grattex

This is the repository containing the configuration files for reports in the style of the Grattan Institute, Melbourne.

See https://github.com/grattan/grattex/blob/master/doc/grattexDocumentation.pdf for the documentation.

Starting a new report

Staff starting a new report need to "clone the grattex repository on Github" (copy the report template) and "import the repository to edit in Overleaf" (open the template in Overleaf). This can be done using the following steps.

[Once only]: Create your Github and Overleaf accounts

If you do not have a Github account that is connected to the Grattan organisation:

• Create a Github account at github.com using your @grattaninstitute email address and a username that makes it easy to identify yourself (and remember). [Skip if you already have a Github account]
• Ask Mia or Alan to add you to the Grattan Github organisation.

If you do not have an Overleaf account:

• Create an Overleaf account at overleaf.com using your @grattaninstitute email address.
• Ask Mia or Alan to add you to the Grattan Institute premium account.
• Under 'Account Settings', ensure your account is linked to both Dropbox and Github.

Part 1: Copy the template using Github

1. Logged into your github account, go to https://github.com/grattan/grattex
2. Click on Use this template (the green button on the top-right of the panel)
3. Change the Owner to grattan. Give your new repository a name that will clearly identify the project now and in the future. A good example is Energy-2018-stranded-assets. A bad example is health-report.
4. Select Private, and make sure the Include all branches is unchecked.
5. Click Create repository from template. This will take a minute to copy.
6. Once it has finished, you have successfully cloned the grattex repository (copied the report template). You can find it at https://github.com/grattan/[your-repository-name]. Now it's time to open and edit it in Overleaf.

Part 2: Open the template in Overleaf

8. Log into your account at at overleaf.com.
9. Click New Project > Import from GitHub.
10. Locate the repository you just created, and click Import to Overleaf.
11. Once imported the document will open and attempt to compile.
12. At the top right, click Share and:
    • add collaborators via their email address. Please add Mia, as well as the members of your team, plus Paul and Kat.
    • copy the Anyone with this link can edit the project link and paste it just under \documentclass{grattan} as a comment, i.e.:

    \documentclass{grattan}
    % Anyone with this link can edit the project:
    % https://www.overleaf.com/abcdefghi12345

      so that your coauthors can also invite people to edit the document in your absence

13. And that's it. You've now created a new report on Github and Overleaf.

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Working with LaTeX

You can get a long way in Latex using Overleaf's 'Rich Text' editor. When you open an Overleaf project and select a file ending in .tex from the left sidebar, code will appear in the centre panel of the screen. At the top left of the code is a toggle button, allowing you to see the file as 'Source' code (which looks code-ish) or 'Rich Text' (which looks a bit more like Microsoft Word, including buttons you can click for section heading or bold text).

Now you can write almost as easily as you would in more user-friendly text editors like Word.

For anything more advanced (footnotes, referencing, tables, figures and other miscellaneous troubleshooting), there are three resources that might help.

1. Using LaTeX in reports at Grattan is a more-than-one-hundred page document that should contain the answer. It lives in the Grattan Dropbox under Grattan Team > Templates > LaTeX > grattexDocumentation.pdf. While super helpful and comprehensive, the document is very long -- the best strategy is to ctrl+F for whatever you need assistance with.
2. The latexShowcase project in Overleaf contains many examples of code that you might find useful, including how to use boxes and complex tables. Ask Mia to invite you to this project if you didn't already receive the invite during your induction.
3. Your colleagues have probably encountered any issues you might have. Breaking a Latex document can be unnerving and frustrating, but the fix usually takes only a few seconds. Ask around! Mia is the designated 'Latexnician' as of January 2026, and is more than happy to help.

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To release a report

Releasing a report involves adding the front cover, updating the logos/affiliates on page 2, and adding the ISBN and report number

1. To add the front cover, ensure that there is a folder in the Overleaf project called FrontPages, which must contain the front cover as a PDF with the name FrontPage.pdf. In Report.tex, change the first line of code from \documentclass[embargoed]{grattan} to \documentclass[FrontPage]{grattan}.
2. Check with Central Services what ISBN and report number your report should have, and ask for a png of the current Affiliates page. Replace whatever ISBN/report number is currently in Report.tex with the correct one. Save the affiliates page in the folder Frontpages with the file name AffiliatesPage.png.
3. Check that \CenturyFootnote is between the 99th and 100th footnote (this will fix the spacing on subsequent footnotes, making sure three-digit footnotes still have a space between the full stop and the footnote content.) Now download your Overleaf project again -- just as you did one week ago, it's time to run checkGrattanReport(), ensuring that your team is not trying to make any final changes to the document.

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Changelog

2026-01-09

• Updated documentation to reflect current processes, including new affiliates page process

2024-09-13

• Changed affiliates page.

2018-09-07

• Penalties for hyphenation increased

2018-02-26

• Fix issue #102 which manifested on TeX Live distributions (like Travis-CI) where Ibid. (<page ref>) resulted in the p being uppercase (PR #114). Thanks to JD for filing.

2017-09-01

• Increase hyphenation penalties. Closes #85

2017-08-22

• Add \note(s)withsource(s) permutations. Closes #81

2017-08-20

• Add centredsmallbox.

2017-08-18 v1.3.0

• Enable the detection of page-straddling cross-references via additional entries in .log

2017-07-18

• Appendix chapter titles are named 'Appendix A' etc.

2017-01-17

• New option 'submission'.

2017-01-06

• Add \Chapref and friends for neater hyperlinks to chapters
• Add \ie \eg \etc macros.

2016-12-19

• Allow long URLs in bibliography, line-breaking at width #36
• Box footnotes are now non-italic #43
• New command, \doublecolumnfigure now used #46
• Documentation moved to ./doc/

2016-11-19

New features:

• New option embargoed enables a command \EmbargoDate which prints an Embargo mark on the title page and in the headers #32

• Patched bug in cleveref where varioref's phrase ``on the previous page'' is never used. #39

• [t] floats have captions aligned with the baseline. 076df622e7fec025382b804e1b809319aef2fe11

• KOMA-warnings' advice about footheight, headheight etc has been accepted. #40

• Glue component of space between footnote area and text has been reduced to 14pt (which is closer to the current leading). aec03a693b0aad85daa03ceef16316ef855b5b4a

• Manual specification of \textfloatsep has now been dropped in favour of the default

• Allow citations in acknowledgements #37