Standard Operating Procedure: LaTeX Project Report Templating

Standard Operating Procedure: Project Report Templating (LaTeX)

1. Executive Summary & Purpose

This SOP establishes the mandatory protocol for generating professional project reports using the Template Registry LaTeX distribution. The objective is to ensure structural uniformity, metadata compliance, and high-fidelity rendering of engineering documentation across all internal projects.

2. Scope & Prerequisites

• Scope: Applies to all engineering teams responsible for project documentation, technical specs, and milestone reporting.
• Software Dependencies:
  • TeX Live (Full distribution) or MiKTeX.
  • VS Code (recommended) or Overleaf Professional.
  • Git (for version tracking).
• Prerequisites: Familiarity with LaTeX syntax, biblatex management, and familiarity with the internal tr-project-report.cls class file.

3. Roles & Responsibilities (RACI)

4. Step-by-Step Procedure

Phase I: Environment Setup

• Clone the base repository from registry-templates/project-report-latex.
• Verify local installation of latexmk for automated build cycles.
• Configure settings.json in IDE for lualatex or pdflatex compilation paths.

Phase II: Template Customization

• Update metadata.tex: Populate \title, \author, \projectID, and \classification.
• Define the document class: \documentclass{tr-project-report}.
• Set \usepackage{tr-style-guide} to enforce internal branding standards.

Phase III: Data Ingestion

• Input narrative content in /sections/ directory.
• Import external data assets to /assets/ and reference via \includegraphics.
• Update references.bib with validated DOI/ISBN entries.

Phase IV: Build & Validate

• Execute make all in the terminal.
• Verify compliance: chktex scan to ensure zero warning thresholds.
• Conduct final visual inspection of TOC, figure numbering, and bibliography cross-links.

5. Quality Assurance & Pro-Tips

• Metric Thresholds: All reports must achieve a "clean" status on chktex (zero errors, <5 warnings).
• Pro-Tip 1: Utilize \input{} for sub-files rather than copying text directly to maintain modularity.
• Pro-Tip 2: Use the microtype package to improve character protrusion and font expansion, resulting in superior readability.
• Common Pitfall: Forgetting to run BibTeX/Biber twice after adding new references, leading to missing citations ([?]).

6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q: The PDF compilation fails due to a missing file error. How do I troubleshoot?

• A: Verify that the file path in \includegraphics matches the relative path in the project root. Ensure no special characters (spaces/non-ASCII) exist in the asset filename.

Q: How do I change the header information without breaking the template?

• A: Do not modify tr-project-report.cls. All overrides must be placed in the preamble of your main .tex file using the commands defined in the template documentation (e.g., \renewcommand{\reportdate}{YYYY-MM-DD}).

Authorized by: Julian Vance, Chief Architect