Easy to write scripts to automatically download .bib files for particular tags.
    – qubyte
    Commented Nov 8, 2011 at 15:29
  • KBibTex, a KDE based application
    – mafp
    Commented Jan 9, 2013 at 15:44
  • Bibweb: a utility for automatically retrieving bibliographical information from MathSciNet
    – Predrag Punosevac
    Commented May 15, 2013 at 0:57
  • ebib for Emacs
    – anonymous
    Commented Aug 31, 2013 at 18:07
  • Endnote, and export to bibtex
    – Ali
    Commented Nov 5, 2013 at 17:24
22

My favorite aspects of TeX.sx are...

10
  • 126
    The amount of knowledge in the community.
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 19:23
  • 159
    The high activity on the site (quick answers, frequently multiple answers, quality control through votes and comments)
    – Jake
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 4:47
  • 90
    The possibility to always learn more about (La)TeX even if you already know a lot.
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 10:17
  • 44
    To be able to see how other people create documents and solve issues (which can be sometimes completely different to your way).
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 10:19
  • 32
    The nice and easy modern interface for writing, editing, commenting and searching.
    – Stefan Kottwitz Mod
    Commented Jul 23, 2011 at 13:56
  • 36
    How friendly it is. No matter how archaic or random my questions is I still get good answers, and people accept me in the chat, despite the fact that everyone else there has forgotten more LaTeX then I know.
    – Canageek
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 1:49
  • 4
    Practising my (La)TeX skills in areas I don't normally use.
    – Stephan Lehmke
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 17:59
  • 22
    Calling "procrastination" "help".
    – yo'
    Commented Jan 12, 2013 at 0:51
  • 2
    I wanted to say a big THANK YOU. I had to produce a class file for my students for their third year report, and I wanted to make things as simple as possible for them. I had many unresolved problems as I am no expert, but every single question was answered on the site. Without the help given by the experts on this site I would simply have abandoned my endeavour. THANKS AGAIN.
    – Pierre
    Commented May 7, 2013 at 19:58
  • Keeping track of problems still unresolved after 4 years.
    – iago-lito
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 16:14
20

To a total LaTeX beginner (not TeX in this case) I would recommend to start learning LaTeX by reading first ...

Books, online howtos, ...

10
18

What small mistakes that you have done make (La)TeX stop working?

25
  • 15
    Using pdflatex to compile an input file that either imports EPS or contains PSTricks code.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 20:19
  • 6
    Using latex.exe to compile an input file that imports PNG, PDF or JPEG images.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 9:30
  • 14
    Programmed a recursive macro with a faulty abort mechanism.
    – Martin Scharrer Mod
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 9:57
  • 100
    Forgot a semicolon inside a TikZ picture
    – Michael Ummels
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 13:02
  • 13
    Forgot to add fragile option to Beamer's frame environment that contains verbatim blocks.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 13:46
  • 17
    Confusion between length macros that need \ and counter macros that don't need \ leads us to make mistakes such as typing \setlength{paperwidth}{10cm} or \setcounter{\enumi}{10}.
    – Display Name
    Commented Aug 5, 2011 at 18:57
  • 32
    Forgot `\\` somewhere in a table.
    – DevSolar
    Commented Sep 13, 2011 at 7:40
  • 5
    Didn't know the difference between TeX and LaTeX. (Undefined control sequence \documentclass...)
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 20:57
  • 2
    Introduced a small bug into \fbox that stopped it working for everybody. 1994-06-06 David Carlisle <[email protected]> * ltboxes.dtx: Fix bug introduced last week. Add \leavevmode to \fbox, and make \long. At the same time make \sbox and \mbox \long even though they were not \long in 2.09.
    – David Carlisle
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 17:52
  • 9
    Gave a macro less arguments than it needs.
    – Stephan Lehmke
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 18:05
  • 6
    Unbalanced \if constructs.
    – Stephan Lehmke
    Commented Dec 3, 2012 at 18:05
  • 5
    created a "circular" macro; of course tex didn't stop -- i had to crash it manually.
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 21:13
  • 35
    put in too many open braces/groups, or not enough closing ones; also, mismatched $ signs. either one can get you out of synch really fast!
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Dec 10, 2012 at 21:16
  • 11
    Using {} instead of [] for optional arguments of macro and [] for mandatory arguments, and forgetting which arguments are mandatory and which are optional.
    – Guido
    Commented Jan 12, 2013 at 11:30
  • 8
    Forgot to escape _ (e.g. in URLs)
    – Martin Thoma
    Commented Jun 24, 2013 at 13:20
16

What small mistakes that you have made allow (La)TeX to continue working, but produce an unexpected result?

