All papers and theses should be written using LaTex, which is not that hard to learn the basics.

Setup

For Windows machines:

• Download and install MiKTeX, here.

Make sure you download and install it first!

• Then download TeXnicCenter, here. This is the program that I like to use and can help you out with if you have problems. There are other programs that are also open source, including one that comes with the MiKTeX installation file. Feel free to use any program that you like.
• Download TeXAide for an easy to use GUI equation editor. After creating your equation you can simply cut and paste from TeXaide into TeXnicCenter.

If MiKTeX is installed first then TeXnicCenter should recognize it during the installation and you should be all set. Word is a WYSIWYG program, while LaTeX is a typeset program in which you are compiling code to create a .pdf. It takes a little while to get use to LaTeX, but there are a ton of resources online to help you.

General Formatting

• All drawings should be done in Corel Draw. This allows others in the lab to make changes if necessary.
• Draw your figures the correct size for the publication. This allows you to ensure the fonts sizes are correct and uniform across all of your figures.
• From Corel Draw choose "Publish to PDF" in the File menu. If you make sure that the paper size is just big enough to fit your drawing, then you should be fine. Otherwise open your .pdf file and select Crop (ctrl-shift-t) to remove the white edges spaces from you figure.

A few useful tips and techniques.

• The wikipedia entry for TeX is here.
• Set the output of TeXnicCenter to output .pdf files (as opposed to .dvi or .ps files). This can be set in a white box pull-down menu.
• LaTeX uses BibTeX to create the reference. Wikipedia has a great description of BibTex.
• You have to build the file three times to get the references correct.