2.1   2007-09-20 include eps or png

check chapter 5 of the latex book

to include eps figures, use usepackage[dvips]{color,graphicx}

to include pdf, png, jpg, gif figures, use usepackage[pdftex]{color,graphicx}. however eps figures can't be included. for png figures, the filename should have no '.' in the main filename, (i.e. test.png NOT test.df.png)

2.2   2007-10-04 turn a figure clockwise 90 degree

angle is used to specify that:

\includegraphics[angle=-90,width=1\textwidth]{figure.png}

2.3   2008-12-16 include figure with dot in the filename

For example, if you have file named fig.2008.06.25.pdf, to include it, use:

\includegraphics[type=pdf,ext=.pdf,read=.pdf]{fig.2008.06.25}

Note that there is no extension name for the file.

3.1   package supertabular and longtable are designed for long multiple-page tables.

both of them work with begin{center} ... end{center} not the begin{table}...end{table} environment, which tabular works with. The way to put caption is different too. The format of table entries is same as tabular.

supertabular modifies the table width, even for different rows in the same table. tablecaption can be put behind begin{center} too.

\usepackage{supertabular}

\begin{center}
\begin{supertabular}{|rrrr|rrrrrrrr|rrr|}
\tablecaption{ ... } \\
\hline
...
\hline
\end{supertabular}
\end{center}

longtable keeps all tables in the same width. http://www.astro.psu.edu/gradinfo/psuthesis/longtable.html

\usepackage{longtable}

\begin{center}
\begin{longtable}{|rrrr|rrrrrrrr|rrr|}
\caption{....} \\
\hline
....
\hline
\end{longtable}
\end{center}

package tabularx is designed to deal with wide tables by overlapping cells, which is not ideal. begin{tabular*}{textwidth}{|r|r|} can control width too. but it just tosses out extra cells. The format of tabularx is same as tabular.

package ltxtable is supposed to merge the benefits of both longtable and tabularx but it requires the table to be in a separate file, which is extra hassle to batch output. the syntax is LTXtable{width}{file} and the file looks like:

%% LaTeX2e file `ltx1.tex'
%% generated by the `filecontents' environment
%% from source `ltxtable' on 2006/06/21.
%%
\begin{longtable}{|cXX|}
the & head& line\endhead
the & foot& line\endfoot
a&b&b\\
\multicolumn{2}{c}{xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx}&c\\
a&b&b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b b \\
a a& b b& c c\\
a a& b b&
  c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c c cc cc\\
a a  aaaa& b b& c ccccc\\
\end{longtable}

latex2html is a very good tool to sidestep the page limitation of dvi, ps and pdf. cuz html doesn't have the page idea. latex2html treats tabular and tabular* differently (xx* is the version with width specified. same as for supertabular, longtable, tabularx). for tabular, it generates a html table. for tabular*, it generates an image table.

the other way is to use large page size. see below.

5.1   2007-10-29 include url link in latex

http://blogs.sun.com/akolb/entry/markup_quest . two packages, url and html. html is fancier. \usepackage{url} seems not necessary to use url if hyperref is already included.

5.2   2007-10-30 label for a figure.

the \label{l1} has to be put behind \caption{figure title}. otherwise, the link to that figure would not display the correct figure number.

\caption{figure title} \label{l1} could be put in front of \includegraphics.... but then the caption/title appears above the actual picture, which contradicts the convention (people tend to put figure title below picture in most papers).

5.3   2007-10-30 warning ! pdfTeX warning (ext4): destination ... already used, duplicate ignored

Complete warning:

! pdfTeX warning (ext4): destination with the same identifier (name{figure.156} ) has been already used, duplicate ignored

it's a warning that could be ignored. supposedly only happen to long documents. but mine is just a latex file including another latex file which is full of figure floats. haven't figured out exactly. but people are suggesting this (http://www.rpi.edu/dept/arc/docs/latex-thesis/latextopdf.pdf)

\usepackage{ifpdf}
\ifpdf
\usepackage[pdftex, bookmarks, colorlinks, plainpages=false,pdfpagelabels,breaklinks]{hyperref}
\else
\usepackage[dvips, bookmarks, colorlinks, linkcolor=blue, urlcolor=blue, citecolor=blue, plainpages=false,pdfpagelabels,linktocpage]{hyperref}
\fi

other links: http://osdir.com/ml/tex.miktex/2005-04/msg00032.html, http://phaseportrait.blogspot.com/2006/12/hyperref-options-for-proper.html, http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=pdfpagelabels