Text under word in LaTeX

Howdy!!!

If there is an activity graph that is generated on my posting habits, I'm pretty sure it would look like the ECG of a dying man. 

Sigh!! how I hate myself for not being able to post frequently. All I do here is rant. Most unfortunately, I cant rant as frequently as I want :(

The title gives away the suspense (if ever it would excite anyone!). In my last post, well a long time ago, I indicated that I have been working with LaTeX for a while, there is no change in the status :) Every time I discover something new I am like "Woah!" ( Expression flicked from a good friend Tejaswini ).

Now its about placing text under a word / sentence / symbol. What's so great? Well, the way your content is typeset becomes awesome!

For starters, this has to be executed in math mode in between text. So it may not work in the equation mode.
A simple example, you need to say summation over some i. Classically, the code for the same would look like this : $\sum_{i}$
And the typeset looks as under:

Now how nice would it be if we could place the i below the sigma? Well, I had to pull my hair out to figure out the same. Thankfully, some dude had posted the solution on a forum, I adopted that, and voila! my problem was solved.
So the code to make i appear below sigma is simple: $\underset{i}\sum$.
The typeset looks like this:

Ain't that what we wanted! :)

Enjoy TeX-ing :)

Signing off for now.

Beautiful tables in LaTeX

It has been quite a while since I started using LaTeX. I must say, I am in love with the way it typesets the pages. I have pretty much given up using any WYSIWYG word processors :)

There are a few nitpicks that beginners face using LaTeX. Typesetting tables is one of them. If you think you can relate to this, read on...

So here you are writing a nice report of your project work. You have some tabular data, the easiest way to represent it, is in rows and columns, (quite obviously).

You bet on a rectangular grid, nice and easy...

Here is what you get:

The LaTeX listing would be:

\begin{table}[htbp]
\caption{Table 1}
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
\textbf{Heading 1} & \textbf{Heading 2} & \multicolumn{ 3}{c|}{\textbf{Heading 3}} \\ \hline
 &  & Heading 3.1 & Heading 3.2 & Heading 3.3 \\ \hline
 &  &  &  &  \\ \hline
One & One & 1 & 2 & 3 \\ \hline
Two & One & 2 & 3 & 4 \\ \hline
Three & Two & 3 & 4 & 5 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}

And then, there is your guide, who wants your tables to look gorgeous! What would you do? Curse your guide of-course! And rake your brain.

Fear not :) here is booktabs.

Booktabs provides an elegant look to the tables. It is quite flexible too. 

Consider the same example as above. I used booktabs to typeset the same, here is what I get:

Now that is some elegance :)

Here is the LaTeX listing for the same :

\begin{table}

\begin{tabular}{ccccc}

\toprule

{Heading 1} & {Heading 2} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{Heading 3} \\

\cmidrule{3-5}

{} & {} & {Heading 3.1} & {Heading 3.3} & {Heading 3.3} \\

\midrule

One & One & 1 & 2 & 3 \\

Two & One & 2 & 3 & 4 \\

Three & Two & 3 & 4 & 5 \\

\bottomrule

\end{tabular}

\end{table}

The next thing about tables is when you reference them in the text. The reference numbers may get mixed up if you are not careful.

The trick is to include the label to the table after the caption in the LaTeX source.

Here is an example LaTeX listing:

\begin{table}

\begin{tabular}{ccccc}

\toprule

{Heading 1} & {Heading 2} & \multicolumn{3}{c}{Heading 3} \\

\cmidrule{3-5}

{} & {} & {Heading 3.1} & {Heading 3.3} & {Heading 3.3} \\

\midrule

One & One & 1 & 2 & 3 \\

Two & One & 2 & 3 & 4 \\

Three & Two & 3 & 4 & 5 \\

\bottomrule

\end{tabular} 

\caption{Table 2}

\label{table2}

\end{table}

That's all for now! Enjoy TeX-ing.

Gotta get back to complete my report :)