General ⇒ Generating a List of Symbols

[hjbahirat]

Hello all,

I want to create a list of symbols used in my thesis. The list has to be pretty much like the list of figures or tables. I looked around and found out that a nomenclature can be used
for this purpose. But I couldn't create a file. I was wondering if anyone could me a minimal example and quickly explain how to create this list. I will be grateful for any kind of help.

[cgnieder]

The nomencl manual provides a minimal working example:

Code: Select all

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{nomencl}
\makenomenclature
\begin{document}
\section*{Main equations}
\begin{equation}
a=\frac{N}{A}
\end{equation}%
\nomenclature{$a$}{The number of angels per unit area}%
\nomenclature{$N$}{The number of angels per needle point}%
\nomenclature{$A$}{The area of the needle point}%
The equation $\sigma = m a$%
\nomenclature{$\sigma$}{The total mass of angels per unit area}%
\nomenclature{$m$}{The mass of one angel}
follows easily.
\printnomenclature
\end{document}

If you save this as <filename>.tex and compile it once with pdflatex then with

Code: Select all

makeindex <filename>.nlo -s nomencl.ist -o <filename>.nls

and then with pdflatex again you'll get the expected list.

Regards

[Frits]

Creating a nomenclature is often experienced to be difficult, since you need an extra 'tool' called makeindex when you compile the LaTeX document.
Fortunately, the process is very well described on this community: have a look here.

I've also written a post on how to create a nomenclature manually, which is most useful when you've already written (parts of) your thesis and don't want to check everything again. This is a very easy way as it is nothing more than creating a large table: check it out here.

[hjbahirat]

Thanks a lot!

I tried both the suggestions and all worked fine. Now I have few more questions.

• How to include List of Symbols entry in the ToC?
• How to rename "Nomenclature" to "List of Symbols"?
• There are some symbols that are used in different locations in the document and their meanings are different. How to duplicate the entry?
• How to reduce line spacing on the nomenclature page?

Regards,

[hjbahirat]

Thanks a ton!

I figure out all the questions I posted last time.

It was a simple \renewcommand only that I didn't know the entry to rename. Spacing reduced and the ToC entry updated.

Regards,