Questions tagged [asking-questions]

This tag is for questions specifically about the process of asking questions on a Stack Exchange site.

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Uploading custom cls file

A lot of the time the questions I ask on the TeX stack exchange regard projects using specific class/style files (.cls, .clo, .sty, fonts, etc.). My approach to these questions has been to provide the ...
Mate de Vita's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
151 views

When is it better to revisit an old answered question?

Many times, I found my inquiries solved on the site by several answered questions. However, I believe (without solid proof) that the packages used in the solution have undergone bug fixes, updates, ...
Diaa's user avatar
  • 9,469
5 votes
1 answer
59 views

Draft function of a stand-by question

Does there exist a possibility on the site to save a draft of a question I am writing up, such that it will remain even if I leave the site but come back to it later?
Sebastiano's user avatar
  • 52.7k
10 votes
0 answers
314 views

Suggest users to add a MWE or MWEB to their question

For many questions a Minimal Working Example (with Bibliography) can be very helpful and for some it is even detrimental to the answering of the question. My suggestion is to point the user to MWE(B)...
Flexo013's user avatar
  • 371
0 votes
1 answer
35 views

Is there any way (keyboard shortcut) to shift an enitre piece of text?

Okay I know I've worded the question horribly. We all know to make code visible in a box e.g: \begin{document} We have to shift it 4 spaces to the right so that it becomes: \begin{document} Is ...
UniStuffz's user avatar
  • 308
8 votes
1 answer
91 views

Asking a new questions opens and old question

I press on the Ask Question button. One of my old questions is exhibited. Must I assume therefore, that if I edit the old question and press the Submit button, my old question will be substituted by ...
Viesturs's user avatar
  • 7,665
17 votes
1 answer
190 views

How to tidy up/improve my question after I got the solution

I recently asked a question that was - long story short - answered by: There is an app' package for that! This package indeed fully addresses my needs, but I was not aware of it (even after web ...
ebosi's user avatar
  • 11.5k
2 votes
1 answer
54 views

How often may a question be asked again?

I think there must be some kind of consideration to new ways of solving old problems.
Jorge Esteban Mendoza's user avatar
9 votes
0 answers
155 views

Best information to include when a MWE isn't 'possible'

Just want to preface this by saying I understand and agree with the importance of including a MWE, but I am curious about the best information to supplement a question with when a MWE would only ...
EngBIRD's user avatar
  • 3,975
7 votes
1 answer
263 views

Question about correct typesetting

I have a mathematical exercise written in LaTeX and it seems ugly to me. It is ok to ask what would be the best (and most beautiful) way to typeset it? The exercise in question is the following: \...
Adam's user avatar
  • 4,644
13 votes
2 answers
232 views

Notifying the user when they are about to post a "give me the codez"-question

We get questions like this all the time, where someone wants us to draw something for them in TikZ or some other graphics package, without providing a minimal working example. I'm wondering whether ...
Turion's user avatar
  • 4,562
4 votes
0 answers
54 views

How do I add 4 spaces to all the code when I want to ask a question?. Im doing it line by line(It take me a lot time) [duplicate]

I have a big code and need to ask about it. How in the space for the question do I avoid adding 4 spaces to each line. I need do it faster.
JuanMuñoz's user avatar
  • 1,434
5 votes
3 answers
93 views

How to make a text bigger in the body of a question

I know if I want to make italic some text in the body of my question I should put it between two *'s. Also if I want to make bold some text, I should put it between **'s. How I can make some text ...
Name's user avatar
  • 2,806
12 votes
0 answers
143 views

How about encouraging the users to provide MWE before asking questions?

In the lights of increase in the number of questions without MWE, I was wondering how can we encourage the users to provide MWE prior to submitting the questions. Considering that in many cases these ...
Pouya's user avatar
  • 7,239
5 votes
1 answer
226 views

how do you upload files to support people answering questions

I would like to know how one uploads files to a question so that people can download full working examples? I was trying to explain my last question, and while people were fast to criticize the form ...
daemondave's user avatar
18 votes
1 answer
652 views

LyX user questions on TeX stackexchange

Is there a proper way to post a MWE when using LyX instead of LaTeX proper? The commonly used comment requesting a MWE is confusing to me when using LyX.
franklin mazzarratti's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
62 views

How to ask further questions concerning an old question?

