5.3.2 Greatest hits from previous weeks

5.3.2.1 Making the bibliography appear in the table of contents

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=8458

I need to make my (BibTeX) references section appear in the table of contents of my LaTeX document (documentclass: article), with section numbering too. 
My approach until now has been making a new  ... 
[sectioning] [table-of-contents] [bibliographies]
 

asked by Genba https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=2311 154 votes

answered by lockstep https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=510 108 votes

5.3.2.2 Keeping tables/figures close to where they are mentioned

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=2275

Is there any package or a method to force LaTeX to keep floating environments like table and figure closer to where they are declared? 
[floats] [positioning]
 

asked by artimess https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=833 300 votes

answered by Stefan Kottwitz https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=213 313 votes

5.3.2.3 How to create fixed width table columns with text raggedright/centered/raggedleft?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=12703

I would like to create a table with some columns' width specified, while the text in those columns should be centered both horizontally and vertically. I found out that 
\usepackage{array} 
... 
[tables] [horizontal-alignment] [width]
 

asked by Covi https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=3970 224 votes

answered by lockstep https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=510 341 votes

5.3.2.4 How to add an empty line between paragraphs?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=135134

I have two sections which I'd like to separate by an empty line. Every time I press Enter, LyX removes that empty line between paragraphs. How do I prevent this? 
[spacing] [lyx]
 

asked by goldisfine https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=37301 71 votes

answered by Werner https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=5764 91 votes

5.3.2.5 "Correct" way to bold/italicize text?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=41681

Is either of these considered better/more readable/more "proper"/more conventional than the other for making text bold? If so, what is the reason? 
I like my text \textbf{bold} 
versus: 
I like my  ... 
[best-practices] [bold] [italic]
 

asked by Mehrdad https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=2694 329 votes

answered by Todd Lehman https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=8499 332 votes

5.3.2.6 Real number symbol (UTF-8: a^\204\235) in XeTeX

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=104274

How can I get the 'real number' sign (something like \mathbb{R} with the amssymb package in LaTeX) in XeTeX? 
[math-mode] [xetex] [symbols] [amsmath] [plain-tex]
 

asked by lvaneesbeeck https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=24686 87 votes

answered by lvaneesbeeck https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=24686 7 votes

5.3.2.7 How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=question&id=39017

How to influence the position of float environments like figure and table in LaTeX? 
This is a general question and should collect useful answers for all users. I hope we can use this as a reference 
[floats] [positioning]
 

asked by Marco Daniel https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=5239 571 votes

answered by Frank Mittelbach https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/newsletter?cta=user&id=10109 831 votes