The aaltoseries class has been updated to version 1.2, you can download it from the aaltoseries page (direct link to the package). It is recommended that you download the updated version and use that instead of version 1.1 or 1.1.X. The updates are discussed in more detail below.
Reminder: Aalto-LaTeX is looking for new maintainers!
Bug fix
There was a bug in the handling of special text in the article publication data in the dissertation mode when the author's contribution listing was printed automatically. If the title contained, for instance, math formatted text the writing of the title to an external file (from which the author's contribution listing is read in the beginning of the document) resulted in an error. In the updated version 1.2 of the class this issue has been solved.
Feature updates
In addition to the bug fix, the updated version 1.2 provides three new features. Two of them are related to the overwide floating objects, and the third one enables a common note to be given in the beginning of Errata in the dissertation mode.
Overwide floats and tables
The original version 1.0 of the class provided a command and a length for overwide figures. In the updated version 1.2 there are now commands \widefloatshift and \widetableshift and lengths \widefloatwidth and \widetablewidth for generic floats and tables, respectively, to provide consistently named commands and lengths. Earlier one would have needed to use the command \widefigureshift and the length \widefigurewidth for generic floats and tables too.
Common note for the Errata listing
In the updated version 1.2 of the class one can now add a common note to the beginning of the Errata listing in the dissertation mode. This common note can be used to indicate that for instance multiple individual articles have an error in their list of references. The note is given as the optional argument to the \errata command and it accepts any properly formatted LaTeX code. For further information, see Section 4.4.2 of the class documentation.
Jussi Pekonen, the maintainer of the aaltoseries class
Call for maintainers
You know what LaTeX is? You have looked at what the standard (and nonstandard) LaTeX packages and/or classes contain? You have possibly developed (or have considered to develop) your own packages and/or classes for your own purposes? You know how to decipher LaTeX error messages and know how to use Google to help you out of the problem? You have a twisted sense of humor and you tell really bad jokes? If you answered yes to at least two of the questions (apart from the last one), you can become a true LaTeX superhero at Aalto.
The Aalto-LaTeX community project is looking for new maintainers for the aaltologo package and the aaltoseries class. A new maintainer is also looked for the soon-to-be-published Aalto University Beamer themes. Moreover, a maintainer is looked for the development of a poster template. If you think you could be one of these guys (note that you don't have to take the responsibility of all of them), send an email to Jussi Pekonen (and cc Martti Rahkila), the current maintainer/developer of these packages/classes/templates (email addresses: firstname.lastname(at)aalto.fi).
Why new maintainers are needed? Well, I’m (the current maintainer) no longer employed by Aalto University, hence I have to pass the responsibility on. However, I will continue supporting the current versions until new maintainers have been found, but eventually my support will end in June 2013 when my Aalto email will stop working.
Jussi Pekonen
The aaltoseries class has been updated to version 1.1.2 (note the detailed bug fixes below), you can download it from the aaltoseries page (direct link to the package). It is recommended that you download the updated version and use that instead of version 1.0 (and versions 1.1 and 1.1.1). The updates are discussed in more detail below.
Bug Fixes
There were a few bugs in the version 1.0 of the class. The most notable was the incompatibility issue with the hyperref package that caused documents with referable lists (like bibliography) to produce insolvable compilation errors. In version 1.1 this issue has been resolved, and the aaltoseries class is (or at least it should be) now compatible with the hyperref package.
In addition to that major bug, there were a few minor bugs that have been fixed in version 1.1. These bugs were small annoyances, and the maintainer cannot remember them anymore, because they have been fixed during several months.
Bug fixes in Version 1.1.2
There was a bug in the \widefigureshift command that didn't enable fractional shifts. In addition, commands \adderrata and \addcontribution didn't accept all properly formatted (La)TeX code as their arguments. Version 1.1.2 fixes these issues.
EDIT: The bug fix for the \addcontribution resulted in another bug when the class option 'nocontribution' was used. This issue has been fixed.
Bug fix in Version 1.1.1
There was still an incompatibility issue with the hyperref package in the updated version. The updated version 1.1.1 fixes this issue.
Feature updates
In addition to the bug fixes, the version 1.1 of the aaltoseries class provides two new class options. The first one is related to typesetting abstracts that contain special characters, like math, and/or formatting. The second is an option to suppress the page numbers from the publication information pages in article dissertations.
Class option 'nopagenumbers'
This class option enables a dissertation author to suppress the page numbers from the publication information pages in article dissertations. By default the page numbers are printed, but since many users were kindly asking for this feature, it is now available.
