Using LaTeX for writing your document

At CERN the latest release of TeXLive 2007 was made available at the beginning of 2007, so that the most recent versions of LaTeX and its packages can be used (see LaTeX at CERN for more details).

Typographic conventions are important

Precise typographical rules apply for marking up scientific manuscripts. A few of those are detailed here. Try and apply them in a consistent way.

Specific visual markup is a nuisance

Do not add blanks to make formulae or tabular material look nicer, keep your markup as simple as possible, and stick to standard LaTeX commands. In particular, do not overload your electronic manuscript with zillions of home-made commands for saving a few keystrokes. If you do this your file becomes completely unintelligible and unmaintainable for outsiders (such as the staff who have to deal with your compuscript).

Restrain from using specific page-layout commands, such as forced line or page breaks. After implementing the copy-editing and other corrections plus running your file with the CERN classes the precise page layout will be completely different from what you see and this optimization will be performed by us in the final production stage.

Useful information about LaTeX

Herbert Voß' Math mode

Explanation of the advantages of using (La)TeX for writing publications with a lot of mathematical material. Important facts about existing options and several additional LaTeX packages are described, especially AMS math. Very interesting reading for those who want to typeset mathematics correctly.

The Comprehensive LaTeX Symbol List

Document compiled by Scatt Pakin that lists over 3300 symbols and the corresponding LaTeX command to generate them.