The SWP Survival Guide

Source: http://www.sba.muohio.edu/hinelidr/html/swpsg.htm

The SWP Survival Guide

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Introduction | Figures | Line Spacing | Margins | PDF (creation of) | Quotation Marks| Shells (APSA/OSU) | Tables

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Introduction

So your advisor just told you he doesn’t understand why you have this ugly ultra wide margin on the left, and he can’t read what your writing because the font is too small, and he wants you to change it if he’s going to give you the go ahead to defend! After 3 nights of going through all the styles SWP offers and not finding one that fits all the requirements you have, you are about to cry and drop out of your Ph.D. program.

Alas, here’s a quick and dirty guide that answers many questions about how to get SWP to make documents the way you want them. This is NOT a guide on how to do stuff properly, but more of a cheat sheet on how to get quick results. Of course, in a perfect world none of this would be necessary since we would all write Shell files that would specify everything we want in a document. However, most of us won’t do this because: (a) we are to lazy to learn how, (b) the deadline to submit our paper to that conference is tomorrow and we don’t have time to learn how, or (c) put your own reason here. Naturally, none of these methods come with any guarantee.

If you must ask us a question, send them by snail mail accompanied by a check for $1000 and we will look into your query but we make no promise we’ll send you an answer. If there are problems to which you can’t find the solution here, we suggest you go to MacKichan’s website or to the Scientific Workplace User Forum. On the other hand, if you have comments/suggestions/additions, write to either or both of us: David or Guillaume. Note that we both use SWP 3.00, hence some of what we write here might not work with your version.

Figures

• Importing Here you have 2 choices (maybe more, but these are the ones we know of), both are rather simple.
  1. Create your figure in whatever software you use to create figures. Select it, then choose Edit/Copy (or type Ctrl-c). Now, in SWP, place the curser where you want the figure, select Edit/Paste Special, then select Picture.
  2. Create your figure in whatever software you use to create figures. Save it. Now, in SWP, go to the File menu, select Import Picture, choose the appropriate format, and select the file you want. Most of the time I use windows metafiles (what’s created when you select Copy in an Edit menu), but I have also used postscript files successfully.

  You can change the appearance of the graph by selecting the graph and going to Edit/Properties, clicking on the magnifying glass in the toolbar menu, or double clicking at the bottom right of the figure on the blue square. 

Line Spacing

Here you have multiple choices. Here are 4:

1. Select Typeset/preamble, you’ll see a box appear, in it type: \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{xxx}, where xxx is the number by which you want to stretch. xxx = 2 will give you double space and xxx = 1 single space.
2. Select Insert/Field/TeX, you’ll see a box appear, in it type: \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{xxx}\small\normalsize, where xxx is as in option 1 above. Select encapsulated, then give it the name of your choice. (After doing it once, you can simply copy paste the Tex Field across documents.) If you wonder why we issue font size changes in this command, we are not sure why, but its related to the fact that the spacing changes only take effect when a font command is issued (so \small changes it first and \normalsize changes it back to its normal size. If you were changing spacing in a part of your document where the font was small (e.g. a footnote), then you would want to change the code to something like \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{xxx}\normalsize\small.
3. Select Typeset/Options and Packages, then select the Package Options tab and press add, scroll down and select doublespace and press OK. Note that if the doublespace package is not available you can use the Go Native command but why don’t you use one of the other options we propose. Then do one of the following.
   • This first approach allows single space, one and a half space and double space. Select Insert/Field/TeX, you’ll see a box appear, in it type: \begin{singlespace}, if you want single space. Select encapsulated, then give it the name of your choice (something like ‘begin single space’ would seem appropriate). Place the cursor at the point where you want to end the single space section, select Insert/Field/TeX, and type in it: \end{singlespace} (again encapsulate and give it a name). If you wanted one of the other spacing options, you would specify onehalfspace or doublespace.
   • If you wanted some other spacing, select Insert/Field/TeX, you’ll see a box appear, in it type: \setstretch{xxx}\small\normalsize where xxx is the desired spacing, then encapsulate and give it a name.

Note that using baselinestretch (without the doublespace package) will also impose those choices on footnotes, tables, bibliography, etc. (If you add the doublespace package, the original typesetting choices will apply to other parts of the document.) So, for instance, if you want your text to be double space, but your footnotes to be smaller and single spaced, you’ll need to add at the beginning of each footnote the Tex Field with the following code: \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1}\normalsize\small. Suppose you also want your tables to be single spaced, but you want the font to remain the same size, you need to add a TeX Field with the code \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1}\small\normalsize before the table, and after the table, you need to copy the Tex filed you have put at the beginning of the document.

Margins

Unlike the typical word processing program where you choose the margin size and the text fills the remaining area, with LaTex you specify the size of the available text area and the rest will be margins. The trick is to set the margins how you want them for each side. For example, for an 8.5 x 11 paper choosing text size of 6.5 x 9 will allow for 2 inches worth of margins, but will not necessarily give you 1 inch margins on each side and top and bottom. The default for articles seems to be a text area of 4.75 x 7.50 centered, which coincides with right and left margins of 1 7/8 and top and bottom margins of 1 3/4. Here are the commands which you can place in the preamble that come in handy:

\setlength{\textwidth}{6.5in}
\setlength{\textheight}{9in}

\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{0in} sets the left margin to 1 inch. The right margin will depend on what you have choosen for textwidth.

\setlength{\topmargin}{0in} sets the top margin to 1 inch. Actually you will still get 1.5 inch top margin because of space reserved for the header and the space between the header and body text. You can get rid of the extra half inch by choosing topmargin of -.5 inch or using the following commands

\setlength{\headheight}{0in} to set the height of every page’s header to 0

\setlength{\headsep}{0in} to set the header-bodytext distance to 0

PDF (creation of)

This very easy, you go to http://www.sba.muohio.edu/hinelidr/makepdf.htm and read David’s how to guide. Alternatively, you can read Philip Viton’s Automating PDF Production with SWP.

