LaTeX for document preparation

Tiffany Vidal will be discussing how to use LaTeX for this week's WGSA Workshop Series during Friday's (10/23) Procaffeination Hour (9:30-10:30 in the Dean's Conference Room).  You can read more about what will be covered and things to do in preparation for the workshop, below.

LaTeX is a document preparation program, and a tool that I have found immensely helpful for writing documents and creating presentations. What I like about LaTeX is that you can control every aspect of the document, but you also don't have to spend a lot of time doing it. Similar to R, there are commands to control format, which can save time and create professional looking documents with ease. The interface is more like programming, but it's not as intimidating as it may seem at first. One of the biggest advantages for me is the ease with which to create equations, insert figures, and keep track of them. For example, the program can number your equations automatically. So, if you move them around they will renumber for you; the same for figures and tables.

This workshop will be an overview of how to get started with LaTeX. We will create a document, add figures and tables, create equations, and add a bibliography. I will come with a list of tasks that I have found useful, and commonly use, but please bring questions and ideas to work on as a group. If you have specific things you know you want to work on, please email me ahead of time so I can make time for it during the workshop.


Before coming to the workshop, please do the following:

• Bring a charged laptop with you; computers will not be provided
• Install the LaTex program - I recommend TexStudio as a nice interface
• Try to create a simple document to ensure the installation was successful
• Have a figure or two to insert into your document (these can be anything!)

Files from the workshop:

Presentation

Example .tex file

Example .pdf file

Intro to Map Making

Heather Abernathy will be leading our next WGSA Workshop on an introduction to map making using ArcGIS. The workshop will be held on Friday (10/16) from 9:30-10:30 as part of the WGSA Procaffeination Hour. We will plan to meet in the GIS lab in building 4 instead of the Dean's Conference Room. A brief description of the workshop is below as well as a link to the files you will need (you can download them to a computer in the GIS lab if you are not using your own PC).

Do you find yourself wishing you had a better image of your study site that Google Earth can create? Or struggling to learn basic map-making in GIS? If so, this workshop is for you!

Broadly, my objective in this workshop is to expose novice GIS user to the wonderful world of map-making; namely we will be working with ArcGIS interfaces, Adding data, symbolizing data, making a simple map.

Photo obtained from USDA

Specific Workshop Objectives:

1. Become familiar with the ArcMap user interface
2. Access and organize multiple sources of spatial data in a Data View
3. Apply basic cartographic concepts to display spatial data effectively
4. Create a map using an ArcMap Layout View
5. Provide advice on pulling data from online sources and dealing with this data 

Instructions to attendees:

1. Please download the zip file attached as it has all the data we will be working with.
2. Please read over the attached terms (Terms Associated with ArcGIS geospatial data) to become familiar with ArcGIS geospatial data terminology we will use during the workshop. I have also provided details regarding the complete ArcGIS Software Package as well as the four major applications of desktop ArcGIS.
3. I have provided a list of useful sources for acquiring your own data to help inform on objective 5.

Data files