Tools#

Tools and workflows for project infrastructure, writing, and data handling.

Veracrypt#

Veracrypt is a free, open-source file and disk encryption software that allows you to create encrypted folders and volumes (the continuation of the TrueCrypt project). We use it to securely store sensitive files and data from user studies like recordings, (no yet de-identified) transcripts, and participant mappings.

General Idea: You create an encrypted volume (a file that acts like a disk) and mount it as a virtual drive. When mounted, you can read and write files to it just like any other drive, but the data is encrypted on-the-fly. When you unmount the volume, the data is securely encrypted and inaccessible without the correct password or key. This encrypted volume can be stored on your local machine, an external drive, or even a cloud storage service.

Latexdiff

Latexdiff#

Using latexdiff#

In some situation, e.g., in shepherding, we might be required to submit a PDF that highlights changes between two versions of a TeX project. For this, we can use latexdiff. It is a command line Perl script that runs locally (not on Overleaf) that compares two versions and automatically creates a markup that visually highlights deletions and additions between the two versions.

latexdiff. latexdiffis a fairly old project, although still being maintained, but might come with unecepected pitfalls. Expect a painful journey and manual bug fixing, as not everything might work out-of-the-box. That said, plan additional time ahead, and (ideally) don’t try this a few hours before a deadline.

Step by Step Guide:#

The following guide outlines how to create a diff LaTeX document with latexdiff.