From Jon Dennis (2013): His tips of tools to write a PhD Thesis
I wanted to send you my latex document for the thesis, and some useful info on tools I used for writing it. Hopefully the information will be useful for future reference. I have included in the attached ‘thesis.zip’:
- LaTex document (main file is ‘document/phd_thesis.tex’, figures have been replaced to keep the size small)
- PDF of submitted thesis
- All the required forms for SCE thesis submission
- Mindmap (‘literature_and_annotations.mm’)
Also, here is the info on the main pieces of software I used to put everything together:
- Texmaker
· Good option for compiling latex document.
· I set the quick build function as follows: latex – bibtex – latex – xelatex – View PDF
· When working with multi-file documents (via \include), set the Master Document (‘OptionsàDefine Current Document as Master Document’) to the main file (e.g. ‘phd-thesis.tex’) to enable easier compiling from any of the included documents.
- Mendeley
· Useful for storing/searching PDF documents, and maintaining the BibTex database.
· Stores a synchronised backup of all PDF documents online.
· I installed the ‘One-click web importer’ which can be used to download PDF/citations from Google Scholar, IEEE Xplore, etc.
- Docear
· Useful for creating MindMaps.
· Can set the ‘Literature Repository’ to the Mendeley storage folder, and it will automatically import newly added PDF documents (into mindmap called ‘incoming.mm’. These can then be organised in the ‘literature_and_annotations.mm’ mind map.
· Loads citation information from the Mendeley bibtex database.
· It can automatically import comments/highlighted text from PDFs and place them in the mind map.
· You can export citation references easily, and paste them into a latex document.
- Visio
· Useful for creating and storing figures used in the document.
· Export to eps: first print the page/selection to a ‘.ps’ file using the Adobe PDF printer, then use ‘GSView’ software to perform ‘PS to EPS’ conversion.