The IEEEtrantools Package

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 IEEEeqnarray commands
which are general purpose tabular environments for producing aligned equations, tables, arrays, etc. The IEEEeqnarray 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 IEEEproof environment and associated QED commands
which is used to produce IEEE-style proofs.
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 \IEEEnoauxwrite command
which is used to prevent citations from affecting/incrementing the citation counter.

The most recent version of IEEEtrantools.sty is v1.5 (based on IEEEtran.cls v1.8b), which was released on August 26, 2015.

The changes for version 1.5 (over the previous v1.4 release) include:

See the changelog.txt file for a full list of all the changes. Enjoy!

Beware of a backward incompatible change to the IEEEeqnarray line numbering controls in the v1.8 series of IEEEtran.cls (v1.3 of IEEEtrantools.sty): Users must now issue a \IEEEyesnumber\IEEEyessubnumber combination for the start of each subequation sequence whereas with the v1.7 series a simple \IEEEyessubnumber would suffice. This new behavior allows IEEEeqnarray to resume subequation numbering across instances of IEEEeqnarray as well as provides for the possibility of subequations to follow a standard equation number (e.g., 14, 14a, 14b) which was not possible before. See Appendix F-E "Equation Numbering" of the IEEEtran HOWTO for details.

Beware that as of v1.3 IEEEtrantools no longer redefines the standard LaTeX itemize, enumerate and description (IED) lists by default. Load IEEEtrantools with its "redeflists" option if the old default behavior of redefining them to their IEEE enhanced versions is desired: 

\usepackage[redeflists]{IEEEtrantools}

Obtaining IEEEtrantools

The IEEEtrantools package can be obtained at:
CTAN (The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network)
CTAN carries the complete IEEEtran tools package.

Other Sources of Helpful Documentation

Here are some other recommended sources of information about IEEEtrantools:

How to Typeset Equations in LaTeX
by Stefan M. Moser, is a great tutorial on using the IEEEeqnarray and AMSmath commands to typeset mathematics.
The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e
by Tobias Oetiker, is perhaps one of the most widely read introductions to LaTeX and it's available online for free. It also mentions the use of AMSmath and IEEEeqnarray to typeset mathematics.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I control IEEEproof? Can I get behavior like AMS math's \qedhere?

Yes, but because such formatting is contrary to the way the IEEE handles proofs in its publications, these features are not documented in the IEEEtran.cls HOWTO and are not recommended for IEEE-related work.

\IEEEQEDoff, when issued within an IEEEproof, turns off the automatic generation of the QED symbol at the end of the proof.

\IEEEQEDhere emits an \IEEEQED symbol at the place it is executed and turns off the \IEEEQED symbol at the end of the proof. This can be useful when using IEEEeqnarray within IEEEproof: 

\begin{IEEEproof}
  \begin{IEEEeqnarray*}{c+x*}
  x=1. & \IEEEQEDhere
  \end{IEEEeqnarray*}
\end{IEEEproof}
% Thanks to Stefan M. Moser for this example.

\IEEEQEDhereeqn is somewhat similar to the AMS \qedhere and is for use with the standard equation environment within IEEEproof: 

\begin{IEEEproof}
  \begin{equation*}
  x=1. \IEEEQEDhereeqn
  \end{equation*}
\end{IEEEproof}

Note that \IEEEQEDhereeqn will put the QED symbol in front of an equation number if it exists.

\IEEEproofindentspace allows users to change the indention of the proof environment from its IEEEtran default of 2\parindent: 

\renewcommand{\IEEEproofindentspace}{1\parindent}

Place the above redefinition before any IEEEproof environments it is to affect.

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).