TeX and friends FAQ posts

Question

There are occasions where I see a new question and know it's one that is asked frequently, yet we don't have a comprehensive question-and-answer(s) to address it. It would be good if we could implement something to that effect, similar to what SO's documentation tried to do.

We already have some of these scattered across the site:

• Why is \[ … \] preferable to $$?

• eqnarray vs align

• How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX?

• Keeping tables/figures close to where they are mentioned

• Where do I place my own .sty files, to make them available to all my .tex files?

• How to change the name of document elements like “Figure”, “Contents”, “Bibliography” etc.?

My suggestion with this post is to broaden the search for FAQs, or beefing up existing posts to such status.

Answers to this question should propose a frequently asked question on the main site. Voting and comments can be used to fine-tune the proposal. Once consensus¹ is reached, a post can be made² on the main site and answers will follow. These posts can then also be added to our list of often referenced questions.

Furthermore, I propose we tag such questions with faq, similar to what is available on Meta.SE.

_{¹ Consensus to a proposed FAQ implies a positive answer score of at least 10.}

_{² This will be a community effort in many cases. Should posting the question (and subsequent answer(s)) be posted as Community Wiki? Understand that there might be a lot of effort put into answers to document content, and CW remove voting reputation from posters.}

Related:

• Will there be TeX.SX Documentation?

Answer 1

If you see a question that has been asked before, vote to close it as a duplicate. So it gets a link to the earlier question (choose a good one if there are several candidates).

Naturally, frequently asked questions (and frequently referred questions) are those that get the most links to them. So the FAQ list grows and gets sorted over time, automatically.

It can be accessed, sorted by backlink count, via the frequent tab. And this works also when it's filtered by a tag (such as frequent float questions).

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So I don't see a benefit in adding another post for each case on the main site, claiming to create a frequently asked question. A new post would start with zero backlinks on the "frequent" list, way behind existing frequently linked questions.

I prefer

• closing more obvious duplicates to strengthen the main version by adding links, so it gets pushed up the "frequent" list
• polishing that main post (or make it with its answers more comprehensive)

A good strategy for closing and linking, when spotting a duplicate: click its main tag, click the "Frequent" tab, so you can see the frequently asked (referred) questions for that tag, that are sorted by relevance, so there's a good chance to see the one to link to.

Answer 2

proposed question title:

• What are causes of the error messages "There's no line here to end"?

there are myriad questions with this error message in the title, and nearly as many conditions that result in the error. a single question with all possible conditions covered would be a valuable addition.

the present question is posted as community wiki, with an invitation to list the conditions that trigger the error.

known conditions triggering this error:

• ending a paragraph with \\.

• use of \\ at the beginning of a component of \maketitle (and possibly elsewhere) (reported in Problem with \maketitle: "there's no line here to end" )

• use of \\ in beamer, triggered at \end{frame} (reported in There's no line here to end. \end{frame} )

• use of \newline{} at the end of the last line of an element in moderncv (reported in \cventry ! LaTeX Error: There's no line here to end )

• including text in a graphics file (reported in https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/259021 )

please add other situations that aren't already covered by this list.

Answer 3

Proposed question title:

• How can I format the way my list items are printed and/or referenced?

Proposed question body:

• While the default lists (itemize, enumerate and description) provide a sufficient means to list items, I'd like to change the formatting:

  • Change 1., 2., 3., ... to (say) a), b), c), ...
  • Change the horizontal spacing between list items and their label
  • Change the vertical spacing between list items
  • Change the layout of the list (from vertical stacked to inline, or horizontal)
  • Change the way a reference to an item looks (perhaps it's set as 3.2), but I want \ref to return 3.2 only)

  How can I achieve these modifications? Are there packages that can help with these?

Proposed answer(s) should cover:

• How to change the item representation without any packages.

• Use of enumitem for list formatting and cross referencing.

• Use of other packages that provide different layouts (horizontal, for example).

Possible references:

• How can I make an enumerate list start at something other than 1?

• How do I change the enumerate list format to use letters instead of the default Arabic numerals?

• Vertical space in lists

• Resuming a list

Answer 4

Proposed question title:

• I want to change my document layout (page dimensions and configuration). How can I achieve that?

Proposed question body:

• I wish to change the document layout to fit better with my text. Changes include:

  • Changing the paper size

  • Adjusting the margins

  • Switching from a single-column layout to a multi-column (2+) layout

  • Adjusting the space between the text block and surrounding page elements (like where margin paragraphs are placed, or the header/footer)

  • Visualizing the page layout

  Can the above changes be applied globally? Can I apply it for a specific portion of my document as well?

Proposed answer(s) should cover:

• How to adjust the page layout without any packages.

• Use of geometry and what the parameters mean/influence.

• Use of specific document class(es) that provide their own means of layout changes (like memoir and KOMA-script).

Possible references:

• Why are default LaTeX margins so big?

• Modern book design, margins and typed area