Suggestions

Here are suggestions by readers for adding in a next edition or ebook updates. You can send them by email to stefan@latex.org. I will add first quick thoughts here.

It would be great to see how to add annotations to pictures, such as arrows or text over it.

I wrote a recipe in the LaTeX Cookbook, Chapter 4, Working with Images. I used the onimage package and the code was like this:

\documentclass[demo]{article}% demo option for dummy images, remove it
\usepackage{onimage}
% http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~tex-sx/tex-sx/development/view/head:/onimage.dtx
\tikzset{annotations/.style={
  tsx/show help lines,% comment out or delete to remove the grid
  every path/.append style={very thick,color=yellow},
  every node/.append style={yellow,font=\bfseries\sffamily}}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzonimage}[width=.8\textwidth]{filename}[annotations]
  \draw[dashed] (0.59,0.71)  -- (0.86,0.12)
                (0.634,0.71) -- (0.86,0.12);
  \draw[dotted] (0.56,0.85)  -- (0.86,0.12)
                (0.66,0.85)  -- (0.86,0.12);
  \draw (0.3,0.4) edge[->] (0.68,0.4)
        (0.3,0.4) edge[->] (0.3,0.93);
  \node[rotate=90] at (0.28,0.8)  {height};
  \node            at (0.62,0.35) {velocity};
\end{tikzonimage}
\end{document}

With a picture of my dog, I got:

Drawing over an image

Explanation is in the LaTeX Cookbook. Other ways would be using TikZ and the overlay option, or the overpic package. Solutions with TikZ and onimage are also on TeXwelt.de (sorry, in German).

It would help to explain how to compile with LaTeX at the command line, without an editor.

I’ll see what I can add here on the website.

Some additional tipps for writers facing a submission deadline would be good.

Indeed, quick thoughts:

  • Make backup copies frequently on USB drive or other media. If your computer fails or the harddrive has an issue or the software damages your file, that would be bad.
  • If the deadline is near, don’t update your TeX installation or packages. Generally updating is good, but better don’t risk an issue right before a deadline.
  • Don’t google too much, you can simply ask the fellow users on LaTeX.org. Google often delivers old outdated information as the first “established” results.
  • To be continued. 🙂