SCIENTIFIC DESKTOP PUBLISHING TOOLS
This guide is for SOEST Publication Services editors preparing manuscripts and desktop publishers preparing camera-ready copy for journals and monographs, for SOEST faculty and graduate student researchers preparing their own papers; and for researchers from other institutions preparing contributions to the A'ha Huliko'a Winter Workshop Proceedings series. Manuscripts we receive are either in LaTeX or Microsoft Word (or a form that can be converted to Word). Solutions to Word problems are easy to find; there are hundreds of books, manuals, and magazine articles published on Microsoft Word. Solutions to problems in LaTeX are where they've always been, spread all over the internet on personal pages of users and researchers, mostly at academic and research institutions.
This guide compiles useful sources for scientific desktop publishing in the most used word and text processors. Most of these resources are for LaTeX problems because, for all but experts, they're the most difficult to solve and the hardest to find. Criteria for page/site selection are
1. The site is useful, as ranked from • to •••••, to LaTeX novices or experienced users of Word.
2. The site is the only or the most direct access to the information.
3. The site is one of several access points but has a summary of information or other useful links.
Contents
Scientific Desktop Publishing Software Sources
Equation Editors--For Print and for Web Pages
Converters From Other Software to or From LaTeX and to HTML
Help with LaTeX Problems
Templates and Style Files for Earth Science Journals
Templates and Style Files for the A'ha Huliko'a Winter Workshop Proceedings
Scientific Desktop Publishing Software Sources
TeX and LateX: A Compiler and Macros
•••••
Who, When, What, Where, Why? The TeX Users Group (TUG) are bearers and sharers of TeX and LaTeX. This comprehensive site is rich in tools and thoughtful content. Pointers to Frequently Asked Questions describe the relationship of TeX (Just What is Tex?) to the macros (packages). Free and Shareware (and commercial) implementations are listed and linked. TeX and all available packages are available on the TeX Live CD, with instructions for installation on Unix and Windows platforms for the price of membership in TUG ($65 for individuals, $35 for students). http://www.tug.org/LaTeX for PC
••••
PCTeX Version 4.0. After years of resisting any involvement with LaTeX and Unix users, I decided 3 years ago to test my first Pentium with PCTeX from Personal TeX Inc. I'm glad I waited for the speed and convenience of this Windows implementation. http://www.pctex.com .•••
The Cognitive Nexus led me to many PC and LaTeX implementations I didn't know about and reviews of shareware with possible real utility to desktop publishing.••
The TrueTex implementation includes font editing features for expert users as well as 114 scalable TrueType fonts for all Computer Modern and AMS typefaces. A discussion of True Type font editing extends an invitation for interested, capable users to participate in beta testing of ttf_edit. http://truetex.com/•
More PC LaTeX implementations. The Y&Y TeX System for Windows http://www.YandY.com/ . Still another I didn't know about is VTeX (for Visual TeX); its EqMagic editor is free at http://www.micropress-inc.com/enfeat.htmLaTeX for Macintosh
••
Blue Sky Research's Textures is a Macintosh TeX/LaTex. I didn't know about this publisher before, and an equally interesting product on their list is Mathsetter, which sets perfect equations in QuarkXPress, a solution to a problem we (Publication Services, SOEST0) are likely to have as we do more and more inhouse publishing of users' manuals that are heavily illustrated with screen shots. http://www.bluesky.com/ .See a 1995 review of this software by William D. Walker at http://www.ihp.jussieu.fr/informatique/logiciels/Textures-man/textures.html•
CMacTeX is an integrated suite of programs for implementing TeX on the Macintosh. It only runs on the Power Macintosh (and this site does discuss the problems of Macintosh implementation) with LaTex2e updated to December 1998. This is a $35 shareware from Thomas Kiffe <tom@kiffe.com, P.O. Box 516, College Station, TX 77841, and the site was last updated: April 10, 1999. http://www.kiffe.com/cmactex.html•
Mac Tools for TeX/LaTeX lists and reviews features of many Mac implementations and converters at http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/tools.html•
