Undergraduate Dissertations and Related Documents

The style file for dissertations is available here, together with an example of use. You need to get:

• The formatting template contained in the zip archive (current February 2007) shows how to prepare the three main documents required for the research project. The final documents look as follows:
  • The Project Appreciation, whose source is apprec.tex
  • The Extended Conference Abstract, whose source is extabs.tex.
  • The Final Dissertation, produced from primary source file bengdis.tex. This in turn references several other files: the bibliography file, files containing images and diagrams, and one LaTeX file per chapter. This file is suitable for printing.
  • The Final Dissertation (extended) shows some additional features, which are commented out in the bengdis.tex source file. Just remove the comments in the source file to enable the enhanced features. You may also need some additional LaTeX packages if you wish to use all the features of this one.
  Note that after preparing your final document, you should always check the margins and page sizes in the viewer before printing (A4 paper is 210mm by 297mm). Acrobat shows the page dimensions in the lower-left corner.
• Some other packages are required, for specialized formatting requirements. To obtain these, go to the locations listed and download all the files present. If a .sty or .cls file is present, that is all you need. If a .ins (installation file) is present, if has to be expanded by LaTeX to produce the required sty or cls file(s). For example:
  latex caption.ins
  This should expand the source into the required LaTeX package files. The .dtx file is processed in the same way, to produce the documentation for the package.
• The fancy header (alternate site) package is required. This package handles header and footer formatting, and is used in the example files to format the header and footer in accordance with the official guidelines.
• The caption (alternate site) package is required. This package handles formatting of captions, and is used in the example files to format figure and table captions in accordance with the official guidelines.
• The Harvard referencing package (alternate site) handles bibliographic formatting, and includes the files harvard.sty and agsm.bst.
• The package url.sty (alternate site) which allows you to format web & email addresses, and file/folder/directory names, is useful. Note that this should already be installed as part of your MiKTeX installation. The only file required is url.sty
• Depending on your requirements, you may also require other packages for formatting your dissertation:
  • The listings (alternate site) package formats source code.
  • The pdfpages (alternate site) package inserts other PDF files into a document.
  These are not required immediately, and it is suggested that you only download them if required.

Note: before preparing your final dissertation or project conference abstract, you should download the latest version of the style file. Always check the final paper size. It should be international A4 size (210mm x 297 mm).

Last updated: February 2007
Author: John Leis
john.leis@usq.edu.au