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LaTeX tables from sc spreadsheet program

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Sterling MacNay

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Mar 8, 2002, 5:13:38 PM3/8/02
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Hello,

I am using the sc spreadsheet program and have the option of saving my
tables (spreadsheets) as "LaTeX" format. Is there a trick to importing
them into a LaTeX document? Anyone done this?

Thanks in advance.

Sterling


--
Sterling MacNay
sma...@yahoo.com

Rowland McDonnell

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Mar 13, 2002, 12:53:57 PM3/13/02
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Sterling MacNay <sma...@news1.sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I am using the sc spreadsheet program and have the option of saving my
> tables (spreadsheets) as "LaTeX" format. Is there a trick to importing
> them into a LaTeX document? Anyone done this?

[snip]

I'm not familiar with the sc program, but if it's really saving the
tables in LaTeX format, you should have a plain text file you can
manipulate just like any other plain text file: open it with a text
editor and everything should be clear.

Rowland.

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Sterling MacNay

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Mar 13, 2002, 3:34:37 PM3/13/02
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Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I have dropped you an email. If it doesn't get
through, I will reply to your post in the newsgroup. In general, I
guess I need some examples of LaTeX tables so I can see how they are
actually made.

See you later,

Rowland McDonnell

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Mar 13, 2002, 10:40:27 PM3/13/02
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Sterling MacNay <sma...@news1.sympatico.ca> wrote:

> On Wed, 13 Mar 2002 17:53:57 +0000, Rowland McDonnell
> <real-addr...@flur.bltigibbet> wrote:
> > Sterling MacNay <sma...@news1.sympatico.ca> wrote:
> >
> >> Hello,
> >>
> >> I am using the sc spreadsheet program and have the option of saving my
> >> tables (spreadsheets) as "LaTeX" format. Is there a trick to importing
> >> them into a LaTeX document? Anyone done this?
> >
> > [snip]
> >
> > I'm not familiar with the sc program, but if it's really saving the
> > tables in LaTeX format, you should have a plain text file you can
> > manipulate just like any other plain text file: open it with a text
> > editor and everything should be clear.

[snip]

> Thanks for the reply. I have dropped you an email. If it doesn't get
> through, I will reply to your post in the newsgroup. In general, I
> guess I need some examples of LaTeX tables so I can see how they are
> actually made.

Umm... The very best place to ask about this sort of thing is on this
newsgroup. I'm pretty unreliable when it comes to email (believe it or
not, I'm disabled through mental illness; that's one of the reasons I
vanish from time to time).

But, well - okay, let's get started. What LaTeX documentation have you
looked at which covers tables? I think it'd help if we had some idea
`where you're up to'. And what sort of tables do you want to create?

If you've got some software that generates tables, you should see
something looking vaguely like:

\begin{tabular}{l|c|r|l|}
lines & with & separators & thusly \\
\end{tabular}

Everything between the \begin{tabular} and \end{tabular} is the table -
all you have to do to get it into a LaTeX document is copy and paste.
You'll probably want to stick it in a table environment which means you
can put an caption on easily, get a list of tables entry automatically,
and things like that:

\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l|c|r|l|}
lines & with & separators & thusly \\
\end{tabular}
\caption{Dummy table}
\end{table}

That's the *very* basics - does it make sense so far?

Sterling MacNay

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Mar 14, 2002, 12:01:49 AM3/14/02
to
> Umm... The very best place to ask about this sort of thing is on this
> newsgroup. I'm pretty unreliable when it comes to email (believe it or
> not, I'm disabled through mental illness; that's one of the reasons I
> vanish from time to time).
>
> But, well - okay, let's get started. What LaTeX documentation have you
> looked at which covers tables? I think it'd help if we had some idea
> `where you're up to'. And what sort of tables do you want to create?
>
> If you've got some software that generates tables, you should see
> something looking vaguely like:
>
> \begin{tabular}{l|c|r|l|}
> lines & with & separators & thusly \\
> \end{tabular}
>
> Everything between the \begin{tabular} and \end{tabular} is the table -
> all you have to do to get it into a LaTeX document is copy and paste.
> You'll probably want to stick it in a table environment which means you
> can put an caption on easily, get a list of tables entry automatically,
> and things like that:
>
> \begin{table}
> \begin{tabular}{l|c|r|l|}
> lines & with & separators & thusly \\
> \end{tabular}
> \caption{Dummy table}
> \end{table}
>
> That's the *very* basics - does it make sense so far?
>

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Well, neither of my tables (*.sc and *.asc) look
much like that. I will look a little further into the saving of tables
with this program I use. I appreciate your reply and you have given me
a place to start. Thanks.

