BibTeX & LaTeX

What is LaTeX?

LaTeX is a free multi-platform markup language for typesetting documents, allowing professional formatting of .tex files. The source code in the .tex files generates printable PDFs that comply with the editorial and typographical standards.

The TeX language was created in 1977 by Donald Knuth. LaTeX, created by Leslie Ramport in 1985, simplified TeX by including macro packages.

The structured documents in LaTeX are WYSIWYM (What You See Is What You Mean), unlike Microsoft Word, a WYSIWYG (What You See Is what You Get) word processor.

Why LaTeX? Click here.

There are several types of files associated with LaTeX:

- .tex: LaTeX or TeX file that describes the structure and the presentation of the document;

- .bst: bibliographic style for in-text citations and bibliography (ex.: IEEEtran.bst);

- .bib: file (also called database) containing the bibliographic references;

- .sty: package (macro), containing extra LaTeX commands, which is loaded with \usepackage (ex.: ieeetrantools.sty);

- .cls: class, which controls the formatting of the document and is selected with \documentclass (ex.: ieeetran.cls, beamer: LaTeX class for creating slides and presentations, etc.).

• See other Common file extensions in LaTeX.

See the Publishing a Thesis or Dissertation guide for templates, the Guide for Presenting Theses and Dissertations and for information on theses and dissertations by articles.

• The Association of Computing Machinery (ACM & FSE)
• The American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Elsevier
• IEEE
  • Check out the IEEE LaTeX Analyzer
• The ACM Primary article template for LaTeX
• PLOS One
• The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Science Magazine

We recommend Overleaf, a very popular online no-installation-necessary LaTeX editor, which provides for sharing projects and collaborating.

To work locally and not online, users need to install an editor and a TeX distribution. We recommend the MiKTeX distribution, which includes:
     ⦁ TeXworks, a multi-platform text editor to create and compile .tex documents;
     ⦁ A program to install add-on packages;
     ⦁ A PDF reader. (If this one does not work well, try the free reader SumatraPDF.)

TeXworks interface is available in French and can be displayed with: Edit → Preferences ... → General → Local Interface: French.
To check the available packages in MiKTeX, click Start → Package Manager. To install other packages, select them and choose Task → Install.
If necessary, install additional packages (ex.: macros .sty). Consult the Comprehensive TeX Archive Net­work (CTAN), which includes over 6,500 packages.

Other TeX distributions and editors for Windows, Mac and Linux exist: WinEdt (which supports the "automatic translation", for example, from "é" to "\'e", and so the resulting LaTeX file is portable), Texmaker, TeXstudio, LyX, MacTeX, etc.

Do not use accents or spaces in the name of .tex files!

How to write some special symbols and accented letters:

• uppercase letters: {IEEE}
• nonbreak space: ~\cite{Thornton2012}
• French accents: \accentletter *

Ex.: don\'ee; r\`eglement; \'Ecole; h\^opital; d\^iner; \`a faire; \`A Montr\'eal

(* The package inputenc: \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} recognizes accented letters, so they can be typed directly: é, à, etc.)

Warning! Some packages can be incompatible with one another. Consult the documentation of each package you use.

For more information, consult the recommended books and websites.

Open MyDocument.tex to see a concrete example.

• Produce a reference list with references cited in the text

• Produce a bibliography including references that have not been cited in the text

• Compilation

For error messages and troubleshooting, consult LaTex and Friends (pp. 35-37), Overleaf - Errors and LaTeX/Errors and Warnings.

Example:

• Download the files MyDocument.tex and MyReferences.bib in the folder that contains the files of the style you would like to use (here, in the same folder as IEEEtran, IEEEtran BibTeX, and the files from the package IEEEtrantools LaTeX);

• Download the files MyIEEEabrvconf.bib and MyIEEEfullconf.bib in the same folder. (For more information about these files, refer to the box IEEE Abreviations for Conferences under the BibTeX tab.);

• Open MonDocument.tex in TeXworks;

• Compile it following the steps described in the Compilation box below and the file MonDocument.pdf, including a reference list, will be created.

NOTE: MyDocument.tex and MyReferences.bib include many comments (%) that explain the command lines.

The two files can be used as templates for creating other .tex documents and .bib files in TeXworks with File → New from Template...