THI-LaTeX-thesis-template

This repository holds a working copy of Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt University's (THI's) LaTeX thesis template which can be used as quick starting point for writing your Thesis using LaTeX.

Tip for beginners

I, myself didn't have any prior experience with Latex before I began to start writing my Thesis report. So, to get acquainted with what Latex is all about and to learn the A, B, C, D,... of Latex, I picked this excellent quick read book on Amazon which just takes approximately 1 hour to read from cover-to-cover. I highly recommend this book for beginners who do not have any prior experience with Latex.

Getting started

In my opinion one of the most difficult task is getting started easily and quickly with the tool one has to work with, which is not an easy task as there are many tools available ranging from online tools like Overleaf to offline tools like TexMaker and more. The reason I bring this forth here is because I had my share of difficulty getting started. From my experience I have found that TexMaker to be the most comfortable one which pre-installs most of the standard packages required and hence streamlining the setup process.

I myself have written my thesis report on Linux OS for which the TexMaker app is readily available in the ubuntu app-store. But, the app is also available for Windows and MacOsX OS's, so, that is comfortable if you want to follow some additional information that follows here regarding setup across any operating systems.

IDE is not all that is needed

TexMaker here is just an IDE (Integrated Digital Environment) that helps us create and work with latex documents. To actually install latex i.e. get the required libraries we need to install them. This installation process is different for windows and linux, so choose one below-

1. If you are going to work on a Windows machine, all you need to do is install MikTex
2. If you are going to work on a Ubuntu machine, you can install latex libraries by following this article

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To get started, clone this repository to have it locally available for your use or if you are okay with having your report online publically available, you can fork this repository and work upon it.

$> cd Documents
$> git clone https://github.com/logicatcore/THI-LaTeX-thesis-template.git

Once the files are available, the next step is to start TexMaker and build a sample pdf right away to make sure that everything is working and you have your setup ready. Follow the following steps-

• Open TexMaker
• File > Open > Documents/THI-LaTeX-thesis-template/thesis.tex

This opens up the main entry point to your report, if you are familiar with programming, this particular tex file is similiar to the main() function which gets called automatically.

Now it is time to check if everything works and to do that just click on the Quick Build button in the top toolbar. After a couple of seconds, the newly built pdf should show up in the in built pdf viewer.

Configuring Quick Build settings

It is important to know what the Quick Build button is doing. Simply put, the button in turn runs a combination of commands with each combination having a specific meaning and purpose.

Having not tampered with the settings so far the Quick Build settings can be inspected by going to Option > Configure Texmaker > Quick Build. This shows the various pre built commands which can be selected to configure TexMaker to run those sequence of commands upon clicking the Quick Build button.

• PdfLaTeX + view PDF is the most leightweight command i.e. takes less time to build your pdf document but it ends up using the previously generated auxilliary files which results in the final PDF not reflecting the changes that you have made or require to happen.
• PdfLaTeX + BibLaTeX + PdfLaTeX(x2) + view PDF is a detailed version which generates the bibliography auxilliary files on the first pass and the later PdfLaTeX commands use the auxilliary files to establish links and references in your PDF document.
• Finally here comes a user defined command that I spent a lot of time to get it working correctly and now I am glad to share with you so that you do not have to break your head all over again! As you might have noticed in the last command there was only one new command i.e. BibLaTeX which successfully handles all the bibliography needs. But, in the present state of this thesis template which has been improved upon by me can also generate nomenclature page, Glossary and Acronym page in the report preamble. In order to triger these couple of pages also to be built, add the following command pdfLaTeX -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|bibtex %.aux|makeglossaries %|makeindex %.nlo -s nomencl.ist -o %.nls|pdfLaTeX -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|pdfLaTeX -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|evince %.pdf in the User field and use this for building your final PDF versions or use it ocasionally like after completing one chapter or one section.

Saving the workspace i.e. session

It is good to know that the present state of your workspace i.e. all the files that you have open and are visible in the Structure can be quickly saved to again start from that point the next day where you stopped working the day before. To do that just goto File > Session > Save Session > choose-where-you-want-to-save

When the PDF is not updating as you expected

There might be situations when you make some changes and build your PDF but the PDF behaves like a stubborn little child and refuses to reflect the changes that you've made. This is caused because, LaTeX acts samrtly sometimes and doesn't compile all the auxilliary files again which in turn does not lead to updation of PDF document.

So, if you ever face the following situation I suggest you to run the clear_misc_files.sh bash script which just removes all the auxilliary files and hence force LaTeX to compile all of them again.

To run it do the following-

1. On Linux based machines

$> chmod +x clear_misc_files.sh
$> ./clear_misc_files.sh

2. On Windows based machines - Just double click the clear_misc_files.bat file to run the command which deletes all the irrelevant files

Credits

I should however note that this particular $\LaTeX$ template is thanks to Prof. Dr. Andreas Riener at THI. My contributions to this particular template are-

1. Delivering it in a working and upto-date condition
2. Addition of Glossary and Acronym sections and the compilation command needed
3. Bringing the Glossary, Acronym, List of Figures, and List of Tables sections to the beginning of the document
4. Usage instruuctions i.e. this README file

If any questions arrise, please do not hesitate to create an issue and I will try my best to help you!