Tips for IEEEtran class

You may in stuck while preparing a manuscript for IEEE Transactions journal using LaTeX.  Here is some tips.

 

1. Putting large figures in a double-column style. 

 

IEEE Transactions journals only allow to submit a manuscript prepared in double-column style. It makes hard to put large-scale figures.  Some journals use \widetext command when you need a single column.  In IEEEtran class, you have to put figure* command when you put a large-scale figure. 

 

\begin{figure*}
\centering
\includegrahics[width=0.9\textwidth]{xxx.eps}
\caption{Put a large figure in double-column style}
\end{figure*}

 

Default IEEEtran class just allows two figures on a page. If your manuscript has many figures and relatively few text, some figures appear at the end of the manuscript. If you want to put multiple figures on a page, you have to define number of figures in the preamble.

 

\setcounter{topnumber}{8}
\setcounter{bottomnumber}{8}
\setcounter{totalnumber}{8}

 

 

 

2. Putting line numbers in a double-column style.

 

Generally, \linenumbers command is used when put line numbers in the manuscript. But in double-column style, line numbers of right column overlap wth the text of left column. Such a situation switch package is useful.

 

\usepackage[switch]{lineno} %% define switch package peramble

\linenumbers %% use \linenumers in the main text.

 

 

Now, line numbers are appear in left and right of the manuscript.

 

3. Options for placement of figure 

 

\begin{figure}[!tbh] %% options for the location of figure in a page

 

 

The placement options means allowing placement at certain locations:

• h means here: Place the figure in the text where the figure environment is written, if there is enough room left on the page
• t means top: Place it at the top of a page.
• b means bottom: Place it at the bottom of a page.
• p means page: Place it on a page containing only floats, such as figures and tables.
• ! allows to ignore certain parameters of LaTeX for float placement, for example:
  • \topfraction: maximal portion of a page (or column resp., here and below), which is allowed to be used by floats at its top, default 0.7
  • \bottomfraction: maximal portion of a page, which is allowed to be used by floats at its bottom, default value 0.3
  • \textfraction: minimal portion of a page, which would be used by body text, default value 0.2
  • \floatpagefraction: minimal portion of a float page, which has to be filled by floats, default value 0.2. This avoids too much white space on float pages.
  • topnumber: maximal number of floats allowed at the top of a page, default 2
  • bottomnumber: maximal number of floats allowed at the bottom of a page, default 1
  • totalnumber: maximal number of floats allowed at whole page, default 3