New tufte-latex explorer wanting to write book, some questions

[Adil Sarıbay]

I am an inexperienced latex user. I like playing around and figuring it out and I LOVE the way latex renders look. I recently found out the tufte-latex book template and want to start writing my book with it in TexStudio.

I am now slowly adapting the contents of the template but I want to get to the writing. Since I'm not so fluent in latex, the code slows me down a bit.  But I still somehow enjoy writing in LaTeX and the output really motivates me to write more.

So:
1) Most importantly:  I got attracted to tufte-latex because of the sidenotes.  However, I do not want my references to appear in the sidenote as in the original template.  I only want a brief version of the reference to appear and then I want a full bibliography at the end (like APA style, if you are familiar with that).

For instance: I cite a book[superscript number appears]
On the side margin: [superscript number](Smith & Trope, 2006)
In the bibliography:

Smith, P. K., & Trope, Y. (2006). You focus on the forest when you're in charge of the trees: power priming and abstract information processing. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(4), 578.

If I can do this without much pain, then I really want to use tufte-latex because it looks gorgeous.  Otherwise, giving the full biblio info each time I refer to the same source would just be too inefficient and I don't want that.

Some less important questions:
2) Do you actually type your book straight into your latex IDE or do you first type it into somewhere else and then copy paste and tag the text?

3) Using beautiful fonts really inspires me to write so let me know if you have used alternative fonts with tufte-latex. I've never used an alternative font in latex before, hopefully it is easy to install and specify (but I will google around for that).

4) I plan to use my Mendeley library to get Latex citation commands and then just create a bibtex file with all the references I use. Hopefully this works well with tufte-latex. Should I be cautious about this or use a different method for keeping track of citations and generating a bibliography?

5) I plan to rely on pdflatex but let me know if I should figure out another method.

Let me know any tricks if you have experience writing a book with tufte-latex. It looks great and I'm very excited but a bit scared. If you think I can't accomplish what I want with it, then feel free to recommend another elegant book template. Thanks in advance.

[Eduardo Mercovich]

Dear Adil.

> I am an inexperienced latex user. I like playing around and figuring
> it out and I LOVE the way latex renders look. I recently found out the
> tufte-latex book template and want to start writing my book with it in

> TexStudio. [...]

While not at all an experienced LaTeX user, I can still very much
recommend to explore org-mode as authoring environment/metatool. It makes
writing super fluid, references easy and writes correct latex. Even
more, it allows you to embed latex directly if you need that at any
moment.

While it adds to your starting complexity, it pays off in orders of
magnitude in the years to come for this and many other information
related tasks including research, of course.

HTH. :)

Best...


--
eduardo mercovich

Donde se cruzan tus talentos
con las necesidades del mundo,
ahí está tu vocación.

[Adil Sarıbay]

 Dear Eduardo,

I don't understand what I need org-mode for (what it is) and how it relates to my questions.  I'm actually really worried because I feel like, as you said, it will add a whole another layer of complexity to my current situation.  I do want to make things efficient in the long run, but I also want to capitalize on my energy to start writing the book now. 

I looked at the org-mode site and at first glance, I really didn't understand what it is and how it would make my life easier compared to Texstudio.  If you don't mind, can you say a few words about it. 

Best.

[Adil Sarıbay]

By the way, I'm not even sure what emacs is. I've heard it a lot but the console like appearance kinda scares me :-)

[Dan Abell]

Emacs is just a text editor.

But it's a fairly sophisticated one,

favored by programmers. Me, I prefer

Vim (or NeoVim), which is favored by

other programmers. But that's a total

flame war that could engulf nations.

For now, stick with TeXStudio.

Most importantly, focus on writing.

All else is design, which you should

not worry about until much later.

Best Regards,

-Dan

On 9 Jun 2016, at 12:15, Adil Sarıbay <adil.s...@gmail.com> wrote:

By the way, I'm not even sure what emacs is. I've heard it a lot but the console like appearance kinda scares me :-)

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[David Garbutt]

Hi

I will put in a word for Lyx, it s how I have built all my tufte-latex files.
Free, cross platform GUI with lots of great features for writing. It hides most of the LaTeX so I find it easier to write in, because I don't get distracted by fiddling with markup all the time.
It makes it easy to switch from using pdflatex to XeTeX ( which can use all your system fonts).

You might also like the web tools that allow iPad editing too. Texpad, and bah, it's late I forget the name.

Dave

Sent with Unibox

[Dan Abell]

I know others who swear by Lyx. But I advise against it.

It'd be easy to start a proper flame war on this topic,

so I'll just point out that plenty of people populate the

two sides. For some thoughts on this subject, see

  http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/197765/what-is-the-difference-between-lyx-and-latex

and

  http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/28822/can-i-think-of-lyx-as-a-latex-ide

and

  other sites any reasonable Google search suggests.

