Change log

What changed in each version, newest first. Every version so far is a beta pre-release, and several may come out on one day. Each entry starts with one question, Changes your PDF? Yes means updating rpi-thesis.cls may change how your thesis looks, including page breaks: recompile and compare every page. No means only the guide, the website, scripts, or examples changed. Before updating, read update the formatting safely. Your version is in the \ProvidesClass line near the top of rpi-thesis.cls, and Check your PDF names it too.

Want the detail? On the toolkit's website, each version below gives its date and links its download and its code changes on GitHub, and the requirements map records every formatting rule with its source.

0.10.1

19 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.10.1·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• Convert to LaTeX: the tool once called "Bring your work in" has a clearer name, so it no longer sounds like the guide page "Bring your draft". Its old address forwards to the new one.
• Website: the seal in the Settings builder's title page sketch stays a circle; Search and the appearance button use the same hand-drawn buttons and icons as the rest of the site.
• Guide: the starter ZIP is the one download (GitHub's whole-repository ZIP and the template route are gone), and Overleaf uploads use the smaller Overleaf ZIP.
• Cheat sheet: links you can click in the PDF, and a footer with its version, the website, and OGE's submission page.
• Website footer: says when the formatting was last checked against OGE's manual, apart from when the toolkit was released, as "5 days ago" (the full date without JavaScript).

0.10.0

18 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.10.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• Settings builder: a title page sketch follows the form as you type (switch it off if you prefer), with your title, name, degree, committee, department, and date in the class's layout. Start from the metadata.tex you have, read in your browser, and download a finished metadata.tex. The degree menu shows the name the title page prints, the month menu asks you to choose, and the messages name the form's own fields.
• Explain my error: reads a whole log, pasted or chosen as a .log file: after the first error it lists, folded away, the other errors, missing citations and references, lines too wide, missing characters, and rerun notes, and it marks where LaTeX stopped. It knows the class's own messages (a missing setting or chair, an unknown setting, an older rpi-thesis.cls, the seal placeholder) and names the command behind "Undefined control sequence".
• Check your references: each point names its line and selects it in the box; safe fixes show the change, apply one or all, and download the corrected file; a "By entry" view; an unclosed entry no longer hides the ones after it.
• Bring your work in: a Preview beside the LaTeX, a Show where button on each note, and captions for Markdown tables.
• Check your PDF: results open with a count per result and the points to look at first; a point that names pages can show each page with the margins, page-number lines, and measured text drawn on it; page-number and margin results say which pages were measured; sources are named in full.
• Guide: the tools are named where they help: the Settings builder when you put your name on the title page, Explain my error when a compile fails, Bring your work in for drafts and spreadsheet tables, Check your references for access dates. A short recipe shows how to use the starter as a model for a proposal or qualifying exam, and "update the formatting safely" points to Check your PDF to see your version.
• One set of fixes for every error message: Fixing problems, Explain my error, and the optional build helper now give the same advice from one list. Explain my error and the build helper also recognize the starter's own messages (such as a missing setting, an unknown degree or month, or a missing seal), and each fix says what to do on your computer and on Overleaf where they differ.
• Navigation: Previous and Next stay within the core path or Go further; each tool page links back to the guide page that uses it, and its input sits nearer the top.
• Get started and Submitting: a warmer, shorter start; the starter download is a button; other editors fold away; the Submitting notice is shorter.
• Contribute: three ways to help, each with one button, the no-account form first.
• Change log: on the website, each version answers "Changes your PDF?" in a box you can spot at a glance, with links to download that version and to its code changes; the next version's changes are listed first.
• Website: a warmer light palette and a deeper dark one, with button outlines that stay visible; a simpler header (Get started, Guide and Tools menus, How do I...?); buttons share one set of hand-drawn icons; long reference pages, such as this change log, list their sections beside the text; the text, sidebar, and "On this page" sit together with even margins on wide screens; tool pages no longer flash "JavaScript is off" while loading; the offline guide says the Settings builder runs on the website; short names in code no longer break at a hyphen on phones.
• Drawings: LaTeX in the guide's drawings is colored like LaTeX on the website, in light and dark: commands blue, braces bold terra, options plum, math green, comments gray and italic. "One chapter at a time" is redrawn in the same hand-drawn style as the others, and code in three drawings is larger so it stays readable on tablets.
• More drawings: the six reasons in "Why LaTeX for a thesis" show their drawings in the cards, and Writing basics has two new ones: how to add a chapter, and how \label and \ref fill in a figure's number. How it works and Going further also show which file changes which part of the PDF.

0.9.0

17 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.9.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• Five tools, one design: every tool page has the same layout, a clear "Nothing is uploaded" line, and short results; the home page lists them all. On a laptop or desktop the tool pages use the full width, LaTeX in the guide and in tool output is colored for easier reading, and form fields, checkboxes, and yes/no switches match the site's hand-drawn style.

