Page with Symbols and Notation

Question

I want to make a section for symbols and special notation, which should look like this:

What would you suggest in doing this? Should I just do like a table and create an array of 3 columns?

Answer 1

You could use the glossaries package; a little example:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{glossaries}

\newglossary{symbols}{sym}{sbl}{List of Abbreviations and Symbols}
\makeglossary

\newglossaryentry{fn}{type=symbols,name={\ensuremath{F_n}},sort=fn,
description={Empirical (sample) distribution function}}
\newglossaryentry{fncon}{type=symbols,name={\ensuremath{F^{n^\ast}}},sort=fnc,
description={$n$-fold convolution of the distribution function/distribution $F$}}

\begin{document}

\gls{fn}

\gls{fncon}

\printglossaries
\end{document}

The document must be processed using, for example, (pdf)latex + makeglossaries + (pdf)latex. Refer to the package documentation to see all the possibilities it offers.

Answer 2

Is it a nomenclature? Then you can use nomentbl package for this.

A MWE

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[intoc]{nomentbl}
\makenomenclature
\renewcommand{\nomname}{List of Abbreviations and Symbols}
\renewcommand{\nompreamble}{Following symbols are used in the present work:}
\setlength{\nomitemsep}{-\parsep}
\usepackage[colorlinks=true]{hyperref}

\begin{document}
\printnomenclature
\clearpage
\phantomsection
This is $F$\label{nomen:F} \nomenclature[EF]{$F$}{Objective function}{}{\pageref{nomen:F}}
\clearpage
\newpage
\phantomsection
This is $ND\_SNK$\label{nomen:ND} \nomenclature[EN]{$ND\_SNK$}{Total number of load buses in sink area}{}{\pageref{nomen:ND}}
\newpage
\phantomsection
This is $P_{Gi}$\label{nomen:Gi} \nomenclature[EP]{$P_{Gi}$}{Real power generation at bus $i$}{MW}{\pageref{nomen:Gi}}

\end{document}

By using a label and hyperref the page numbers can be turned into clickage links.

This has to be compiled with pdflatex. And then, you have to run makeindex.exe -s nomentbl.ist -t "doi.nlg" -o "doi.nls" "doi.nlo", where doi is the name of your .tex (doi.tex) file. And, agian you have to run pdflatex ondoi.tex`.

Answer 3

Here's a simple way:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}
\begin{tabular}{p{1.75cm}p{10cm}p{1cm}}
$N(\mu, \sum)$ & multivariate Gaussian (normal) distribution with mean   vector $\mu$
and covariance matrix $\sum$ & $1$\\
$M_n$ & maximum of $X_1$, $X_2$, \ldots, $X_n$ & $14$\\
$I_A$ & indicator function of the set $A$ & $175$\\
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

The arguments like p{1.75cm} tell you how wide the column is. If the information is too long, as in the first line (2nd column), it overflows to the second line.