When I started to write my thesis I decided not to make things too complicated and to just type mathematical symbols each time they appear, like
$V_{s1}$
or ${CV_{D,\, \mathrm{Si}}^{*}}$
Now, finally I regretted and defined macros for each of them to
- avoid typing errors and typeset them always the same way
- make typing easier (by less characters to type and by being able to use the command completion feature of the editor.
Like that:
\newcommand{\FZ}[1]{\textcolor{blue}{\ensuremath{#1}}\xspace}
\newcommand{\CvDSi}{\FZ{CV_{D,\, \mathrm{Si}}^{*}}}
\newcommand{\Vs}{\FZ{V_{\mathrm{s}1}}}
(the (missing) blue color will help me to see where something is still typset "by hand" and the blue text color surely will be removed for the final version).
Questions:
Is there a more elegant way to typeset complex mathematical symbols which have to be used 100 times in a thesis?
Is there a way to automatically create a list (table) of those symbols, maybe even with a link to the equation/page where they are defined?
There was a post naming several possible solutions: List of mathematical notation / abbreviations. I never used an index in LaTeX yet - which one would be to prefer in my case?