• Settings builder: fill in a form and copy a checked \thesissetup block for metadata.tex; it rejects the same values the class rejects.

• Bring your work in: a new tool in the guide's Tools group. Paste text from Word, Google Docs, or Markdown, or a table from Excel or Sheets, and get LaTeX ready for a chapter: headings, emphasis, lists, links, special characters, and tables with a caption. It runs in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

• Check your references: paste or drop references.bib; it reads your citation style and lists missing fields, access dates, duplicate keys, name and capitalization problems, each with the fix.

• Explain my error: paste an error or a whole log from your editor or Overleaf; it finds the first real error, says what it means, and shows the fix and the guide section. Same knowledge as the build helper.

0.8.1

17 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.8.1·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• A shorter home page: one line about what the toolkit does, buttons to download the starter or open it in Overleaf right under it, one drawing of what you get, and a "What's here" overview of every part of the toolkit.
• A cleaner footer on every page, grouped by Guide, Tools, Project, and Help; "Suggest a change" needs no account.
• Share this guide copies the link (or opens your phone's share sheet).
• Refined colors in light and dark; numbers in the text show a plain 0.
• Get started suggests an editor on your computer that compiles when you save (VS Code with LaTeX Workshop as the worked example; other editors with a LaTeX extension work too), with Overleaf as the no-install alternative. Terminal commands moved to Going further; no step needs them.
• The VS Code settings in the download build on save, open the PDF beside your text, and keep the Problems list to text that runs into the margin.

0.8.0

17 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.8.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• Displayed equations no longer get double space around them: about 20 pt above instead of 33, as RPI's template sets it.
• Deep section numbers such as 12.10.10.10 no longer touch their titles in the contents.
• Clearer errors: a misspelled setting names the setting and metadata.tex; a wrong degree, month, or chair value echoes what you wrote and notes that values are case-sensitive; a seal file name with _ no longer stops the compile.
• The build helper shows the first real error and its line, and explains missing figures and undefined citations or references.
• Website:
  • the appearance menu works in Safari and on iPhone;
  • Check your PDF falls back to its written checklist on older browsers;
  • controls have clearer borders in light mode;
  • guide pages print more cleanly.

0.7.1

16 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.7.1·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• Check your PDF works without contacting any other site, says "Could not tell" instead of passing anything it could not measure, adds checks for page size, headings missing from the contents, embedded fonts, blank pages, and file size, and can print its result. In the offline guide it points to the website, because browsers block it on local files.
• One wording per rule: guide pages quote and cite OGE rules from the requirements map, so a rule and its manual page are written once.
• Pictures: the timeline shows Check your PDF and the reviewer checklist, diagrams use \parencite and "compile" throughout, sample-PDF close-ups have captions, and an unused diagram is gone.
• Sidebar and layout: optional pages have their own marker in the same column as the numbers; list numbers, focus rings, footer links, and search highlights are tidier.
• Starter comments name guide pages instead of files the download does not include; the appendix example uses \parencite.
• Build helper: a missing chapter whose name has accents or non-Latin letters is reported with its full name; local classes and packages in subfolders, and the files they load, are followed; missing characters and a missing STIX Two Math font are named.
• Check your PDF reads chapter headings with a "CHAPTER 1" line above the title, headings that wrap differently in the contents, contents pages that start mid-entry, superscripts in headings, and PDFs with an unusual page unit. Small differences from the manual's numbers (page-number distance, slight margin overruns, a heading a little low) get their own result, "Differs from the manual's wording", separate from "Look at this". A check can be cancelled, and choosing another PDF replaces the old result.

0.7.0

16 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.7.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• AMS symbols no longer print blank on LuaLaTeX and XeLaTeX. The math font lacks \bigstar, \Finv, \Game, \digamma, \backepsilon, \pitchfork, \Join, \doublebarwedge, \blacktriangle, \vartriangle, \blacktriangledown, \triangledown, \diagup, \diagdown, \precneqq, \succneqq, \precapprox, \succapprox, \precnapprox, \succnapprox, \subseteqq, \supseteqq, \subsetneqq, and \supsetneqq. The class now takes just these from STIX Two Math, a Times-style math font included in TeX Live and Overleaf.
• Check your PDF: a new optional guide page, Check your PDF, reads your PDF in your browser (it is never uploaded) and reports paper size, page numbering and its position, level-1 heading position, side margins, contents entries, and the toolkit version, each with the manual section it comes from. It is not an OGE review.
• Reviewer checklist: a two-page checklist for advisors, committee members, and OGE reviewers: what the class sets, what still needs a look, and where students record exceptions. Guide pages with long tables now print without a blank half page.
• Search understands more words (acronyms, landscape, glossary, Mendeley) and pasted LaTeX warnings, highlights what matched, and opens with /.
• AI prompts to copy for setting up, fixing an error, converting to LaTeX, and suggesting a change: Going further.

