FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Many questions are also answered in doc.pdf.

Q. I get an error in macros.tex that \DeclareUrlCommand can't be found.

A. Your TeX distribution has an old version of url.sty.  Find a more
   recent version, such as:
   
    http://ctan.org/get/macros/latex/contrib/misc/url.sty

   and just copy it to this directory.  TeX/LaTeX first look in the
   current directory for all included files, and then proceed to
   look in the other configured locations.  You can also change the
   standard locations by modifying your TEXINPUTS or texmf.cnf;
   the details are far beyond the scope of this package.


Q. I get a warning from <<<some package>>> that <<<some option>>>
   is obsolete.  Is this ok?

A. Yes.  These options were necessary for my LaTeX installation
   (MacTeX 2007), and I'd rather leave them rather than have a
   student's thesis rejected because they used an older LaTeX.


Q. Can I modify this template for use at a different university?
   Can I distribute the modified template?

A. By all means.  This package has been released to the public domain
   which means that you can do with it what you will!


Q. I hate that the Lists of Figures and Tables have all lines of the
   entries indented by such a huge amount!
   (Note: this is only enabled when 'fogscopy')

A. First, be sure to use the optional argument on \caption to provide
   shortened titles for the LoF & LoT:

     \caption[shorten and sweet]{the much more lengthy caption
	possible stretching for multiple lines}

   Otherwise look in ubcdiss.cls for the lines with '\@tabprefixlen'.
   Comment out the lines in Option 1 and uncomment those in Option 2
   to cause subsequent lines in an entry to be typeset with a hanging
   indent. 


Notes on using XeTeX/XeLaTeX:
=============================

XeTeX is an enhanced TeX that can make use of your platform fonts.
If you have a favourite font (I'm very partial to Adobe's Minion Pro),
XeTeX provides an "easy" way to use them.

I say "easy" as many TeX distributions ship with an older version
of XeTeX/XeLaTeX, and you may need to use a more recent version of
XeTeX/XeLaTeX; I used 0.997.  If you're not a somewhat proficient
C hacker, then find a capable friend.  The XeTeX source can be
fetched from

    http://scripts.sil.org/svn-public/xetex/TRUNK

Run the handy 'build-xetex' script there.  If all goes well, you'll
have new versions of xetex, xdvipdfmx, and xdv2pdf which you'll need
to install in the right place.  Note that you may need to regenerate
your formats for the new xetex binary; the easiest way seems to be:

  $ sudo fmtutil-sys --refresh


Please address questions to Brian de Alwis <bsd@acm.org>