The questions
Running LaTeX
The UiO styles
- Which document styles are recommended at UiO?
- What about other styles like ifimaster, duomasterforside, phdstyle, phduio and uiophd?
Typography
- Why are there extra blank pages in my document?
- Why aren't the text margins equal?
- Why does my chapter start on a left-hand page?
The answers
How do I process my LaTeX files?
You have a choice of three ways to process your LaTeX files:
- LaTeX is installed on all stationary Linux computers at UiO.
- You may install LaTeX on your personal computer. These free installations are recommended:
- Online processing on Overleaf or others. These offer a free student account but charge a fee for advanced features.
How do I process my bibliography?
When you use BibLaTeX for your bibliography (as we strongly recommend), you must specify that you will use a program called biber to process it: \usepackage[backend=biber,…]{biblatex}. You must then run biber inbetween your pdflatex runs:
pdflatex mythesis.tex biber mythesis pdflatex mythesis.tex
when you modify your bibliography.
Note! If you use Overleaf, this is done automatically.
Hint! You will find a simple introduction to BibLaTeX here.
Which document styles are recommended at UiO?
At UiO, we recommend these styles:
- UiO is a Beamer theme for making presentations
- uiobachelorthesis, uiomasterthesis and uiophdthesis are for writing your thesis
- uiomasterfp is for creating official front pages
- uiobrev is for official letter
For more information on the styles and downloadable files, see UiO grafisk standard 2022.
What about other styles like ifimaster, duomasterforside, phdstyle, phduio and uiophd?
These styles are old and now obsolete. Use the current ones instead (see previous answer)
Why are there extra blank pages in my document?
In most documents, new chapters should start on a right-hand (i.e., odd-numbered) page. LaTeX will sometimes insert a blank page to ensure this.
Why aren't the text margins equal?
In printed documents, it is customary to have the outer margin wider than the inner margin. The reason for this is that it looks better when you open it and see both the left-hand and the right-hand page.
Why does my chapter start on a left-hand page?
In all printed documents, the left-hand page should have an even page number and the right-hand page should have an odd page number. If this is not the case in your document, you have somehow fiddled with the page number. The most common mistakes are
- You have used a \begin{titlepage}…\end{titlepage} environment (which sets the page number to 0).
- You have modified the page number using \setcounter{page}{n}.