The objective of this poll is to collect mistakes that are frequently made by us (especially for the beginner).

16
  • 48
    Forgot to append a trailing \ or {} right after a macro that eats white spaces. For example writing \LaTeXe is... will produce "LaTeX2eis" instead of "LaTeX2e is".
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 10:15
  • 49
    Forgot to add a % to remove unnecessary white spaces.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 13:10
  • 9
    Forgot to prefix a period following a capital letter with \@ such that the period is intended to end a sentence.
    – Display Name
    Commented Aug 5, 2011 at 4:30
  • 8
    Forgot to append a period following a non-capital letter with \ such that the period is supposed not to be the end of sentence.
    – Display Name
    Commented Aug 5, 2011 at 5:50
  • 3
    Kept subversion conflict markers (<<<<<<<<<) in the text body
    – topskip
    Commented Nov 2, 2011 at 21:00
  • 22
    Misspelled label name in either \label, \ref or \cite.
    – yo'
    Commented Jul 7, 2012 at 14:58
  • 12
    Forgot to specify non-breaking space with ~ (e.g. Figure~\ref{fig:somefig}.
    – Count Zero
    Commented Nov 30, 2012 at 9:54
  • Hoping $\tiny abc$ (font size change in math mode) can produce the expected result. Actually it will never work because the developers chose to disable font changing commands inside formulas.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Feb 17, 2013 at 11:26
  • 3
    Forgot to use \ignorespaces when we use \noindent (or \indent) at the end of a macro with arguments.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 11, 2013 at 22:52
  • 3
    A wrong placement of \noindent. For example \par\noindent\vspace{\baselineskip} <text> that should be \par\vspace{\baselineskip}\noindent <text>.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 17, 2013 at 14:49
  • 1
    Forgot to end the paragraph with \par before the closing } in {\Huge long text spanning 2 or more lines}.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 21, 2013 at 23:09
  • 3
    Using longtable inside table environment because of a wrong assumption that longtable is long version of tabular. The same syntax and column specifiers lead us to this wrong assumption.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 25, 2013 at 16:01
  • 8
    Used \label before \caption, so that the referencing of the Float did not work as expected.
    – Adam B.
    Commented Jan 28, 2014 at 9:35
  • 2
    Forgot to put a backslash before "underscore and ampersand (symbol)"
    – M S
    Commented Jan 17, 2017 at 9:52
  • 4
    Trying to pass an argument to a switch-type command that would need grouping instead: \command{...} instead of {\command ...}
    – lblb
    Commented Mar 19, 2017 at 10:42
16

As a TeX user, I favour

  1. logical punctuation, a.k.a. "British style"; or

  2. rhetorical punctuation, a.k.a. "American style."

The following example, taken from Edward D. Johnson's The Handbook of Good English (Simon & Schuster, 1991), illustrates the difference between the two:

I'm not sure what is meant by 'fail-safe'. (logical punctuation)

I'm not sure what is meant by 'fail-safe.' (rhetorical punctuation)

5
  • 85
    logical punctuation
    – jub0bs
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 16:42
  • 27
    In my language, German, only logical punctuation exists. I did not knew there were other styles up until now. The rhetorical style looks ugly and wrong.
    – Foo Bar
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 16:47
  • 9
    logical, for sure. if you've ever been burned by having an unenlightened editor (person) insist that the period (or comma) be placed inside the quotes that delimit a typing command instruction, you wouldn't accept any other option. that was the situation that permitted a change in tex-related user manuals at ams. (i can't speak for other publications, but at least we're freed from questions about why something doesn't work when directions were followed to the letter/punctuation symbol.) likewise for tugboat. logic rules.
    – barbara beeton
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 16:54
  • 1
    rhetorical punctuation
    – jub0bs
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 16:55
  • 34
    Logical punctuation, because the full stop [period] belongs to the whole sentence, not just the term in quotes. IMNSHO, rhetorical punctuation lives in the same cave as "rhetorical dates", the ones where the day comes between the month and the year...
    – Brent.Longborough
    Commented Mar 27, 2013 at 17:55
15

On which other stackexchange sites you are a member? (Let's say being a "member" means ask a question or provide an answer there.)

