How do I change the style of a document?

PCTeX Tip: Changing the look of your document:

LaTeX enables us to create beautiful documents that are impossible to create with a standard word processor. However, it's easy to get lost amongst the sea of packages and options that are available to help format your documents. With PCTeX 6 Professional you can easily sort through these document types and their options by using the new Page Style Wizard. No more scavenging the Internet for documentation and explanations - PCTeX 6 has done all the leg work and laid out all the options for easy configuration. (View a screen shot.)

To use the Page Style Wizard, click on the text \documentclass in the preamble. This will start the wizard, which has four sections:

  • Class - Select a document class or style to work with (book, article, etc.)
  • Options - Select an option, for example "paper size", "font size", and more. (This feature is available with PCTeX 6 Professional only.)
  • Choices - Configure the selected option by clicking on one of the available choices. (This feature is available with PCTeX 6 Professional only.)
  • LaTeX command - Displays the LaTeX command in real time as options and choices are selected.

Let's say you want to write a book that includes a title page and uses 12pt text fonts:

Click the Change class button and select "book" from the Documentclass selection window, then click OK.

If you are using PCTeX 6 Professional the following features are available:

In the Options section look through the available options and find "font size". Select this and you will see several possibilities in the Choices section. Select "12pt". Notice the LaTeX command displayed below now reflects the change you made.

To create a title page, look through the available Options and find "Title page". Select this and you will see two possibilities in the Choices section. Select "Title page". (Notice the LaTeX command now shows options for both font size and title page.) Click OK and typeset your document to see the effect of the changes you've made.

-- The following features are available with all PCTeX 6 versions:

If you are curious how your document might look with another page style, in the Page Style Wizard click the Change class button. This will show other available page styles (or document classes). For example, if you are using the "article" style, some alternatives are "scrartcl" (the KOMA style) or "memoir" (a versatile style). Click on the new style and then click OK. Typeset your document to see the effect of the new document style.

In any of the dialogs click the View Documentation button to review the user manuals and other material for the selected class.

Keywords: tip, LaTeX, documentclass, packages, options