Advice on MNRAS LaTeX class file mnras.cls, version 3.0

In June 2015 MNRAS released version 3.0 of the LaTeX class file mnras.cls for preparing papers. However, this is mangled in various ways, with the instructions/template provided not being consistent with the mnras.cls file.

So, here is some advice/hints about how to use this new MNRAS class file.

Here is what I used at the start of my last MNRAS paper.

   \documentclass[fleqn,usenatbib,usedcolumn]{mnras}
   %==============================================================================%
   \usepackage[british]{babel}             % British English hyphenation
   \usepackage{newtxtext}                  % Good fonts
   \usepackage[slantedGreek]{newtxmath}    %   "    "   (slanted Greek)
   %
   \let\la=\lesssim % for less than similar from newtxmath, not \la from mnras.cls
   %
   \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}                % Good font encoding
   \usepackage{graphicx}                   % Including figures
   %
   \begin{document}
   ...

Notes:

• do not use the a4paper or usegraphicx options for mnras.cls, but load the graphicx package explicitly;
• I use the newtx packages for nice fonts, with the slantedGreek option to ensure all greek letters are slanted, as is appropriate for variables (non-slanted greek letters are available, e.g. $\muup$ to give a micro prefix for units);
• in this case I reset \la to point to the amssymb-named character that is defined by newtxmath, not the one in mnras.cls;
• the usedcolumn loads the dcolumn package which is useful to align table columns by decimal places (mnras.cls defines three new column types, `d', `.' and `,' as per the first page of the documentation for the dcolumn package).

Here is what I then used at the paper for submitting to arXiv.

   \pdfoutput=1
   \documentclass[fleqn,usenatbib,usedcolumn]{mnras}
   %==============================================================================%
   \usepackage[british]{babel}             % British English hyphenation
   \usepackage{txfonts}                    % Reasonable fonts
   %
   \let\la=\lesssim % for less than similar from txfonts, not \la from mnras.cls
   %
   \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}                % Good font encoding
   \usepackage{graphicx}                   % Including figures
   %
   \hypersetup{pdfauthor={D. A. Green},
               pdftitle={Constraints on the distribution of supernova
                         remnants with Galactocentric radius},
               pdfkeywords={supernova remnants, Galaxy: structure, ISM: structure},
               bookmarksnumbered=true}
   %
   \setlength\topmargin{-2pc}
   %
   \volume{{\rm in press}}
   %
   \begin{document}
   ...

Notes:

• the first line forces .pdf output, and the \hypersetup gives useful document properties in the output .pdf (and ensures the navigation table of contents numbers the sections/subsections, which is not the default);
• arXiv did not have the newtx font packages, so I used the slightly less good txfonts package instead;
• the \setlength ... and \volume ... definitoons are to better centre the page vertically on A4 paper and make the header a bit more meaningful;
• also, include the mnras.cls file in your .tar sent to arXiv, as they do not have this file (and you may also want to include a text file called 00README.XXX containing the line nohypertex, so that the arXiv AutoTeX processing system does not include hyperref.sty, which is already loaded by mnras.cls, and so the arXiv processing goes more smoothly).

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