8.14.2 Greatest hits from previous weeks

8.14.2.1 Why do the less than symbol (<) and the greater than symbol (>) appear wrong as upside down exclamation (A^\[DownExclamation]) or question mark (A^\[DownQuestion])?
8.14.2.2 Commenting out large sections
8.14.2.3 Using \footnote in a figure's \caption
8.14.2.4 How to add todo notes?
8.14.2.5 Using the \tab Command
8.14.2.6 Force figure placement in text
8.14.2.7 How to add an empty line between paragraphs?
8.14.2.1 Why do the less than symbol (<) and the greater than symbol (>) appear wrong as upside down exclamation (A^\[DownExclamation]) or question mark (A^\[DownQuestion])?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=2369

When typing < or > in LaTeX and compiling with pdflatex, the less than and greater than symbols appear at upside down exclamation points. I'm not in math mode. 
[symbols] [punctuation] [font-encodings]
 
asked by biased_estimator https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=996 Score of 297
answered by Stefan Kottwitz https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=213 Score of 266
8.14.2.2 Commenting out large sections

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=17816

To "comment out" a line, I need to insert a % at the beginning of the line (so that the line will not be compiled). 
Is there a way to comment out a large section without having to manually ... 
[comments]
 
asked by user5419 https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=5419 Score of 403
answered by Martin Scharrer https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=2975 Score of 310
8.14.2.3 Using \footnote in a figure's \caption

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=10181

Maybe this is an easy one, but I struggled with this now too long :) 
I want to have a footnote in a caption of a figure, see the example. 
\begin{figure}[!ht] 
\caption{a figure caption\footnote{... 
[floats] [footnotes] [captions]
 
asked by Matten https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=1125 Score of 289
answered by Dee https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=16059 Score of 211
8.14.2.4 How to add todo notes?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=9796

Is there a simple way to add todo notes to LaTeX documents ? 
I would like to have these notes in red in the generated pdf and a simple syntax to write them. 
[todonotes]
 
asked by aneuryzm https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=3182 Score of 311
8.14.2.5 Using the \tab Command

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=198432

I have seen several cases of people using the \tab command to insert a specific amount of space between objects (as opposed to the \hfill command which uses any remaining space).  However, I have ... 
[spacing]
 
asked by Mathematician https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=49199 Score of 87
answered by Mathematician https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=49199 Score of 97
8.14.2.6 Force figure placement in text

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=question&id=8625

I have a problem when a lot of figures are in question. Some figures tend to "fly around", that is, be a paragraph below, although I placed them before that paragraph. I use code: 
\begin{figure}[ht] 
\... 
[floats] [positioning] [captions]
 
asked by Marin https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=2755 Score of 585
answered by Juan A. Navarro https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=169 Score of 713
8.14.2.7 How to add an empty line between paragraphs?

https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?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/digest?cta=user&id=37301 Score of 139
answered by Werner https://tex.stackexchange.com/landing/r/digest?cta=user&id=5764 Score of 153