[Tex/LaTex] Understand .cls files and working with sig-alternate.cls

document-classespackagestemplates

I'm a day-one LaTex user so bear with me.

I need to format a paper I'm writting with the sig-alternate.cls template in LaTex. I've got LaTex installed with TexStudio and MixTeX along with the sig-alternate.cls file downloaded. Assuming I don't need to install that .cls file somehow (I'm honestly not sure from all the documentation I've read so far) I open the .cls file in TexStudio which gives me the 1,600+ line format that I assume is the proper template I need to fill in.

Before I start filling in sections like Abstract I want to be sure that the file can compile correctly. I like to make sure that my code works at every stage. I hit "Build & View" and I'm given a slew of errors starting with "Unknown graphics extension .eps"

Am I using the sig-alternate.cls file wrong? Do I have LaTex installed wrong? Some help would be greatly appreciated.

Best Answer

You need to download all of the files at this site http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates This is Option 2: LaTeX2e - Tighter Alternate style.

And you need to put them all into the same folder.

Now open the sig-alternate.tex file in TeXStudio. It should now compile correctly. Since this class and example template uses bibtex, you need to run latex once then bibtex (check the TexStudio menus for the correct menu choice.). And then run Latex twice to resolve the references. This should give you the correct output.

Now save this to a new filename.tex and start making your changes. I would recommend making only a couple of changes between compiles since errors can be hard to find after extensive modification.

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So lmodern should work for sure if you have a TeXLive installation, because \usepackage{lmodern} works. I'm not sure about all the other packages, which might be out of date.

EDIT

An alternative is to bypass the class's font mechanisms and do it yourself, which may be simpler. Here I use the tgheros package, which gives you TeX Gyre Heros font, based on Helvetica/Arial.

\documentclass{template_tese}
\usepackage{tgheros}
\renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
...

Best Answer

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EDIT

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