Class option 'abstracts'
This class option enables the author to typeset abstracts that contain special characters (like math) and/or formatting can be typeset. This feature is included because the publication platform does not support special characters or formatting, like bolding. To have such abstracts in your publication, the publication platform allows (or, will allow soon) you to upload the abstract as a PDF document. However, in that case the LaTeX document cannot contain other material because the PDF abstracts have a special page size. For further information, see the class documentation.
Jussi Pekonen, the maintainer of the aaltoseries class, Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics
The aaltologo package has been updated to version 1.1.2, you can download it from the aaltologo page (direct link to the package). This update relaxes the need of the babel package. If the babel package is not included, the logo text lines will be in English. However, if the logo text lines are wanted to be in Finnish and/or Swedish, use the babel package with appropriate language option.
Jussi Pekonen, the maintainer of the aaltologo package, Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics
The aaltologo package has been updated to version 1.1.1, and you can download it from the aaltologo page (direct link to the package). It is recommended that you download the updated version and use that instead of versions 1.0, 1.0.1, or 1.1 (an update uploaded on December 22, 2010). The updates of versions 1.1 and 1.1.1 are discussed in more detail below.
Logos of the New Schools
In the beginning of 2011, the School of Science and Technology was split into four schools. These new schools were previously faculties of the School of Science and Technology. Version 1.1 (and its update 1.1.1) provides the possibility to draw the logos of the new schools. The school is chosen via a package option like in the previous versions. The valid options are listed in the package documentation that is bundled in the distributed zip file.
The options for the School of Science and Technology are still accepted for legacy reasons, but they cause the package to cast a warning that the option is deprecated. Moreover, the logo will not contain the optional lines of the School of Science and Technology although one has given the package option for it.
School Abbreviations as Package Options
The official abbreviations of the schools has been decided. These abbreviations are accepted as the package options (without the Aalto prefix), and they set the school name variable accordingly so the logo of the school will be drawn. The list of the official abbreviations the package accepts as package options is given in the package documentation.
Color Media Change Command
In some cases, it would be required that the color media definition of the Aalto University colors needs to be changed in the running text. For that, from the version 1.1 onward the aaltologo package provides a command for that. The command is
\AaltoLogoChangeColorMedia[<media>]
where the optional parameter given in square brackets is one of the accepted package options for the color media: RGB, Coated, or Uncoated. If the optional parameter is not given, the color media is changed to RGB.
Font Change
The typewriter font that is typically used for typesetting code or pre-formatted text has been changed from version 1.0. The previously used Computer Modern Proportional did not suit for the purpose of the typewriter font, and therefore it was changed to TXTT.
Jussi Pekonen, the maintainer of the aaltologo package, Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics
The aaltologo package has been updated to version 1.0.1, and you can download it from the aaltologo page (direct link to the package). It is recommended that you download the updated version and use that instead of version 1.0. The updates are discussed in more detail below.
Bug Fix: Randomization
In version 1.0 of the aaltologo package, the randomization command set the random number generator seed to be the page number. This was one of the ideas we had back then when we were developing the package. Unfortunately this approach leads to a specific sequence of logos if no preparation is done by the user in the document preamble or in the very beginning of the document. In the updated version 1.0.1 of the aaltologo package, this issue has been removed and the randomization command produces truly random sequence of logos as the random number generator seed is determined by the LaTeX timestamp and the line number where the seeding happens. This means that the logo sequence differs from a compilation to another, if the LaTeX timestamp has changed. Since the resolution of the LaTeX timestamp is one minute, a new sequence can be generated quite often.
Compatibility Improvement: TeXlive 2007 and its derivatives
Version 1.0 of the aaltologo package is incompatible with TeXlive 2007 distribution (and its derivative distributions MacTeX and MikTeX from 2007). With TeXlive 2007 distribution, compilation of a document that used version 1.0 of the aaltologo package lead to an error message. This incompatibility has been resolved as version 1.0 of the aaltologo package contained internal drawing commands that used an option not implemented in the version of TikZ that TeXlive 2007 contains. Fortunately, this option was only a relic of the development versions where the logo text lines were actually typed text instead of drawn text as they are now. By removing this option, the updated version 1.0.1 of the aaltologo package does not produce the error message. However, there may be problems in setting the logo language. This is due to the features of the babel package the aaltologo package requires. If you encounter this problem, you need to update the babel package. However, an easier approach is to update the whole LaTeX distribution.
Note: Compatibility of the aaltologo package (any version) with the pre-2007 LaTeX distributions has not been tested. It is recommended that you use a post-2007 distribution for ensured compatibility. Furthermore, plain TeX compatibility of the aaltologo package (any version) has not been implemented.
Jussi Pekonen, the maintainer of the aaltologo package, Department of Signal Processing and Acoustics