Overview

The IEEEtrantools LaTeX package provides many of the specialized IEEEtran.cls commands so that these can be used under other LaTeX class files. The major features of the IEEEtrantools package include:

The \IEEEPARstart large drop cap letter.

Note that the IEEEtrantools package provides many user alterable parameters, which are not available under IEEEtran.cls, to control the size and style of the resultant drop cap. The \IEEEPARstart command provides all the functionality of Mats Dahlgren's dropping.sty package, as well as most of the functionality of Daniel Flipo's lettrine.sty package (with the exception of the slope, image and ante text features).

The IEEE-style itemize, enumerate and description list environments

for producing IEEE-style "block-indented" lists.

The IEEEeqnarry commands

which are general purpose tabular environments for producing aligned equations, tables, arrays, etc. The IEEEeqnarry commands are extremely powerful, but do take some extra effort to learn and use. Those who know TeX may like them as they are closely based on the underlying \halign.

The \bstctlcite command

which is used to invoke a BibTeX style control bibliography entry that can alter the formatting of .bst files that support it (such as IEEEtran.bst).

The most recent version of IEEEtrantools.sty is v1.2 (based on IEEEtran.cls v1.7), which was released on January 11, 2007.

The changes for version 1.2 (over the previous v1.1 release) include:

• Several commands and environments have deprecated in favor of replacements with IEEE prefixes to better avoid potential future name clashes with other packages. Legacy code retained to allow use of the obsolete forms, but with an warning message to the console during compilation: \IEEEPARstart. For IED lists: \IEEEiedlabeljustifyc, \IEEEiedlabeljustifyl, \IEEEiedlabeljustifyr, \IEEEnocalcleftmargin, \IEEElabelindent, \IEEEsetlabelwidth and \IEEEusemathlabelsep. The following commands/lengths now require the IEEE prefix and do not have legacy support: \IEEEnormaljot, \ifIEEEnocalcleftmargin, \ifIEEEnolabelindentfactor, \IEEEiedlistdecl and \IEEElabelindentfactor.
• New \IEEEPARstart controls including: \IEEEPARstartHEIGHTTEXT, \IEEEPARstartFONTSTYLE, \IEEEPARstartCAPSTYLE, \IEEEPARstartWORDFONTSTYLE, \IEEEPARstartWORDCAPSTYLE, \IEEEPARstartHOFFSET, \IEEEPARstartITLCORRECT and the (output) length \IEEEPARstartletwidth.
• Support for an optional argument to \bstctlcite to provide a way to specify a different aux file.

See the comments at the top of the IEEEtrantools.sty source code for a full list of all the changes. Enjoy!

Obtaining IEEEtrantools

The IEEEtrantools package can be obtained at:

CTAN (The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network)

CTAN carries the complete IEEEtran file set.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Loading IEEEtrantools broke the format of another environment/package. What can I do about this?

By default, IEEEtrantools overrides the standard LaTeX itemize, enumerate and description list environments. Some packages that depend on these may break because of the unexpected formatting changes. You can use the \IEEEiedlistdecl command to pass any needed parameters (longest label length, etc.) to the IEEE-style environments which may be called within other environments. If you want to retain the standard LaTeX list environments, just load IEEEtrantools with its retainorgcmds package option:

\usepackage[retainorgcmds]{IEEEtrantools}

The IEEE-style list environments will still be accessible as the environment names IEEEitemize, IEEEenumerate and IEEEdescription.

Q: How can I get a fancy cursive drop cap letter?

Zapf Chancery is a pretty good cursive-like font and is already included with most LaTeX systems. Try this to see how you like it:

\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartFONTSTYLE}{\fontfamily{pzc}}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartDROPDEPTH}{2.0\baselineskip}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartDROPLINES}{3}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartMINPAGELINES}{\IEEEPARstartDROPLINES}

\IEEEPARstart{T}{his} ...

Q: What about an on-baseline large cap letter? In color?

Sure. Just use a strut for the height with DROPDEPTH set to zero. Also, load the color package and use color commands for the CAPSTYLE:

\usepackage{IEEEtrantools}
\usepackage{color}
.
.
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartHEIGHTTEXT}{\rule{0pt}{20pt}}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartFONTSTYLE}{\bfseries\itshape}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartCAPSTYLE}{\textcolor{red}}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartWORDFONTSTYLE}{\bfseries\itshape}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartWORDCAPSTYLE}{\textcolor{blue}}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartDROPDEPTH}{0\baselineskip}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartDROPLINES}{1}
\renewcommand{\IEEEPARstartMINPAGELINES}{\IEEEPARstartDROPLINES}
.
.
\IEEEPARstart{R}{unning} is ...

Obtaining Support

You can obtain support for the IEEEtrantools from:

The Usenet newsgroup comp.text.tex

This the primary means of general support for LaTeX and BibTeX users.

You can contact me via the email address(es) at my contact page.

Please use this option only for packages that I maintain (not general help with LaTeX or BibTeX).

This page was last updated on January 15, 2008 (originally created on December 13, 2006).

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