I asked a question (to be specific, this one) about four months ago and got a completely satisfying answer. In the meantime I continued my project and built my own solution for the problem by ...
MaxD's user avatar
  • 1,117
13 votes
1 answer
251 views

Noun phrases as question titles

I find that many technical (or at least, problem-oriented) questions are in fact best presented using a noun phrase (or present participle phrase) as a title, rather than something which is ...
Roly's user avatar
  • 4,181
2 votes
0 answers
86 views

Can one ask for TeX related software recommendations here?

There is a dedicated site for software recommendations here on Stack Exchange but I'm not sure people there may know much about something like CDLatex. I'm looking for a Latex IDE for Linux which ...
Reza's user avatar
  • 155
3 votes
0 answers
48 views

Supplementary questions to an already existing question [duplicate]

I often find an answer to my question, but only partial. For instance, people make a nice suggestion on how to modify something in LaTeX, but do not specify how to make the return to default, original ...
user59856's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
234 views

How to post a MWE without personal information?

I have a strange behavior with the microtype package (for some reason it won't break a word, but no warnings). What can I do to post a MWE without personal informations? If I just replace the text ...
someonr's user avatar
  • 8,521
13 votes
1 answer
178 views

Is asking for comments on a finished piece of code a permissible question?

I want to learn to use Tikz properly. I've already created a number of pictures with it, thanks in large part to the help I received from fellow tex.stackexchange users. Thus I'm able to use some of ...
Olivier Bégassat's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
287 views

New users - How to do good questions and answers?

I am a new user of tex.stackexchange.com and probably this could be a stupid question, but is there any information about how to pose good questions and make good answers? I think it could be useful ...
Emanuel's user avatar
  • 169
14 votes
1 answer
195 views

What to do with opinion based questions which are accepted by the community?

There are some highly opinion-based questions in the system which are accepted by the community (has positive votes), but won't have any real answers. I see a contradiction among disciples. An ...
masu's user avatar
  • 6,511
8 votes
1 answer
64 views

Is there a limit to the amount of questions one can post in a given time frame?

I am in the process of writing my thesis and have managed to run into a lot of issues along the way. To stop me procrastinating on tex.SX, I jot a note down at the time but don't actually post the ...
ThomasH's user avatar
  • 942
10 votes
3 answers
241 views

What exactly defines 'too broad of a question'?

Concerning: Are there any open research problems in the world of TeX? In my understanding, this question is a big one, but there are many 'big' questions out there: Showcase of beautiful typography ...
Sean Allred's user avatar
  • 27.3k
16 votes
1 answer
199 views

Re-indexing answer already on the web

I just had a TeX-related technical issue, and unfortunately TeX.SX has no information about it. Googling for the error message in question returns a Gentoo Forum post containing a workable (but not ...
anol's user avatar
  • 539
12 votes
2 answers
161 views

What is does the "bonus" part of a question mean?

I sometimes stumble upon questions where some "bonus points" are mentioned or which have some "bonus section" (see e.g. here and here, and also in answers such as here). I only found information on ...
Bernd's user avatar
  • 1,775
25 votes
1 answer
318 views

Is it appropriate to ask questions about the design of LaTeX?

I ran across a small curiosity when working today; specifically that LaTeX defines \coth by default, but not \sech or \csch. I’d like to know why. I think of the three functions are being very similar,...
alexwlchan's user avatar
  • 5,397
25 votes
1 answer
311 views

Is it proper to post a first attempt as a self-answer?

The title says it all. On TeX.SE, is it proper for the OP to post his/her first attempt at solving the problem as a self-answer? Or should the first attempt be included in the question instead? Take ...
jub0bs's user avatar
  • 58.6k
14 votes
1 answer
239 views

How-to posts for beginners

I recently asked this question, and I was wondering if it would be okay to ask other variations of it such as "How to install emacs/aquamacs + Auctex". I know that instructions are available, but I've ...
TheRealFakeNews's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
207 views

Is it appropriate for the OP to ask for an MWE as his Question?

The title pretty much says it all. Is it appropriate to ask a question for a minimal working example of some over-arching concept? (My specific case would be to put a title on a beamerposter, for ...
Sean Allred's user avatar
  • 27.3k
15 votes
3 answers
311 views

How to ask a specific question without in the risk of "too localized"?

One may met problems in document writing, some of them are specific that rarely to met by others. So questions asked for seeking resolutions for these problems are often marked "too localized". But if ...
Popopo's user avatar
  • 821
31 votes
1 answer
342 views

I asked for the wrong thing and so made the answers to my question uncomplete. How should I correct this?