TeX Converters for Macintosh is a current (1999) site describing several freeware downloadable to-LaTex converters. http://omlc.ogi.edu/software/tex_convert/index.html
Equation Editors--For Print and for Web Pages ••••
•••
MathType from Design Science Inc. is the full equation editor of which you only see a subset in Microsoft Word or Word Perfect. In the hands of an expert (yes, I am), this software can yield equations as lovely as LaTeX. Version 4.0 features include drag-and-drop and translators for other applications, including the MathML translator for Web presentation. http://www.mathtype.com/default.stm•
Scientific Word, Scientific Notebook, and Scientific Workplace help you create LaTeX documents with text and mathematics using natural notation--all without any special codes or equation editor windows. (Scientific Notebook currently offers a free 30-day trial; I am currently testing Scientific Word 3.0). http://www.mackichan.com/products/prodinfor.html .•
Thomas Rutherford tells how to get and use HTeX: A Simple LaTeX Interface for Web Documents in a "simple procedure through which the equations in a document can be formatted with LaTeX while all other aspects of the document would be generic html." http://robles.colorado.edu/~tomruth/htex.htm•
A Free WebEQ 2.3 Evaluation Version, valid for 30 days, contains most of the software from the authors, server, and professional editions of this software for math-intensive web pages. http://www.webeq.com/Converters From Other Software to or From LaTeX and to HTML
••
Conversion FAQ'S about mathedit, texport, and publishing companion discusses problems and packages to convert mathematical material between Mac/PC word processors and LaTeX.•
Wilfried Hennings' FAQ Overview of Converters from LaTeX to PC Textprocessors and PC to LaTeX also includes the software download links (updated April 1999).•••••
UK TeX Users Group Frequently Asked Questions. The current version is about a year old, but it's a great overview for us novices: it's searchable, it links to user groups, it lists books, it discusses topics from How to Pronounce LaTeX2e to Making Acrobat documents from LaTeX.•••••
OLC Stock Answers is the OnLine Consulting help page from Iowa State University. Although some of the answers are specific to devices in their own computer network, this is a nicely indexed page of answers to LaTeX questions about , e.g., using graphics, changing the formats, and there are short examples. (I'm searching for an equivalent from UH's ITS-but haven't found one yet).••••
TeX: The DTP Alternative-journalist Scott Nesbitt's brief overview article from ComputerEdge explains why LaTeX is a major tool of desktop publishing. In addition to links to more vendors of PC LaTeX implementations that I didn't know about, he includes other essays--some on computers and the internet, some on all sorts of other things.•••
tex-faq compiles 49 LaTex implementation solutions from the comp.text.tex newsgroup. The page is not dated, but it's well organized and well documented. . It has archived older versions of a LaTeX Newsletter (in postscript format).•••
Lycos' Subject Guide on LaTeX. The good links are very good; the others are--well--not. (E.g., the first link is "still under construction"--since 1994; one link, Gregor's Guide, dead-ended me into oblivion twice (avoid it!); and one link couldn't connect.) There are, however, some excellent sources I didn't see anywhere else, e.g., the La(TeX) navigator. And the LaTeX Info and links item is dated 1997 and a good page.••
A TeX Help Page from UH math department; this again links to the oft-cited tutorial, to a LaTeX newsletter and other sources. It's dated 1997 but I'd like to see pages like this come up from other UH users.••
Postscript pictures. How do I easily incorporate postscript pictures into my documents? This is an example of how pages are well titled, and yes, the answer is there with a coded example.•
How can I learn LaTeX2e / LaTeX? This page is an example of how a helpful, exact title can guide searchers to information. However, some of the contents are either site-specific or outdated; this page links to an oft-cited tutorial.•
