# Dissertation

This repo is version control for my dissertation. 

More importantly, you can use it to produce a PDF from plaintext, automatically formatted. 

> **Updated July 2026.** The template and build commands have been modernized for current pandoc (2.11+/3.x). Citations now use pandoc's built-in `--citeproc` (the old external `pandoc-citeproc` tool was discontinued in 2020), and the LaTeX template works on macOS, Linux, and Windows.

## Quick start

You need [pandoc](https://pandoc.org/installing.html) (2.11 or later) and a TeX distribution with `xelatex` ([MacTeX](https://www.tug.org/mactex/) on macOS, [TeX Live](https://www.tug.org/texlive/) on Linux/Windows). Then, from this folder:

```
make
```

or the full command:

```
pandoc Dissertation-sample.md \
  --from markdown+smart \
  --top-level-division=chapter \
  --citeproc \
  --bibliography=dissertation-bibliography.bib \
  --csl=dissertation-csl.csl \
  --template=dissertation-latex.latex \
  --pdf-engine=xelatex \
  -o Dissertation-sample.pdf
```

That converts the sample Markdown manuscript into a fully formatted dissertation PDF: title page, Chicago-style footnotes (from `[@citekey]` citekeys and the `.bib` file), formatted chapters and headings, and double-spaced body text.

The template uses TeX Gyre Termes (bundled with every TeX distribution) so it builds anywhere. For the original Baskerville look on macOS, add `-V mainfont=Baskerville` to the pandoc command.

# How to use the Template

The humble beginnings of template code (Markdown, Latex, Bib, and CSL) you need to format your dissertation to be clean and beautiful. 

### Pre-research
1. Look at the dissertation-sample.pdf. Looks nice!
2. Look at the dissertation-smaple.md. Looks a little messy, but that's the code!
4. Learn a tiny bit of baby LaTex. The little bit of and LaTex formatting I've included is almost exclusively for the front matter and Table of Contents. I also inserted (optional) epigraphs because epigraphs are cool. Or use Claude Code to do this part!

### Writing

4. Write your dissertation in Markdown. You can use any number of plain text or WYSIWYG tools (Macdown, Dillinger, Mou, or Sublime Text 3).
5. You can write chapter by chapter, and stitch it together in one big file at the end; or write one big file with "#" headings separating chapters. 
6. Replace all the content in the front matter from the "Sample Front Matter" with your title, advisors, dedication, etc. 
7. Copy/paste the "Sample Front Matter" into your dissertation file. 

### Footnotes

7. You can do footnotes with the simple Markdown method: 


            To place a footnote number in the text, use brackets like this.[^1] 

            Then anywhere else in the document put this: 

            [^1]: This is the content of footnote.

8. You can also use citekeys (`[@buhler2016, 42]`) with a BibTeX file holding all your citations; pandoc's `--citeproc` turns them into proper Chicago-style footnotes using `dissertation-csl.csl`. 


## Export to PDF

8. The simplest route is the Quick start command above (or `make`).
9. To build from inside Sublime Text, use the included `dissertation-build.sublime-build` (Tools → Build System → New Build System, paste it in). It builds the currently open `.md` file, looking for the template, bibliography, and CSL files in the same folder.
10. Build, and you have a dissertation beautifully formatted!