Checklist for the delivering the final document

Are you delivering your thesis/dissertation soon? Change the document status from “working“ (default) to “provisional“ (just before submission) or “final“ (after the defense), and then follow the checklist below.

Cover

• Check for misspellings.
• Use “\\” to break the (sub)title if necessary.
• Be sure you did set the docstatus option to the appropriate value (draft for working version, provisional for submitted version, final for the final version to be uploaded to clip).

After cover (front page)

• If the current docstatus is draft or provisional, the aftercover shall be similar to the main cover and contain only the adviser(s). If the current docstatus is final, the aftercover shall contain the evaluation committee (jury) as well.

Back cover

• Check if it is looking all right and adhering to the norms of your School.
• If you have added sponsors' logo(s) (for FCT/NOVA) they shall show in the back cover. Please remember to respect the rules of each institution on how to use their logo (size, colors, etc).

Book spine

• Check if it is looking all right and adhering to the norms of your School.

Statement

• Some Schools require some type of statement (e.g., of originality). Check that the statement is ok and sign it digitally (if possible).

Dedicatory

• Optional… Comment the loading of the file if you don't want a dedicatory.
• The ntdedicatory is very flexible and accepts a few arguments. Please refer to the dedicatory.tex file for more information.

Copyright

• If your school does not require a copyright text, and it is still there, just turn it off with the option print/copyright=false.
• Otherwise, check that it is conforming to your needs (i.e., for Universidade do Minho you may choose the variant of the CC License)

Quote

• Optional… Comment the loading of the file if you don't want a quote.
• The ntquote is very flexible and accepts a few arguments. Please refer to the quote.tex file for more information.

Acknowledgments

• Remember to acknowledge those who were important to your achievement (finishing your thesis). Suggestions include: University, School, Department, Professors, Advisers, Research partners, Colleagues, Funding Projects, Funding Institutions, Family, Friends, The team working in this template.

Abstract(s) & Keywords

• Usually there is an abstract in the same language as the main text, and another in another language (e.g., English and Portuguese, or Portuguese and English). The number of abstracts and their languages is customizable.
• The keywords should be meaningful. Think twice which ones you shall use. Sometimes there are lists of well-defined areas/keywords, such as that given by the ACM Classification scheme (for computer science). Is possible, use keywords from such a list.

Table of contents

• Check that the TOC looks good, and that the hyperlinks are working properly. Check that the hyperlinks to the Appendices and Annexes (if they exist) are working properly.

List of (something)

• Check that the List_of_Something looks good, and that the hyperlinks are working properly.
• Avoid both citations and very long entries (with many lines) in the List_of_Something by setting the optional argument in the \caption as

\caption[Caption for the index.]{Caption for the “object” in the main text.}

Glossary, Acronyms, …

• Optional… Comment the loading of the (gloassary-like) files you don't want.
• Search for occurrences of the glossary/acronym/… entries without \gls{…} by searching for “entry”, “ entry”, and “entry ” and embrace it in a \gls{…} command.

Chapter style

• The template supports many chapter styles. If you don't like the default one, you may switch it to another of your preference.

Font style

• Some schools are strict concerning the font(s) to be used (e.g., Universidade do Minho). Some other leave the freedom of choice to the author (e.g., FCT/NOVA). Please respect your School's rules.
• The template supports many font styles. If you are allowed to change it, and you don't like the default one, switch it to another of your preference.

Page limit(s)

• Some Schools/Departments impose strict page/word limits to the document size. Check that your document is within those limits (if any).
• For example, in FMV/ULISBOA the MSc dissertation (excluding appendices and annexes) is strictly limited to 75 pages.

Pagination

• Look for overfull lines (lines where LaTeX was unable to properly hyphenate, and some letters overlapped into the margins). Teach LaTeX how to hyphenate the word adding “\-” in the hyphenation points.
• Check that the page numbering is ok.
• Check that all figures and tables are referenced in the main text. Figures and Tables must be referenced in the main text.
• Check that figures and tables are not too far from the place where they are referenced.
  • Don't try to be pushy by using only [h], [!h], or [H] in the figure/table placement.
  • Preferably, use [htp] or [tbp]… the final result will certainly be better. Once your document is ready to submit, fine tune the location of the few misplaced figures.
  • Remember: Be kind to LaTeX and LaTeX will be kind to you!. 🙂

Figures

• Images should always (whenever possible) be exported as PDF (vectorial) and not PNG/JPG. Check your software for the exporting formats.
  • If you cannot export the image as a PDF, don't convert the JPG/PNG into a PDF… you'll only make thing worse than they already are.
• Don't add a path nor the extension to the figure name, i.e., use

\includegraphics[options]{file_name_without_extension}

• To control the width of the figure, preferably use with=X\textwidth, where X is a decimal number between 0.0 and 1.0 (to be read as a percentage of the text width in the page).

Tables, …

• Avoid horizontal lines as much as possible. If necessary, you may increase the space between lines in a table with \renewcommand*{\arraystretch}{<value>} where <value> is a multiplication factor (e.g., start with 1.3 and then increase/decrease the factor as necessary).
  • If you really need horizontal rules, don't use \hline! Use \toprule, \midrule, and \bottomrule.
• Avoid vertical lines even more than horizontal lines.
• In case of doubt, align the items in the column to the left.
• Use the features of the makecell package (RTFM) for building complex table cell entries.
• Have a look at this “Small Guide to Making Nice Tables”
• Some interesting examples of tables in LaTeX.

Cross-References

• Be sure that you don't have failed cross-references (look for “?” in the PDF file and for warnings in the template.log file).
• If you are referencing and “object” nearby, use

blah blah~\ref{label} blah blah

• If you are referencing and “object” that is far from the current location (e.g., in another Chapter or in an Appendix), use

blah blah~\ref{label} (page~\pageref{label}) blah blah

Citations

• Be sure to select the citation style that is most used in your scientific area. Examples are:
  • Numbered order by last name of first author (popular for computer science)
  • Numbered by citation order (popular for Physics)
  • Author-year (popular for Life Sciences)

Bibliographic references

• Be sure to select the bibliographic style that is most used in your scientific area.
  • Usually the citation style and the bibliographic style are selected simultaneously.