I am just learning LaTeX now and find it rather daunting.

Robert Lopez

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Mar 14, 2002, 1:35:46 PM3/14/02
to
Sterling MacNay <sma...@news1.sympatico.ca> writes:

> Well, neither of my tables (*.sc and *.asc) look
> much like that.

Perhaps you can post a few lines of your files?
--

Rowland McDonnell

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Mar 14, 2002, 2:39:17 PM3/14/02
to
Sterling MacNay <sma...@news1.sympatico.ca> wrote:

[snip]

> Thanks for the reply. Well, neither of my tables (*.sc and *.asc) look
> much like that.

What do they look like? Could you post a *short* example?

> I will look a little further into the saving of tables
> with this program I use. I appreciate your reply and you have given me
> a place to start. Thanks.

(no worries; cheers)

> I am just learning LaTeX now and find it rather daunting.

No two ways about it: it *is* hard if you've not got a convenient person
to ask about the thousand and one bits the documentation glosses over.
But if you stick with it, it'll start to come clear in the near future.

Sterling MacNay

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Mar 15, 2002, 9:37:13 AM3/15/02
to
On 14 Mar 2002 11:35:46 -0700, Robert Lopez

Hi,

Here are a few short lines of the default file (.sc)...


# This data file was generated by the Spreadsheet Calculator.
# You almost certainly shouldn't edit it.

set prescale
format A 10 2 3
format B 25 2 0
leftstring B0 = "Home Expenses Including Gas, Water, Hydro, Mortgage, Taxes,
& Insurance"
leftstring A2 = "Date"
leftstring B2 = "Payee"
leftstring C2 = "Amount"
leftstring A3 = "1/15/01"
leftstring B3 = "Union Energy"
let C3 = 17.39
leftstring A4 = "2/13/01"
let C4 = 17.39
leftstring A5 = "3/15/01"
let C5 = 17.39
leftstring A6 = "4/12/01"
let C6 = 17.39
leftstring A7 = "5/14/01"
let C7 = 17.39

---snip---


This is the same file but saved as ascii (*.asc)...


Home Expenses Including Gas, Water, Hydro, Mortgage,
Taxes, & Insurance

Date Payee Amount
1/15/01 Union Energy 17.39
2/13/01 17.39
3/15/01 17.39
4/12/01 17.39
5/14/01 17.39

---snip---

I think, from reading a bit about tables, the second example is more
usable in actually making a table?

Thanks for the help.

Sterling

Rowland McDonnell

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Mar 15, 2002, 5:11:06 PM3/15/02
to
Sterling MacNay <sma...@news1.sympatico.ca> wrote:

[snip]

> Home Expenses Including Gas, Water, Hydro, Mortgage,

> Taxes, & Insurance
>
> Date Payee Amount
> 1/15/01 Union Energy 17.39
> 2/13/01 17.39
> 3/15/01 17.39
> 4/12/01 17.39
> 5/14/01 17.39
>
> ---snip---
>
> I think, from reading a bit about tables, the second example is more
> usable in actually making a table?

If you want to do it manually, yes. One question: what documentation do
you have to help you work out how to do the job?

Adrian P. Ireland

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Mar 16, 2002, 7:31:35 AM3/16/02
to

> Hi,

> ---snip---

SNIP

You need to set sc to output as a latex table
Use the S option in sc
i> set tblstyle=latex

Then use the T option in sc to write the output to a file
i> tbl ["dest" range] " <CR>

I got this latex output from that command

% ** sc spreadsheet output
\begin{tabular}{ccccc}
&Home Expenses Including Gas, Water, Hydro, Mortgage, Taxes,
&&&\\
&&&&\\
Date&Payee&Amount&&\\
1/15/01&Union Energy& 17.39&&\\
2/13/01&& 17.39&&\\
3/15/01&& 17.39&&\\
4/12/01&& 17.39&&\\
5/14/01&& 17.39&&
\end{tabular}
% ** end of sc spreadsheet output

This is a tabular environment that you can put into your latex source file directly
or you can enclose it with
\begin{table} and \end{table}

An alternative scheme is to put the sc output file eg table.sc.lat
into your latex source directory and grab the table using \input
\input{table.sc.lat}
I did not try that line but if it does not work rename the file with a .tex extesnion and
there should be no trouble.

