I've been using LaTeX for about 6 months.
I can honestly say that the results I get as a newbie are far far better than the results I have ever gotten out of anything else.
I started by using LyX, and now I still use LyX but I find myself using the ERT box (and preamble) quite a bit to get what I want. The LaTeX companion (second edition) sees daily use since I aquired it.
However, there is something I can't figure out how to do.
For my Calc III class, since I had it before (about a decade ago) and it is mostly review, I don't have to take the time to learn it - so I'm using that time to learn LaTeX and gnuplot better and am doing all my homework in LyX with graphs in gnuplot (using a cvs version of gnuplot that does 3D vectors)
First I enter the question - then the solution. Sometimes a gnuplot graph is part of the question.
The gnuplot stuff is done with pslatex terminal type (which only work well for pdf if use dvips -Ppdf and then run the ps file through Acrobat Distiller, but it looks so nice that way)
To include the gnuplot graphs I use raw LaTeX ERT box, not LyX - for example -
Code:
\begin{figure}[ht]
\input{my_cool_graph}
\caption{Graphing $f(x,y)=x^2*y^3$}
\end{figure}
If there is not enough space there for the figure, LaTeX will float it to the beginning of the next page - and take text that is suppose to come after the figure and put it at the bottom of the page before the figure.
I can manually adjust that by inserting a \clearpage before the figure, but part of the point of LaTeX is to as much as possible separate the user from manual formatting issues, and \clearpage produced wrong results (lot of excess white space) if it isn't needed.
Is there some kind of package that has a macro for figures that modifies the float so that if it needs to float to the next page, but only if it needs to float to the next page, it inserts a \clearpage for me?
Is there some kind of marker I can maybe put in the document saying "anything after here MUST come AFTER the figure"?
There must be a way to do what I want automatically.
I'm sure I'm not the first to run into this situation, where the placement of text after a figure really *does* need to come after the figure.
If I don't do it as a figure but just input the tex, it does what I want, but then it doesn't get the benefits of being a figure.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