0.6.0

16 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.6.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• Chicago reference lists get the right spacing. The class now applies its reference-list spacing after biblatex-chicago has set its own. A spacing line of your own below the biblatex line still wins.
• Correction to 0.4.0: it said "Changes your PDF? No". That held if you kept your older preamble.tex, but with Chicago and a preamble.tex from 0.4.0 or later, the reference list had about half a blank line between entries, not the one blank line OGE asks for. This version fixes it.
• Use just the class recipe numbers references in the order you cite them, like the starter; it listed them alphabetically before.
• \yen works with pdfLaTeX, like every other amssymb symbol.
• LICENSE.md in both downloads linked a credits file the download does not include; such links now point to the project's online copy.

0.5.0

16 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.5.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• A shorter guide: eight pages instead of eleven. "Why LaTeX" is now part of How it works; the workflows and advanced pages are one page, Going further. Old guide addresses no longer work.
• Before 1.0, anything may move. Updating is still usually just the class file, but a version may rename a setting or need another file changed; this log says so when it does. The one-file promise starts at 1.0.

0.4.0

16 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.4.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

• Updating is one file: download the newest rpi-thesis.cls from its permanent link, replace yours (on Overleaf: Upload), and recompile.
• Know your version: every compile log starts with the class version and where the newest one lives.
• Use just the class in a LaTeX project you already have: a short recipe on the Bring your draft page.
• Reference-list spacing moved from preamble.tex into the class; an older preamble.tex that still sets it keeps working.

0.3.0

15 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.3.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

If you started with 0.2.0, copy the new rpi-thesis.cls (and, if you use it, scripts/build.py) into your project.

• Search the guide: one search button finds sections, tasks, and pasted error messages, even with typos. It works offline too.
• AMS math works on every engine, including LuaLaTeX and XeLaTeX.
• A sharper build helper: it spots missing chapters (even with spaces in their names), multi-line error messages, and tools that will not start.
• Smoother moves: from Overleaf to your computer, from Markdown drafts, and when comparing two versions of your thesis.
• The offline guide links to the project files of its own release.

0.2.0

15 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.2.0·Download·Code changes (opens in a new tab)

If you started with 0.1.0, make one edit: in main.tex, replace the three lines from \begin{singlespace} to \end{singlespace} with \thesisreferences, and copy the new latexmkrc next to main.tex.

• Easier starter files. One line prints the reference list; metadata.tex groups its settings with short tips; the class is laid out in 13 labelled sections that cite the OGE manual.
• The first compile works from a fresh download in VS Code and other editors that run latexmk (a new latexmkrc creates the output folders); VS Code also offers XeLaTeX and LuaLaTeX recipes and remembers your choice.
• Warnings that help. LaTeX warns when your class file is older than your other files or a committee name is blank; the build helper flags malformed access dates, figures too tall for the page, and missing chapters.
• Clearer citations. Which command gives "(Lamport, 1994)", how to write several authors or an organization, and full credits tested in each listed style (MLA needs a one-line fix; see the citations page).
• A shorter, friendlier guide with a no-terminal clean recompile, a chapter skeleton, and commands checked for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
• Website: readable tables on phones, sharper pictures, smooth diagram lines, and a dark mode switch.

0.1.0

14 Oct 2026·Pre-release v0.1.0·Download·Code (opens in a new tab)

• The class follows the OGE Dissertation and Thesis Manual and RPI's official LaTeX template (every rule and difference is in the requirements map): title page from metadata.tex for master's, PhD, and DEng; one-inch margins, double spacing, page numbers 0.75 in from the edge; contents and lists from your full captions; single-spaced captions, footnotes, and references; chapter attributions; and errors that name the fix. The RPI seal is a separate download; a same-size placeholder holds its place.
• The starter: a doctoral dissertation by default, with sample front matter, three short chapters of copyable examples, an appendix, an access-dated web source, VS Code settings, an optional build helper, and tested recipes for theorems, algorithms, code, figure parts, and symbol lists.
• The guide: eleven pages in four stages, an offline copy in the ZIP, and a printable cheat sheet. The website works without JavaScript.
• Tested: fresh Windows, macOS, and Ubuntu machines (compiler only); Overleaf's free plan; all degree types and the LuaLaTeX and XeLaTeX engines; VS Code with LaTeX Workshop and TeXShop. Not yet tested: TeXstudio, TeXworks, and a full real thesis. OGE has not reviewed this version.