University of Utah Dissertation Class

University of Utah Thesis Class

This document describes how to utilize the University of Utah Thesis Class to write your University of Utah dissertation in LyX. The procedure described has been confirmed to work on both Windows and Mac.

You can download the class file here:

• http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/cmr_uuthesis.cls

You can download the layout file here:

• http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/cmr_uuthesis.layout

You can download the example LyX file illustrating use of the dissertation class here:

• http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/dissertation_class_example.lyx

Introduction

This document assumes you have a working knowledge of both TeX/LaTeX and LyX, and a working, up-to-date copy installed on your system. At the time of this writing, that was LyX 2.0.1. See http://www.lyx.org for a copy, or google "mactex" if you need a tex distribution on your computer.

You can also visit my LaTeX page and my LyX page. I wrote up a detailed guide on how I figured out how to meet the absurd requirements of the thesis office.

This document has two parts.

First, there is a guide on how to use it in your dissertation LyX file and recognized by LaTeX.

Second, there is an example LyX file, and an explanation of the exmaple file.

These two parts are woven together, so each step of the user guide is illustrated with the example LyX file.

Usage Guide

Before You Begin

As mentioned in the introduction, it is assumed you have a TeX distribution and LyX installed on your machine.

To use the University of Utah thesis class, you will first need to download all of the necessary files:

• Thesis class file: http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/cmr_uuthesis.cls

• Layout file: http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/cmr_uuthesis.layout

• Example LyX file: http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/dissertation_class_example.lyx

To use the class file, you can tell LyX to use a local layout by going to "Document > Settings..." and clicking the "Local Layout" button. Then browse to find the file "cmr_uuthesis.layout". I recommend putting it in the same directory as your LyX file.

Macros

Various macros go at the beginning of the document.

A couple of LaTeX macros define some important things, like who is on your committee and such. The important ones are included in the example file. You can add straight TeX into a LyX document by picking "Insert > TeX Code...". Use this to put macros into your dissertation. Also, see the example file.

Title and Author

You'll have to enter the title of the dissertation in all caps, but that's just about the only tricky thing you'll have to do for the title and author.

Front Matter

There are more LaTeX macros after the title and author, but these macros actually insert pages (as opposed to just defining important things).

The order of these pages is dictated by the University of Utah Thesis Office. See the dissertation handbook on the University of Utah Thesis Office web page for more info.

Table of Contents, List of Tables and Figures

There is some code before the table of contents that dictates the level of information displayed in the table of contents:

% Set the depth of the Table of Contents numbering
\setcounter{tocdepth}{1}
% 0 = chapter titles only
% 1 = chapter & section titles
% 2 = chapter, section, & subsection titles
% etc.

The Table of Contents is required. The List of Figures and List of Tables is only required if you have LESS THAN 25 ITEMS in each list. If you have more than 25 items in either of these lists, that list is optional.

Start of the Document

The document begins with \body in this block of text:

\body
\parindent 2em
\parskip 0pt
% This fixes some problems with equation spacing
\setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{0pt}
\setlength{\abovedisplayshortskip}{0pt}
\setlength{\belowdisplayskip}{15pt} 
\setlength{\belowdisplayshortskip}{15pt}

As with any dissertation, I had to include some kludges to get this class to work (these four lines are a kludge for equation spacing). Fortunately there were very few kludges required.

Document Settings

There are a couple of things to address in the document settings, reached by picking "Document > Settings...".

Class Options

document class

There are a couple of class options for this class, but nothing too fancy. To set class options, pick "Document Class" on the left-hand side of the Document Settings window.

First, you can set your department. Only "che" is provided, so if you want to add a different department, search the LaTeX class file for "che" or "chemical engineering", and add your own option (e.g. "ee" for electrical engineering, etc.)

Second, "dissertation" specifies that this is a Ph.D. dissertation. My LaTeX class was originally ported from a LaTeX class that also allowed for Masters theses, but I cut out all of that because it was not useful to me.

There is also a "twoside" option, which will print a two-sided dissertation; otherwise, it will print everything one-sided. Keep this in mind for the page numbering - one-sided puts the page numbers all in the upper right corner, while two-sided puts the page numbers in alternating top left and top right.

Bibliography

Pick "Bibliography" on the left-hand side of the Document Settings window. I left the "default (numerical)" option selected.

PDF Properties

Unfortunately, the hyperref package is inexplicably broken sometimes for this class, so you'll have to test it out on your document to see if it works. Otherwise, leave it disabled.

Math Options

math options

I checked the "Use AMS math/esint/mathdots/mhchem package automatically" options. I recommend you check any options that are available.

Files

• Thesis class file: http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/cmr_uuthesis.cls

• Layout file: http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/cmr_uuthesis.layout

• Example LyX file: http://files.charlesmartinreid.com/dissertation_class_example.lyx