Usenet. Use the Advanced Search in Yahoo and select Usenet at the query box--the returns are just a taste of how many groups there are, e.g., one of the entries is Microsoft Word 97 Vs. Latex2e?, a query about whether equations translate better in one than the other. Yahoo pinpoints the start of the thread, and for anyone with lots more time than I have, it would be fun to follow it. The topic of this query is absolutely pertinent to this guide. http://x42.deja.com/=yahoo/getdoc.xp?AN=481429804&search=thread&CONTEXT=928789561.772472859&HIT_CONTEXT=928789561.77247<a href=Newsgroups: comp.text.tex , comp.answers , news.answers
Templates and Style Files for Earth Science Journals •••••
http://earth.agu.org/pubs/pubs.html
•••••
Patrick W. Daly's local LaTeX files contain his AGU++ (aguplus) files, including the readme file. The agutex files can also be downloaded from here. (And this page was updated May 21, 1999!) Helmut Kopka and Daly are the authors of Guide to Latex2e : Document Preparation for Beginners and Advanced Users, Addison-Wesley, 1999, my indispensable reference book.••
American Meteorological Society (AMS) journals (Journal of Climate, Journal of Physical Oceanography, Monthly Weather Review, and others): These journals do not accept camera-ready manuscripts because they re-key everything in with SGML to accommodate their print, online, and CD versions. However, they do have a comprehensive and long-established set of style and format standards that apply to all their journals. Their guidelines are available at this site. http://www.ametsoc.org/AMS/pubs/ag_docs/ag_mainpage.html••
Elsevier journals (Deep-Sea Research, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Marine Geology, Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Progress in Oceanography, Quaternary Science Reviews, Tectonophysics) require disks submitted with accepted manuscripts. Find instructions to authors for format and submission requirements submissions at this site. http://www.elsevier.nl/homepage/authors.htt.••
Springer guidelines differ for books and journals, and formats vary among the journals. This site is the starting point for Word templates and LaTeX style files for both books and journals.
Templates and Style Files for the A'ha Huliko'a Winter Workshop Proceedings
A'ha Huliko'a Winter Workshop Proceedings contributions use a chapter style based on the AGU journal style for the Journal of Geophysical Research, because many authors use it regularly and it's an adaptable, logical format. However, instead of using the one-column format that would normally be submitted to the journal, we use a version similar to the 2-column preprint style; it has a wider one-column abstract at the beginning, followed by 2-column text.
•••••
The agutex package for LaTeX users, it first requires downloading from the AGU site. http://www.agu.org/pubs/agutex.html.•••••
The unofficial aguplus package for the wide-abstract, 2-column format we use can be found on all the CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) mirror sites http://www.ctan.org/ . Also on•••
CTAN Brief Catalogue of the archive can be searched at http://www.ctan.org/ctan-search.html .For Microsoft Word users, the template will be available later at a SOEST web site; it's available now by e-mail from pubslib@soest.hawaii.edu.
••••
Recommended books links include the usual TeX and LaTeX textbooks at the end of the list, but it was such a good compilation of other books of interest to me, I've posted it here!•••
Online Internet and PC Webopedia. Check out the term LaTeX (picked from the index); one of the sublinks under the term is LaTeX and TeX resources, a comprehensive site, a few resources from there are already mentioned elsewhere on this page. http://webopedia.internet.com/WebopaediaIndex.html••
Tips on scientific publishing online and how to do files in PDF. This link applied to a particular conference proceedings but has useful parts. http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/publ-tips.html••
The New AGU formatting helpdesk was updated Mar 23, 1999; this site is very responsive to e-mail queries.••
Electronic Publishing for Physicists. This page is a few years old, but it has discussion sections about file types, and a table of possible conversion (some outdated). I'm always looking for short, understandable pieces on conversions, written by someone who has tried them. Solutions for LaTex, Word and WordPerfect are included.••
My indispensable ocean acronym list has recently been revised to load a (slow) query form at the start; I preferred its old format as being more browsable, but it's still the best compilation I've found. http://toast.pmel.noaa.gov/admin/scripts/acronyms.plxDi Henderson
Publication Services, SOEST
6/17/99