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Simon Silk

LaTeX: List of Notations (Nomenclature)

Mon, 06/27/2011 - 17:02 SimonSilk

Update for MikTeX 2.9 below.

I've been working on my thesis for a couple of months now, and frequently I have to look up ways totweak certain Latex components, so I'm going to start posting about these tweaks, even if it's just to linkto another page about how to do something. If I end up having a good collection at the end of my thesis,

then I can write a final post aggregating them in a logical order so they can serve as a guide toformatting a thesis in Latex.

I'm using TeXnic Center(TXC) 2 Alpha 3 to edit and MikTeX to build. I original ly installed both usingProTeXt which packages TXC1, MikTeX, Ghostscript, and Ghostgum . I later installed TXC2 which

provides a much-needed overhaul to the interface so that toolbars don't shift all over the place wheneveryou resize the window.Today, I decided to add a List of Notations (aka list of Symbols) to my thesis. This is handy in a scientific

thesis to let readers quickly refer to the list in case there's a symbol they're unfamiliar with. It's also niceif you can do your Related Work review (Lit Review) using one common set of notation, which will allowreaders to m ore easily understand the relationship between various other papers you're reviewing in

case they don't share notation.The list of notations can be generated using glossaries, or even manually, but it's best done using the

package nomencl, which was designed for this purpose. If you're using MikTex, then you should havethis already.

Anyway, as outlined here, adding a list of notations can be done in 4 sim ple steps:1. Add the following code to your preamble:

\usepackage[refpage]{nomencl}

\renewcommand{\nomname}{List of Notations}

\renewcommand*{\pagedeclaration}[1]{\unskip\dotfill\hyperpage{#1}}

\makenomenclature

\usepackage{makeidx}

\makeindex

The first line invokes the nomenclature package, and the option refpage means that the lis t will include,for each symbol in the list, the page number on which you added it with the \nomenclature command.Leave it out to remove page numbers. The second line is the title at the top of the list of notations. The

third line changes the page num bers in the list so they are right-justified with a line of dots connectingthem back to the description of the symbol. By default, they follow the description after a comma and theword "page." The last line tells Latex you're using nomenclature so it will generate and look for the

associated intermediate files during success ive runs.The last two lines are likely somewhere in your preamble already, but if not add them because nomencl

depends on m akeindex.2. Add the following where you want the nomenclature to appear.For example, you might place it right

after\listoffigures.

\printnomenclature

3. Use the following command when you want to add a new symbol.

\nomenclature{$symbol$}{Description}

For example, you might say:

\nomenclature{$\alpha$}{Angular Velocities}

4. Run latex (or pdflatex, xelatex, etc.), then makeidx twice, then latex again, just like when you want togenerate an index. Check your results. If you're using TeXnic center, this won't work automatically just

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using successive builds. See below.

For a complete code example, please see this post.

Using nomencl in TeXnic center.

As oultined here, you need to add m akeindex with nomencl arguments as a post-processor option. To

do so, go Build > Define Output Profiles, and choose your desired output profile, e.g. LaTeX => PDF. Goto the postprocessor tab and add a new postprocessor using the button that looks like a New Folder inTXC2. Give it a name, then add the path to the makeindex executable (C:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX

2.8\miktex\bin\makeindex.exe in my case). Then add -s nomencl.ist "%bm .nlo" -o "%bm.nls"to thearguments lis t. Now three builds in TXC should produce an updated nomenclature with pagereferences.

Optional TweaksColumn spacing in the list of notations

If some of your symbol entries are too long, they will push their description to the right in your table, butothers w ill s tay where they are, which is ugly. You can fix this with the label width option, ins erted in thepreamble jus t before \makenomenclature:

\nomlabelwidth=25mm

The default is 0.5cm.

Where to inset \nomenclature commands.

If you don't want page numbers, and don't really care where in your document this command is given,

you can just place all the \nomenclature commands in one tex file, say symbols.tex, then insert thisanywhere in your docum ent body with \input{symbols}. This can be handy if you've already written your lit

review using multiple authors' notations and you now want to bring them under one com mon notationset; just do this first to make your list of notations, then print yourself a copy and go through your litreview updating notation where necessary.

Update for MikTeX 2.9

As perthis post, with newer versions of Makeindex,makeindex.exe needs to be passed a relative ratherthan absolute pathname. This can be achieved by replacing %bm with %tm in the output profiles ofTeXnice Center. Don't forget to change it in the post-processor tab as well so that Nomenclature will

work.

LaTeX

SimonSilk's blog Add new comm ent

ThanksWed, 07/04/2012 - 23:09 Anonymous

Hi, I got exactly I was looking for. Thanks a lot.

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