In this question I got two great answers on how to do what I asked for (putting the page number in the footer at the first page of each signature in a book). But --- as some of you probably understand ...
PetaspeedBeaver's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
526 views

How are you supposed to get reputation if you can't answer a question unless you have a reputation of at least 5?

I really want to contribute to some questions but StackExchange says I can't answer a question until I have a reputation of at least 5. How can I get my reputation up to 5?
Jason Lewis's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
210 views

How to create function Blocks in StackExchange questions?

As a French student living in the US, I'm using both QWERTY and AZERTY keyboards. tex.stackexhange is a good website, but a problem comes when it's about asking questions. Indeed, when I wanna use ...
Uneo's user avatar
  • 299
13 votes
1 answer
187 views

Is this the right place to ask about mathematical notation?

For instance, I'm looking for symbols for the following ternary relations: f is a relation with source X and target Y. f is a left-total relation with ditto f is a right-total relation with ditto f ...
goblin GONE's user avatar
  • 1,252
14 votes
2 answers
343 views

Limiting the Length of Subject Titles

Recently, I've noticed very long, non-focused question titles. Should we encourage limiting question titles, and if yes, is there a way to enforce this? Personally, I am in favour of this as it ...
user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
105 views

Asking specific person for answer or clarify his question in order to help me with my problem

I've asked a question which might be hard to answer because it's concerns right-to -left script which I guess is not the most often used by TeX users. :) The question is about sorting tools for Arabic ...
maria's user avatar
  • 925
23 votes
2 answers
411 views

When is one asking too many questions?

I've just asked two consecutive questions. While I've tried to keep them succinct and as useful to other people as possible, it occurs to me that it may be bad form to ask too many questions in a ...
Mohan's user avatar
  • 15.9k
58 votes
9 answers
2k views

How does one add a LaTeX output to a question/answer?

How does one add a LaTeX output* to a question/answer? *the thing you see in the PDF/DVI when you compile the LaTeX code.
User 17670's user avatar
  • 4,682
13 votes
1 answer
141 views

Multiple questions or single question?

When working on a document, I often end up with multiple questions. Should I club all the related questions together and ask a single question or break them into separate questions. All the questions ...
mythealias's user avatar
  • 3,601
25 votes
2 answers
566 views

What is the most polite way to ask for more help on a basic or too localized question?

On the main TeX.SX site, I asked a question about a missing \endgroup error for a Beamer standalone frame using Martin Scharrer's standalone package with the subpreambles=true option. The question ...
Henry DeYoung's user avatar
16 votes
1 answer
151 views

When to open a new question that develops from a previous question?

When is it appropriate to open a new question that develops from an old one? I recently asked a question and received a very helpful answer. I asked about a modification in the comments and the ...
Dennis's user avatar
  • 3,835
3 votes
0 answers
55 views

Procedure on refining an initial broad question. Should I replace it with multiple focused questions?

users, I asked a question on controlling individual layers in a diagram and with a bit more knowledge and help from the answers I can see the question was too broad. I suspect that the method you use ...
Jason Whyte's user avatar
  • 1,388
8 votes
2 answers
114 views

Detail in question changed after one answer already given; change question or new question?

For How do I draw a plot with a variable line width in pgfplots?, after answers and comments started coming in, I realised that I really want a continuous change in line width, and not a discrete one ...
gerrit's user avatar
  • 5,155
0 votes
6 answers
257 views

Why is short and specific questions required as stated in FAQ?

Why is it such a big deal that questions have a very specific nature to them as stated in the FAQ's? What real problems/harm does it pose when questions are more discussion like or not very specific? ...
Uiy's user avatar
  • 6,072
40 votes
1 answer
2k views

What does "XY Problem" mean?

I have just been told that my question is an "XY Problem". What does that mean? What am I supposed to do?
yo''s user avatar
  • 50.9k
22 votes
3 answers
229 views

Which \documentclass is best to use in MWEs?

When providing an MWE for questions, I usually use \documentclass{article}. Might there be a more "minimal" class or template which would be better to use?
jamaicanworm's user avatar
  • 28.8k
5 votes
2 answers
111 views

Is it OK to ask for suggestions concerning a table layout?

I am currently making a table in LaTeX. I also received great help from asking two questions on the site but I forgot to add a parameter to the table so now I basically have to re-make it. I could ...
Alenanno's user avatar
  • 37.1k