I am definitely in the camp that says "LyX uses it's own

file format, and sooner or later you'll find it gets in

the way of addressing some problem that the helpful, nay

*wonderful*, folks at tex.stackexchange help you solve."

Best Regards,

-Dan

[Adil Sarıbay]

Hi all, thanks for the opinions.  I checked out lyx yesterday and I, like some of you, also got the opinion that it shouldn't be considered a latex IDE. Lyx is a good solution but I think I would like to just dive into pure latex instead.  I feel that's better for the long run.

So, my real question is not about lyx or emacs, as I can't afford to switch environments at this point, though I appreciate those pointers.

My questions are more about how to use tufte-latex in the way I want, especially with the references.  Can anyone envision whether this is possible?  Otherwise, I will have to give up this beautiful template for something else. 

cheers!

[Eduardo Mercovich]

Hi Adil.

> I don't understand what I need org-mode for (what it is) and how it

> relates to my questions. [...]

DISCLAIMER: this is just a reply to your questions. I'm not at all
trying to convince anyone to use it or even less going into a flame war
(that I don't grokk since each one has it's own preferences). It's just
that I use it and now anything else seems... just not enough.

Emacs is just the platform, forget about it.

Org-mode -is simply put- a great tool to write. Just opening the org-mode
box you have:

+ an efficient outliner (expand, collapse, rearrange, focus, etc.).

+ simple but powerful structural and semantic markup.

+ versatile comments by line, region or branch, etc.

+ powerful editing abilities (automagic expansions, corrections,
linking, transposing, etc.)

+ great latex (and other formats) export: solid, documented and clear.

All this contributes to a super sleek writing flow. The tool never get's
in your way at all, but silently supports you. And can keep doing it
while you grow since it's highly customizable.

Also, the "terminal" appearance is only if you use it through a
terminal: I have it in a desktop window and use my selected fonts and
colors so there is absolutely no legacy look here. And I'm no programmer
(I studied Biology), and there are other writers out there that found it
useful. :)

Again, just to clarify. If it doesn't help, just leave it. :D

[Adil Sarıbay]

Hi Eduardo,

No worries, I really appreciate your taking time to turn me on to a tool that you benefit from.  It's too much for now but I will keep org-mode in mind and try to install and play around with it when I can.

By the way, I think I have a solution to my biggest problem with tufte-latex, though I have yet to implement it:

\documentclass[nobib]{tufte-book}

This removes the side bibliography.

\sidenote{\cite{Tufte2006,Tufte1990}}

And this enables dropping simpler citations in the side margin.

cheers!

[Eduardo Mercovich]

Hi Adil.

> No worries, I really appreciate your taking time to turn me on to a
> tool that you benefit from. It's too much for now but I will keep
> org-mode in mind and try to install and play around with it when I
> can.

Great. There is no hurry, each thing has it's time. ;)

> By the way, I think I have a solution to my biggest problem with
> tufte-latex, though I have yet to implement it:
> \documentclass[nobib]{tufte-book}
> This removes the side bibliography.
> \sidenote{\cite{Tufte2006,Tufte1990}}

Yes, I vaguely remember this... Did you find it in the documentation?

> And this enables dropping simpler citations in the side margin.

Please tell us if/how it works for you, so someone with similar
requirements can find your experience and benefit from it. :)

[Adil Sarıbay]

  I found a stackexchange post that just had the code I just gave and a friend helped me add the other code (including cite with sidenote).  I tried this and it works.  I now just need to figure out how to use a different style of reference (I use the APA style) instead of the default one that comes with tufte-latex.  And then ---I'm sure I'll have many other obstacles along the way but---- I'll be ready to start typing away my book.  So, exciting.

[David Garbutt]

> On 10 Jun 2016, at 04:30, Dan Abell <dab...@txcorp.com> wrote:
>
> "LyX uses it's own
> file format, and sooner or later you'll find it gets in
> the way of addressing some problem that the helpful, nay
> *wonderful*, folks at tex.stackexchange help you solve."

I do not think this is strictly true, as I understand it:
1) it is a text file
2) it is true Latex, with some Lyx defined macros added
So it should ( and does in my experience) compile with direct tools as well.

But it is true that if you get to the stage of programming LaTeX or TeX and use many exotic packages you can get problems. For example poemscol, or Tabu.
One of many plus points is that it can take a (LyX) document and create a compressed archive with all includes and images together. This is a great feature that saves a lot of work.

Dave

[David Garbutt]

Hi,

It is worth noting for Mac users that Aquamacs is the Emacs version that integrates best on the Mac.

Dave

Sent from my iPad