Thesis & Long Documents

My University Thesis Template Is Broken — How to Fix It

University thesis templates are often years or decades old, written by a grad student who has since graduated, and never updated. Here are the most common issues and how to fix them.

Fix Encoding Issues

Old templates often use legacy encoding. Update to modern UTF-8:

% OLD (remove these):
% \usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
% \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

% MODERN (add this instead):
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

% Or if using LuaLaTeX/XeLaTeX:
% \usepackage{fontspec}  % Handles encoding automatically

Replace Deprecated Packages

Many old templates use packages that have been superseded:

% OLD → NEW replacements:
% \usepackage{subfigure}  →  \usepackage{subcaption}
% \usepackage{t1enc}     →  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
% \usepackage{pslatex}   →  \usepackage{mathptmx} or \usepackage{newtxtext}
% \usepackage{epsfig}    →  \usepackage{graphicx}
% \usepackage{doublespace} → \usepackage{setspace}
%
% Remove if present (now built-in):
% \usepackage{ae}
% \usepackage{aecompl}

Fix Common Compilation Errors

Address the most frequent template errors:

% Error: "Option clash for package X"
% Fix: Load the package only once. If the template loads it,
% don't load it again in your preamble.

% Error: "Missing \begin{document}"
% Fix: Check for non-ASCII characters before \begin{document}
% or a misplaced \usepackage after \begin{document}

% Error: "Undefined control sequence" for old commands
% \bf → \textbf{...} or \bfseries
% \it → \textit{...} or \itshape
% \rm → \textrm{...} or \rmfamily

💡 Tips

•Always keep a backup of the original template before making changes
•Compile the template as-is first to see the baseline errors
•Ask your department if there's an updated version — someone may have fixed it already
•Bibby AI's 'Fix with Bibby' feature can automatically diagnose and fix many template issues

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