Using abbreviations

It frequently happens that you using the same, long term in your document. For example, my implementation is called "Copacabana". Creating an abbreviation has many advantages: First, when you decide to change the name, it suffices to change the name in one place only. Secondly, the same holds for formatting.

Here's how not to do it:

\newcommand{\copa}{Copacabana}

Why not? Imagine the following LaTeX source:

The tool \copa is the best!

results in the following output:

The tool Copacabanais the best!

The solution is using \xspace! This command inserts a space only where it makes sense, e.g., between two words, but not between the word and a punctuation mark.

\newcommand{\copa}{Copacabana\xspace}

Nice, ey? For using \xspace, you must add the following to the header of your LaTeX file:

\usepackage{xspace}