LaTeX

Punctuation

Quotation Marks

Use `` for the left mark, and two apostrophes for the right.

Hyphens/Dashes

• Hyphens separate the parts of a compound word. Use a single '-', without spaces.
• Endashes separate the bounds of a range, usually numerics. Use two '-' characters, without spaces.
• Emdashes separate distinct thoughts. Use three '-' characters, without spaces.
• Minus signs are a mathematical entity. Use a single '-' in math mode.

Periods

To get correct spacing:

• Use ".\ " if the period does not end the sentence.
• Use "\@. " if the period ends the sentence, and follows a capital letter.

Ellipses

Use \ldots (or \cdots for line-centered dots).

• Don't use three periods (bad spacing) or the Unicode character '…' (HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS, U+2026).
• What about \dots? fixme

Tildes

Generally, \textasciitilde{} is the way to go. In math mode, use \sim.

• When typesetting a url, the url and hyperref packages handle tildes properly.

Backslashes

Use \textbackslash{} to render a backslash in text.

Lists

Enclose bulleted lists within a \begin{itemize} and \end{itemize} block. Each element is preceded by \item.

• enumerate will give numbers instead of bullets
• description generates labeled items. Provide each label in square brackets: \item[label]

Appearance

Fonts

• Bold: \textbf{boldfaced text}
• Italics: \textit{italicized text} (it is advised to end most italicized sequences with "\/")
• Monospace: \texttt{typewriter-stylized text}

Spacing

• The default margins are generally 1.5" or more, more suitable for books than other documents. For 1" margins, add \usepackage{fullpage}.
• Double-spacing can be achieved (in the main body) via \usepackage{doublespace}
  • Return to single-spacing via \begin{singlespace} and \end{singlespace} blocks.
• \vfill, \vspace{amount} and \pagebreak

Special Forms

To include monospaced documents (code, emails, etc) use \VerbatimInput on a filename argument. This requires the moreverb package.

• Important attributes include frame, framerule, and label

Unicode

Basic LaTeX doesn't support UTF-8 beyond expanding macros based on lexical sequences. If this is intended, use the utf8 parameter to the inputenc package. XeTeX aims to be a fully Unicode-aware TeX engine.

Checkers

Of these, ChkTeX seems more fully-featured than lacheck. Neither is actively maintained.

• ChkTeX
  • Watch out for some idiosyncrasies of ChkTeX. In particular, its error #38 is a false positive using the standard rules of American English.
  • Rule emission can be controlled with command-line options or ~/.chktexrc; I use -n 38.
• lacheck

See Also

• StackOverflow post, "Entering Unicode characters in LaTeX"
• Martin J. Osborne's "Common (La)TeX errors"
• MIT's "Essential LaTeX on Athena (AC-50)"