General ⇒ How do you make latex look neater?

[john1]

Hi, im new to latex and when i'm typing up my notes, everything looks so jumbled up, but when i compile everything it comes out fine. How would you make the .tex file look neater?

[frabjous]

It might be helpful to give an example or two of what you mean. There are some tricks that I employ, especially things like commenting out line endings and even setting things apart with blank lines that are commented out.

Compare, for example:

Code: Select all

Here is a paragraph.\footnote{And a footnote in the middle of it.} And another sentence.

with

Code: Select all

Here is a paragraph.%
%
\footnote{And a footnote in the middle of it.} %
%
And another sentence.

The comment markers % prevent the line endings from adding extra space or breaking the paragraph, yet the footnote is separated from the body text in a more recognizable way.

There are other tricks you can employ, but it depends on the circumstances. Having a good editor with a nice syntax highlighting scheme can also do wonders.

[john1]

Thanks. I didn't know you could do that.