Last week I posted a LaTeX code fragment on Usenet (comp.text.tex) and
asked for help in understanding just what it is doing. No one replied to my
request.

  The context is that I have a LaTeX file that is used to grade exams at an
Australian University and the author gave me permission to modify it for my
needs: doing pairwise comparisons to be tabulated by scanning the forms in an
optical mark sensing reader (such as the ScanTron(R)).

  I understand the part of the preamble that sets up the page size and
margins. Now I'm trying to understand the relationships among the code and
the appearance of the form. PSTricks is used to draw the ovals in which one
marks his choices with a No. 2 pencil, and the multido package is used to
produce an answer line for each question. Unfortunately, I'm not sufficiently
fluent in LaTeX to really understand what I read. This means I don't know how
to modify it for my purposes.

  Ideally, I'd like to create a template that will produce a scannable form
for a variable number of items; two columns per side and multiple sides or
pages when necessary. I think that the "questions" will be on a separate
sheet so that the scanned forms contain only the answers.

  Anyway, I need a tutor (or mentor, if you will) willing to teach me what
the template is doing (and why it's doing that) so I can intelligently create
the template I need. No one on the news group expressed any interest so I'm
asking here if anyone will help -- off the list, of course, as it's not
directly related to LyX.

  I have spent time in Kopka and Daly's "Guide to LaTeX, 4th Ed" and in TLC2.
However, I still need a cluestick or two from someone fluent in LaTeX. FWIW,
the world headquarters of TUG is here in Portland, a mere 15 miles from me,
but I've not had any luck in contacting anyone there. :-)

TIA,

Rich

--
Dr. Richard B. Shepard, President
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc. (TM)
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>   Voice: 503-667-4517   Fax: 503-667-8863

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