LaTeX.org

Hi Upananda,

You can use latex easily. For regular purpose do not need almost any programming knowledge at all. It's a regular text scripting. There are a number of thesis template in the web e.g.,
http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/ThesisStyle/
http://help-csli.stanford.edu/tex ...

toprule and bottomrule are of fixed structures, i.e., it will add some space avobe & below of each line. To avoid that you can declare your own top and bottom rule like :

\newcommand{\mytoprule}{\specialrule{0.1em}{0em}{0em}}
\newcommand{\mybottomrule}{\specialrule{0.1em}{0em}{0em}}

Just use ...