Some of my LaTeX tricks

Every mathematician of the last 20 years should have their personal bag of LaTeX tricks. Here's a couple of mine:

• Graphics. This, in particular, is an area where everyone has their own tricks. My standard procedure is as follows:
  • Create some graphic in XFig, making sure that all text is marked special. (You can do this automatically by editing your .xfigrc file.)
  • Using TransFig, convert this file into four formats: pstex, pstex_t, pdftex, pdftex_t. There's a catch here: you need to make sure that myfigure.pdftex_t version includes myfigure.pdf, not myfigure.pdftex, which is the default. I guess this counts as a bug. This chore is usually done by a script for me:

    #!/bin/sh
    # Convert all fig files to four other formats, using fig2dev.
    for FILE in *.fig; do
       FILE=`basename $FILE .fig`
       if [ $FILE.fig -nt $FILE.pstex ]; then
           fig2dev -L pstex $FILE.fig $FILE.pstex
       fi
       if [ $FILE.fig -nt $FILE.pstex_t ]; then
           fig2dev -L pstex_t -p $FILE.pstex $FILE.fig $FILE.pstex_t
       fi
       if [ $FILE.fig -nt $FILE.pdf ]; then
           fig2dev -L pdftex $FILE.fig $FILE.pdf
       fi
       if [ $FILE.fig -nt $FILE.pdftex_t ]; then
           fig2dev -L pdftex_t -p $FILE.pdf $FILE.fig $FILE.pdftex_t
       fi
    done
    

  • Then in my LaTeX file, I have this code in the preamble:

    \usepackage{ifpdf}
    \ifpdf
      \pdfcompresslevel=9
      \providecommand{\myinput}[1]{\input{#1.pdftex_t}}
      \usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
    \else
      \providecommand{\myinput}[1]{\input{#1.pstex_t}}
      \usepackage{graphicx}
    \fi
    

    and whenever I want to include the file myfigure.fig, I just write \myinput{myfigure}.
  This has several nice properties: you can use LaTeX math constructs in figures (just surround them with dollar signs) and it looks great in both PDF and DVI.
• I'm very proud of the following piece of code:

  \newcounter{storedequation} % To store the equation number when we
                             % temporarily change it.
  \let\storedtheequation=\theequation
  \newenvironment{lettereqns}[1]{%
   \setcounter{storedequation}{\value{equation}}%
   \setcounter{equation}{0}%
   \renewcommand{\theequation}{#1\arabic{equation}}}{%
   \setcounter{equation}{\value{storedequation}}%
   \renewcommand{\theequation}{\storedtheequation}}
  

  Now we have an environment lettereqns, with one parameter, which makes all equations in it be numbered (P1), (P2) etcetera if the parameter is P.