Quotation Marks

Now this seems trivial, but I don’t know how many papers out there (definitely too many) have closing quotation marks to both open and close quotes. The key for the opening quotation marks is NOT the key to the left of the Enter key with ” on top and ‘ at the bottom. Rather you have to hit — twice — the key at the top left of your keyboard (not the Esc key silly, the one with a ~ on top and a ` on the bottom). Alternatively, if you don’t get enough exercise and you think the way back to a 32 inch waist is to roll that mouse around, you can also get to it through the General Punctuation toolbar.

Shells

As for now we have two shells. The first one is a shell to submit articles to any journal affiliated with the American Political Science Association (APSA) which includes the American Political Science Review (APSR). The second one is a shell to writte a thesis at Ohio State University (OSU).

1. If you want to submit a paper to a journal affiliated with the APSA such as the APSR, you can use the apsa shell (this was written by Guillaume). The first thing you should do is order your copy of the Style Manual. To download the apsa shell to your ..\Shells\Journal Articles directory and you are ready to go. When you open a new document just select Journal Articles and apsa.
2. Are you struggling with your thesis (OSU students only). Here’s the answer: the osuthesis shell (this was written by both of us). Just unzip the archive in your SWP directory (before you do that you should read the readme file that comes with the archive) and viola, you are in business. Prior to all of this though, you should take a look at the OSU guidelines for writing a thesis. We want to give special thanks to Philip A. Viton who gave us the information that allowed us to get started on this project.

Tables

When creating tables it is important (for typesetting purposes) always to use the table4_3 fragment. Put your cursor where you want the table, and either select File/Import Fragment then select the table4_3.frg file or go to the fragment scroll down menu (bottom right of your screen) and select table4_3. Then either fill in the sample table that appeared or replace it with the table you want.

• Convert from ExcelThis requires a few steps, but might save you a lot of time.
  1. In Excel, select your table and copy it (Ctrl-c).
  2. Open Word and paste your table in it (Ctrl-v). Save your document in Rich Text Format (*.rtf).
  3. Open the Rtf2ltx program (it should be in the Rtf folder of SWP). Write the file name/path or press the Browse button to select it. Then press convert. A box will appear letting you know where the new file is.
  4. Put your cursor where you want the table and select File/Import Contents. Then select the file that was created by Rtf2ltx. Your done!

• LandscapeHummm, have you considered changing careers, we promise you that a career as a pottery artist seems much more attractive right now. Forget about it. What you insist? Forget about it we told you, you can’t do it. What? You don’t believe us! OK, OK, there is a legend, that somehow, its possible to print landscape tables using MiKTeX, but we were both too lazy to try, so we don’t know how, and if, it works.
• Insert (rows/columns)Now this is strange, suppose you want to add/insert rows or columns in a table, where would you go? Don’t say Insert because that’s the wrong answer! Go to Edit and at the bottom you’ll see the options to insert rows or columns.

Back to Guillaume’s econ page
Back to David’s page

5 things you need to know about using sunscreen

News article by Mary Forsell, from USA Weekend, May 30-June 1, 2008

USING SUNSCREEN

1. Learn the SPF math.

Sun protection factor can be interpreted in two ways, says Deborah S. Sarnoff, a Long Island dermatologist and a Skin Cancer Foundation board member. First, its rating reflects how long you can stay in the sun without burning. For instance, if your skin typically reddens in about 20 minutes, then an SPF 15 will protect you 15 times as long, or for five hours, but reapply the lotion more often than that. The rating also indicates how much sunburn-causing ultraviolet B rays it blocks. SPF 15 blocks about 93%, SPF 30 blocks 97%, and SPF 50 blocks 99%. Despite SPF ratings as high as 80, sunscreen can never give 100% UVB protection.

2. Be UVA aware.

Ultraviolet A rays are present at all times of day, even when it’s overcast. But unless your sunscreen reads “broad spectrum,” there’s no guarantee it protects you from these deep, penetrating rays, which are linked to melanoma, glaucoma and lowered immunity, Sarnoff says. Key ingredients to look for on the sunscreen label are avobenzone (sometimes called Parsol 1789), oxybenzone, Mexoryl, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide. The Food & Drug Administration has suggested a label change that would rate UVA protection according to a star system, with one being “lowest” and four “highest”.

3. Be wary of pricey sunscreens with exotic add-ons.

Common additions include antioxidants such as green tea and vitamins A, C and E. “Antioxidants do block cell damage, but it hasn’t been shown that rubbing them on your skin will have any effect,” says John Swartzberg, M.D., of the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter. “The bottom line is that UVA- and UVB-blocking ingredients like titanium and zinc oxide are cheaper and known to be effective.”

4. Slather it on generously – and often.

“Most people don’t use enough sunscreen to get its full benefits,” Sarnoff says. “Apply about a shot glass full – 1 ounce – every two hours. use more if you’re swimming or sweating. “Such terms as “continuous protection,” “waterproof and “sweatproof” are inaccurate. Instead, look for “water resistant” and “very water resistant,” which means it adheres while the user is in water for 40 and 80minutes, respectively, regardless of SPF.

5. Use the same sunscreen for the whole family.

Formulas for adults and children are the same, says Florida dermatologist James Spencer, a spokesman for the American Academy of Dermatology. “There is no difference in the active ingredients,” he says, although children’s sunscreens are less likely to contain allergens like PABA, which may cause skin reactions.

Finally, don’t believe any product labels that claim “safe tanning.” Tanning is the skin’s response to cell damage, Spencer says.