LaTeX Help & Discussion

I am unsure if anyone here is familiar with the software used for typesetting mathematical formulas. I need to complete my thesis using this system. Previously, I wrote my thesis in Word by using MathType to generate LaTeX code. I imported that code into TeX Live 2.8 and attempted to compile it using pdfLaTeX + BibTeX, but the resulting PDF failed to render standard American characters properly. I have spent time researching how to fix this—trying to manually adjust symbols and adding various \usepackage[english]{babel} commands I found online—but every attempt results in an immediate error. Furthermore, my images aren't displaying, even after converting them from JPG to PS.

Does anyone have guidance on whether I must restart this entire project from scratch, or if there is a way to salvage my current work? If there is a professional available to handle this, I am willing to offer a reward.
Please!! Please!! help

Maybe check out Marvel or some scientific subreddit... Honestly, that used to be the gold standard for academic papers everywhere, though who knows what the vibe is like these days. Most tech geeks just grab a mouse and click through everything now; nobody actually bothers to hand-code stuff anymore...🙂

I haven't found much useful content in English, which is frustrating since I specifically need support for our unique characters. I'll keep digging around and see what I can find. If anyone has any additional info, please let me know.

I have TeXstudio installed, but the spell checker isn't functioning correctly. I downloaded an American English dictionary, yet the system fails to recognize specific characters... Any assistance would be appreciated. 😢

I'm using LaTeX for some college coursework, and as far as I know, this command works fine: \usepackage[American]{babel}
As for images, just use this: \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{sl1.png}. You absolutely have to name the file sl1.png—make sure it's a PNG—and save it in the exact same folder where your Makefile is located.

Just a quick heads-up that might be helpful for some of you.

The official LaTeX templates for university papers (including Capstones, Theses, and Seminars) have been finalized this year at MIT. You can download them here:
http://code.google.com/p/fer-latex-templates/ (includes fer.cls and fer.bst)

If you're just getting started, I recommend downloading "brzistart.zip" because it includes .tex files with the styles already linked.

While these follow the specific formatting guidelines required by MIT, they are easy to customize for your own college—if your school doesn't have strict rules, you can simply update the names within the fer.cls file.

Accompanying these templates is a guide that remains useful even if you don't plan on using these specific templates.
The goal of the guide is to give readers a brief introduction to LaTeX. It covers why LaTeX is more than just a tool for math expressions, explains document structure, touches on typography, and lists several helpful commands.
You can grab the guide here: http://code.google.com/p/fer-latex-t...ozak-upute.pdf

Keep in mind that everything here was designed specifically to make writing student papers much easier.
If you're stuck on complex LaTeX code, these guides might not be enough. For those deeper issues, you should consult books such as:

www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/impatient/book.pdf (TeX for the Impatient—best for more advanced troubleshooting)
and others.