LaTeX best-practices | Coe lab group

Since first learning to write papers with LaTeX in graduate school, I’ve refined my process considerably. Here’s a list of best practices I’ve developed:

Present a united value as, e.g., $[1,2]$\,m$^2$
- Use the \, command for a small space between the value and the unit.
- The unit is not italicized (outside the math environment — use superscripts carefully).
Labeling and referencing
- To refer to a figure, use \figurename~\ref{fig:label_based_on_filename}. This will display either “Fig. 1” or “Figure 1” depending on the document class and whether the reference begins a sentence.
- To refer to a table, use Table~\ref{tab:my_custom_label}.
- When assigning labels to figures, tables, equations, and sections, use something that explains the content, not the anticipated location in the text, as that may change (e.g., \label{tab:geometric_parameters}, not \label{tab:table_1}).
- For figures, use the filename for the label (both are power_time_history in the example below)
```
\begin{figure}[tb]
      \centering
      \includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth]{power_time_history.pdf}
      \caption{Time-history of generated power.}
      \label{fig:power_time_history}
\end{figure}
```

One sentence per line (this allows for better git tracking and SyncTeX); this means a paragraph will look like:

This is my first sentence.
This is my second sentence.
Finally, a third sentence.

This sentence begins a new paragraph.
...

For display equations (those that appear on their own line), use commented lines (%) to maintain the current paragraph, if desired:
```
... we may therefore write
%
\begin{equation}
x = a + b ,
\end{equation}
%
where b is..
```