This is the README file for the UCTHESIS style for LaTeX. It
corresponds to version 2.7 of the UCTHESIS style (30 October 1994).
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Using the UCTHESIS style
========================
Sample File
-----------
There is a sample dissertation (by the fictitious, but very
irritating, Perry H Disdainful) in the file uctest.tex. It also uses
uctest.bib as its bibliography database (though the contents of the
database are not important). Mostly this is useful as an example of
how to produce the front matter. If you don't understand LaTeX at
all, this file might help you get started, but, since you're going to
be writing a 100+ page document, you should invest the $20 in a copy
of the LaTeX manual (by Leslie Lamport).
Choosing the UCTHESIS style
---------------------------
To use the UCTHESIS style, make sure that the ucthesis.sty file is on
your TEXINPUTS search path and use the following command at the start
of your input file:
\documentstyle{ucthesis}
============================
What the UCTHESIS style does
============================
The UCTHESIS style is a modified version of the standard LaTeX REPORT
style that is accepted for use with University of California PhD
dissertations and Masters theses. The available commands are almost
identical to those of the REPORT style, so your best starting point
for documentation is the LaTeX manual written by Leslie Lamport.
The key features of the style are:
1) The primary modification to the REPORT style is the use of
pseudo-double-spacing, since the UC system's rules are still designed
for typewriters. This is achieved by increasing the \baselinestretch
parameter to 1.37. The \baselinestretch is returned to a
single-spaced value of 1.00 for elements like tables, captions, and
footnotes and for all displayed text (quote, quotation, and verse
environments). Unfortunately, this is done with a macro called \ssp
which resets the font size to \normalsize. In LaTeX 2.09 this seems
to be unavoidable, but it makes it very hard to create tables in
different font sizes.
2) Margins are 1.5 inches on the left, 1.0 inches elsewhere.
3) Uses 11 point by default; you can use the 10pt or 12pt options for
those sizes.
4) Page numbers are in the top right corner for all pages.
5) Complete, correct front matter for UC dissertations can be
generated. If you are not a UC student, you should make sure that the
front matter is OK with your school.
Optional Styles
---------------
There are four primary optional styles:
The "draft" style uses single-spacing throughout the document.
The "10pt", "11pt", and "12pt" styles set the default font size to the
obvious value. The "11pt" option is the default and thus is
redundant, but is safe to use anyway.
Page Headers
------------
If you want to use page headers or footers other than the default
ones, you should try using "headerfooter.sty" or "fancyheadings.sty".
The myheadings pagestyle doesn't work well and there is no workaround.
The headerfooter and fancyheadings styles are widely distributed, well
documented, and easy to use.
============
Front matter
============
The other key service provided by this style is that it generates
correct front matter (title page, approval page, abstract, etc.) with
a failrly simple set of commands. This facility could be a little
easier, but compared to an earlier state of affairs, it's pretty
slick. The format of the front matter is specified quite explicitly
in the document "Guidelines for Submitting a Doctoral Dissertation or
Master's Thesis" distributed by the UC Berkeley Graduate Division.
The current version of the style is based on the April 1994 version of
this document. Someday, someone may get the guidelines to be written
in terms of laser printers and computers, rather than for typewriters.
A complete example of the use of the front matter commands can be
found in the sample dissertation distributed with the style.
Declarations
------------
To use the front matter macros and environments, you must first
declare a number of text strings:
\title Dissertation title
\author Your name as registered with UC (usually w/ full
middle name)
\degreeyear Year your dissertation will be granted
\degree The title of your degree (e.g. Doctor of Philosophy)
\chair Title and name of your committee chair
(e.g. "Professor Michael A. Harrison")
\othermembers The names of the other members of your committee
separated by linebreaks
(e.g. "Professor Susan L. Graham\\Professor Jim Pitman)
\numberofmembers The number of members on your committee. This defaults to
3 (and thus is optional) and can be any value between
3 and 6. It affects the number of lines on the approval
page and the space between them.
\prevdegrees Your previous degrees
"B.A. (University of California, San Diego) 1978\\
B.A. (University of California, San Diego) 1986\\
M.S. (University of California, Berkeley) 1989"
\field The official title of your field. This is usually
your department's name, but at Berkeley, most
Engineering degrees have a more complex name.
Be sure to check the guidelines for any special
twists on the name of your field.
\campus The name of your UC campus. This should be capitalized.
(e.g. Berkeley)
Title, Approval, and Copyright pages
------------------------------------
The title, approval, and copyright pages have extremely rigid formats
that allow them to be generated automatically once the above
declarations have been made. To generate them, invoke the macros
\maketitle
\approvalpage
\copyrightpage
You should probably invoke them in that order, because that's the
order required by the guidelines.
Abstract Environment
--------------------
Because you have to provide the text of the abstract, only the title
can be generated automatically. So, there is an abstract environment.
It generates the title and numbers the abstract in arabic numerals and
makes sure that it starts on new page.
The UC system requires that your advisor sign the last page of your
abstract. Many students just let their advisor just sign at a random
location on the page, but you can use the \abstractsignature command
to generate a signature line with your advisor's name printed below
it. This command generates the signature line at the point it is
invoked, so it should be placed at the end of the abstract.
Other Front Matter
------------------
The remaining front matter (dedication, table of contents, lists of
figures and tables, acknowledgements) MUST be put inside the
"frontmatter" environment, which ensures that page-numbering is
handled properly. Within this frontmatter environment, you put the
environments and commands for the rest of the front matter. There are
environments for "dedication" and "acknowledgements" and the standard
LaTeX commands for producing \tableofcontents, \listoffigures, and
\listoftables.
The standard LaTeX commands are well documented in the LaTeX manual.
You will probably have to hand edit the .lof (list of figures) and
.lot (list of tables) files to make verbose captions more suitable for
this front matter. Once you do this, remember to use the \nofiles
macro to keep them from getting overwritten.
The acknowledgements and dedication environments make their contents
start on a new page. The acknowledgements environment also put the
word "Acknowledgements" in large, bold, centered text at the top of
the page. For formatting the dedication page, you're on your own.
After all, the dedication is a kind of poetry and there's no
predicting the right way to format poetry.
=====================================================
Other commands not found in the standard report style
=====================================================
The "smalltabular" and "smalltabular*" environments are equivalent to
the "tabular" and "tabular*" environments, except that they use the
\small font. The "scriptsizetabular" and "scriptsizetabular*" use the
\scriptsize font.
=============================
Installing the UCTHESIS style
=============================
To install the UCTHESIS style, you need to install four files:
ucthesis.doc
uct10.doc
uct11.doc
uct12.doc
in your LaTeX style file repository. For LaTeX to load them properly,
you need to create matching files with the .sty extension. There are
two easy ways to do this:
1) rename each of the files, so that ucthesis.doc becomes
ucthesis.sty, uct10.doc becomes uct10.sty, etc.
2) make soft links with the correct names that point to the .doc
files.
An alternative that we use at Berkeley is to install the full
distribution in a ucthesis subdirectory of the style file directory
and then make soft links that point to the .doc files in the subdirectory.