Adrian

Sterling MacNay

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Mar 16, 2002, 3:52:08 PM3/16/02
to
Hi,

I am looking at a few sites on the web that have "Latex manuals". They
are:

http://www.sns.it/~Help/tex/latex/TeX.htmlLaTeX
http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/

I also have a .pdf quick start manual.

Is there a GREAT site or manual I could download?

Thanks,

Sterling

Rowland McDonnell

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Mar 17, 2002, 12:41:47 AM3/17/02
to
Sterling MacNay <sma...@news1.sympatico.ca> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am looking at a few sites on the web that have "Latex manuals". They
> are:
>
> http://www.sns.it/~Help/tex/latex/TeX.htmlLaTeX
> http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/
>
> I also have a .pdf quick start manual.
>
> Is there a GREAT site or manual I could download?

[snip]

lshort from CTAN is pretty good -
http://www.ctan.org/search/?action=/index.html. There are books to buy
on LaTeX and one is well worth getting if you want to use LaTeX
extensively.

Sven Utcke

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Mar 18, 2002, 11:21:32 AM3/18/02
to
real-addr...@flur.bltigibbet (Rowland McDonnell) writes:

> lshort from CTAN is pretty good -
> http://www.ctan.org/search/?action=/index.html. There are books to buy
> on LaTeX and one is well worth getting if you want to use LaTeX
> extensively.

Actually, I would suggest getting two:

1) LaTeX, A Document Preparation System; Leslie Lamport
2) The LaTeX Companion; Goossens et.al.

You would need the first to get a good idea what LaTeX really is
about, and I recommend to really read at least the Introduction and
Chapter 1 and 2.

The second gives you a fairly good idea about what packages where out
in 1993. Alas, this is mostly usefull for _finding_ the package, and
not all of them --- using the packages might well require you to read
the documentation, which might have changed substantially since 1993
(well, the things described in the companion will almost certainly
work, but there might be better ways nowadays).

Sven
--
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| |/ /___ __ _ ___ University of Hamburg
| ' </ _ \/ _` (_-< phone: +49 (0)40 42883-2576 Vogt-Koelln-Strasse 30
|_|\_\___/\__, /__/ fax : +49 (0)40 42883-2572 D-22527 Hamburg
|___/ http://kogs-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de/~utcke/home.html

Alexis Dimitriadis

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Mar 19, 2002, 9:01:18 AM3/19/02
to

> Hi,
>
> I am looking at a few sites on the web that have "Latex manuals". They
> are:
>
> http://www.sns.it/~Help/tex/latex/TeX.htmlLaTeX
> http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/
>
> I also have a .pdf quick start manual.
>
> Is there a GREAT site or manual I could download?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Sterling

The Not-So-Short Introduction to Latex (aka lshort.tex, already suggested) is a
really good start. Beyond that it depends on whether you want to do mostly
text or equations (or tables etc).

For beginning books, I highly recommend "A Guide to LaTeX", by Kopka and Daly,
over Lamport's book. It's better organized and more complete.

For general command reference, you can also bookmark
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/latex/ltx-2.html.

Alexis

Sterling MacNay

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Mar 19, 2002, 11:11:19 AM3/19/02
to

Hello,

Thanks for the suggestions. I am sure I will be learning LaTeX for some
time. Not only LaTeX but vim as well. The joys of a refreshing OS with
lots of free options. I am so glad to be out of MS Win stuff.

Thanks again.

Sven Utcke

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Mar 20, 2002, 7:56:43 AM3/20/02
to
ale...@babel.ling.upenn.edu (Alexis Dimitriadis) writes:

> For beginning books, I highly recommend "A Guide to LaTeX", by Kopka
> and Daly, over Lamport's book. It's better organized and more
> complete.

To give you a second opinion: I _hate_ Kopka's books (in as much as
hate can be felt towards books). It usually takes me _ages_ to find
anything in Kopka, only to see that it is described other incompletely
or plain wrong.

But then, I also disliked K&R as a book for learning C (or for any
other purpose. It doesn't even serve well as a doorstop)...

Peter Flynn

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Mar 25, 2002, 5:23:01 PM3/25/02
to sma...@yahoo.com
Sterling MacNay wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am looking at a few sites on the web that have "Latex manuals". They
> are:
>
> http://www.sns.it/~Help/tex/latex/TeX.htmlLaTeX
> http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/
>
> I also have a .pdf quick start manual.
>
> Is there a GREAT site or manual I could download?

Try my draft at http://www.silmaril.ie/documents/beginlatex.pdf
Comments and suggestions welcomed.

///Peter

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