The comment format should be:

[TeX](http://tex.stackexchange.com/)
32
13

I found TeX.sx via...

10
  • 74
    some search engine.
    – N.N.
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 18:36
  • 23
    StackExchange menu on the top.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 21:07
  • 11
    Migration from StackOverflow.
    – Display Name
    Commented Jul 19, 2011 at 21:09
  • 11
    Area 51 (participated on the private beta)
    – Vivi
    Commented Jul 20, 2011 at 1:29
  • 7
    Via Joseph Wright's blog Some TeX developments.
    – Paŭlo Ebermann
    Commented Jul 31, 2011 at 4:15
  • 52
    Am I supposed to remember this?
    – Speldosa
    Commented Nov 1, 2011 at 14:49
  • 5
    Some comment in comp.text.tex
    – Ignasi
    Commented Nov 8, 2011 at 9:40
  • 2
    Migration from MathOverflow
    – Peter LeFanu Lumsdaine
    Commented Nov 11, 2011 at 23:33
  • Area 51 (didn't participate in the private beta).
    – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil'
    Commented Nov 14, 2013 at 15:40
  • I liked formatting the equations on the physics.SE and was messing with detexify, and then I was like, hmmm, maybe I should learn more about this, it's so fun.
    – auden
    Commented Aug 15, 2016 at 14:00
13

How is your activity or behavior on this site?

13
  • 2
    I read all questions of one topic and try to answer most of them.
    – topskip
    Commented Jul 3, 2012 at 9:32
  • 16
    I try to read all questions unless I know I'm not interested and not able to provide any support.
    – yo'
    Commented Jul 7, 2012 at 15:01
  • 9
    I only read several new questions on that day.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 15:12
  • 29
    I scan for things I'm likely to be able to answer.
    – Canageek
    Commented Oct 29, 2012 at 0:52
  • 53
    I read questions that are likely to be of interest to me
    – Canageek
    Commented Oct 29, 2012 at 0:52
  • 1
    I use subscriptions on several tags that alert me of questions of possible interest.
    – Martin Schröder
    Commented Feb 22, 2013 at 16:14
  • I don't read the questions and answers. Instead I am just logged in the chat room for fun.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 19, 2013 at 2:10
  • I am only interested in reading old unanswered questions that are randomly poked by the bot Community.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 19, 2013 at 9:17
  • 2
    I only ask questions. I am not knowledgeable enough to provide answers.
    – Sverre
    Commented Mar 20, 2013 at 15:32
  • 1
    I always collect and save reputation and don't want to spend them for bounties.
    – kiss my armpit
    Commented Mar 22, 2013 at 23:00
  • 7
    I mostly search and ask for current problems I have. May find the occasional question I can answer, or post my own question-answer pair.
    – Raphael
    Commented Sep 12, 2013 at 8:19
  • 2
    I will see what I can learn from questions in chat. Sometimes I answer questions on the site, only to find on refresh that egreg and davidcarlisle has pounced the question a couple of seconds later, deleting my answer, and skulking further in the shadows.
    – Forkrul Assail
    Commented Oct 22, 2013 at 22:36
  • I mostly ask questions.
    – iago-lito
    Commented Feb 13, 2020 at 16:15
13

I use Windows and the TeX Distribution ...

Since Windows users are the only ones who have MiKTeX as an option, I thought it'd be interesting to see how the user distribution between and MiKTeX and TeX Live on Windows is. See also the cross-platform question.

5
  • 34
    MiKTeX ........
    – doncherry
    Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 7:04
  • 25
    TeX Live ......
    – doncherry
    Commented Jan 2, 2013 at 7:05
  • putty to my school server (yes, I really do it).
    – yo'
    Commented Jan 8, 2013 at 15:42
  • KerTeX on Cygwin
    – Predrag Punosevac
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 1:27
  • teTeX on Cygwin (Actually a few times I had to use Windows in my life that is how I used TeX).
    – Predrag Punosevac
    Commented May 17, 2013 at 1:28
1
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