My LaTeX thesis template

This is the LaTeX template I used for my master thesis. I tried to document it nicely and have it compile without any errors or warnings. The file and folder structure is clean and intuitive.

The setup I compile the thesis with is

* Arch Linux
* TexLive 2011.something
* Latexmk 4.28c

To run/edit the figure examples, you need

* Python2.7
* matplotlib and pyplot
* some vector editing software, like inkscape

Special attention should be paid for Latexmk: This is an amazing make-like perl script with hundreds of options to fully compile latex documents. Please check it out. In the root folder of my thesis lies a .latexmkrc file, so that compilation can be done by running

latexmk

and NOTHING else!

File and folder structure

Now to the file and folder structure:

• preamble/ Everything that makes the preamble goes into the folder named "preamble". You will find the following files there:

  • docclass.tex This file contains the document class and all of it's options. Some basic packages are also included here, like the content encoding and the language, and packages that do geometrical stuff like margins of the document and so on.

  • packages.tex This file includes all external packages that introduce new functionality or replace existing functionality. In general, I use packages only if they are really needed, to keep everything as simple as possible. Every packages is justified in the preceding comment. There may be packages that can be removed when the thesis is done, like the blindtext package. These serve the purpose of having content in this template and are marked as removable in the comments.

  • commands.tex This file contains custom commands that are not important enough for their own .sty file. All commands are described in great detail. (At least I hope that I stick to it. :-) )

  • settings.tex I chose to separate some KOMA related settings from the package inclusion. This file contains customized stuff.

• bibliography/ This folder contains the bib file and additional non-tex files that are needed for the bibliography. A custom bib style would go here as well.

  • bibliography.bib The file with all the references defined.

• sources/ In this folder, I gathered all the sources (plotting scripts, svg files) for figures and so on. It contains two files:

  • plots/ A folder where all my plots go into

  • exmample.py An example pyplot script that generates ../../content/figures/example.pdf

  • matplotlibrc Some settings, all matplotlib scripts share.

• molecule.svg The svg source file of my molecule figure

• content/ Here comes all the content (text and figures, mainly)

  • figures/ All figures should go in this folder.

  • introduction.tex, elements.tex, somecontent.tex The actual content is in these. Name those wisely so you don't lose the overview, when this folder grows.

• pages/ Pages that can not really be described as content go here, like the frontpage, appendix, table of contents, etc.

  • appendix.tex The appendix of the thesis

  • bibliography.tex The references page.

  • frontpage.tex The front (title) page of the thesis. Note that in this template I use some kind of simple place holder.

  • acknowledgements.tex The Acknowledgements

  • tableofcontents.tex The table of contents page.

• thesis.tex The main tex file. It glues together all the external files and should be the one that is compiled (latexmk takes care of that!)

• .latexmkrc The latexmk configuration file.

• .gitignore The stuff that should be ignored by git.

• README.md this file