diff --git a/templates/tex/latex_sphinx_base.tplx b/templates/tex/latex_sphinx_base.tplx
index 59fe839..473bcc2 100644
--- a/templates/tex/latex_sphinx_base.tplx
+++ b/templates/tex/latex_sphinx_base.tplx
@@ -32,13 +32,116 @@
     \usepackage{((( resources.sphinx_texinputs )))/sphinx}
     \usepackage{multirow}
 
+    \usepackage{amsmath}
+    \usepackage{amssymb}
+    \usepackage{graphicx}
+    \usepackage{ucs}
+    \usepackage{enumerate}
+
+% Define a few colors for use in code, links and cell shading
+\usepackage{color}
+\definecolor{orange}{cmyk}{0,0.4,0.8,0.2}
+\definecolor{darkorange}{rgb}{.71,0.21,0.01}
+\definecolor{darkgreen}{rgb}{.12,.54,.11}
+\definecolor{myteal}{rgb}{.26, .44, .56}
+\definecolor{gray}{gray}{0.45}
+\definecolor{lightgray}{gray}{.95}
+\definecolor{mediumgray}{gray}{.8}
+\definecolor{inputbackground}{rgb}{.95, .95, .85}
+\definecolor{outputbackground}{rgb}{.95, .95, .95}
+\definecolor{traceback}{rgb}{1, .95, .95}
+
+% Framed environments for code cells (inputs, outputs, errors, ...).  The
+% various uses of \unskip (or not) at the end were fine-tuned by hand, so don't
+% randomly change them unless you're sure of the effect it will have.
+\usepackage{framed}
+
+% remove extraneous vertical space in boxes
+\setlength\fboxsep{0pt}
+
+% codecell is the whole input+output set of blocks that a Code cell can
+% generate.
+
+% TODO: unfortunately, it seems that using a framed codecell environment breaks
+% the ability of the frames inside of it to be broken across pages.  This
+% causes at least the problem of having lots of empty space at the bottom of
+% pages as new frames are moved to the next page, and if a single frame is too
+% long to fit on a page, will completely stop latex from compiling the
+% document.  So unless we figure out a solution to this, we'll have to instead
+% leave the codecell env. as empty.  I'm keeping the original codecell
+% definition here (a thin vertical bar) for reference, in case we find a
+% solution to the page break issue.
+
+%% \newenvironment{codecell}{%
+%%     \def\FrameCommand{\color{mediumgray} \vrule width 1pt \hspace{5pt}}%
+%%    \MakeFramed{\vspace{-0.5em}}}
+%%  {\unskip\endMakeFramed}
+
+% For now, make this a no-op...
+\newenvironment{codecell}{}
+
+ \newenvironment{codeinput}{%
+   \def\FrameCommand{\colorbox{inputbackground}}%
+   \MakeFramed{\advance\hsize-\width \FrameRestore}}
+ {\unskip\endMakeFramed}
+
+\newenvironment{codeoutput}{%
+   \def\FrameCommand{\colorbox{outputbackground}}%
+   \vspace{-1.4em}
+   \MakeFramed{\advance\hsize-\width \FrameRestore}}
+ {\unskip\medskip\endMakeFramed}
+
+\newenvironment{traceback}{%
+   \def\FrameCommand{\colorbox{traceback}}%
+   \MakeFramed{\advance\hsize-\width \FrameRestore}}
+ {\endMakeFramed}
+
+% Use and configure listings package for nicely formatted code
+\usepackage{listingsutf8}
+\lstset{
+  language=python,
+  inputencoding=utf8x,
+  extendedchars=\true,
+  aboveskip=\smallskipamount,
+  belowskip=\smallskipamount,
+  xleftmargin=2mm,
+  breaklines=true,
+  basicstyle=\small \ttfamily,
+  showstringspaces=false,
+  keywordstyle=\color{blue}\bfseries,
+  commentstyle=\color{myteal},
+  stringstyle=\color{darkgreen},
+  identifierstyle=\color{darkorange},
+  columns=fullflexible,  % tighter character kerning, like verb
+}
+
+% The hyperref package gives us a pdf with properly built
+% internal navigation ('pdf bookmarks' for the table of contents,
+% internal cross-reference links, web links for URLs, etc.)
+\usepackage{hyperref}
+\hypersetup{
+  breaklinks=true,  % so long urls are correctly broken across lines
+  colorlinks=true,
+  urlcolor=blue,
+  linkcolor=darkorange,
+  citecolor=darkgreen,
+  }
+
+% hardcode size of all verbatim environments to be a bit smaller
+\makeatletter 
+\g@addto@macro\@verbatim\small\topsep=0.5em\partopsep=0pt
+\makeatother 
+
+% Prevent overflowing lines due to urls and other hard-to-break entities.
+\sloppy
+
     % Document level variables
-    \title{((( nb.metadata.name )))} 
-    \date{((( nb.metadata.date )))}
-    \release{((( nb.metadata.version )))} 
-    \author{((( nb.metadata.author )))}
+    \title{((( filterOutLatex(nb.metadata.name) )))} 
+    \date{((( filterOutLatex(nb.metadata.date) )))}
+    \release{((( filterOutLatex(nb.metadata.version) )))} 
+    \author{((( filterOutLatex(nb.metadata.author) )))}
     \newcommand{\sphinxlogo}{}
-    \renewcommand{\releasename}{((( nb.metadata.release )))} 
+    \renewcommand{\releasename}{((( filterOutLatex(nb.metadata.release) )))} 
     \makeindex
 
     
@@ -81,7 +184,7 @@
         ((* block h5 -*))subsubsection((* endblock h5 -*))
     ((*- elif cell.level == 6 -*))
         ((* block h6 -*))paragraph((* endblock h6 -*))
-    ((*- endif -*)){((( cell.source | markdown2latex )))}
+    ((*- endif -*)){((( filterOutLatex(cell.source) )))} ((= | markdown2latex =))
 ((*- endblock headingcell *))
 
 ((* block unknowncell scoped*))
@@ -102,6 +205,7 @@ not get touched by the templating system. =))
 
 ((* macro filterOutLatex(text) -*))
     ((*- set text = text|replace("\\","\\backslash") -*))
+    ((*- set text = text|replace("_","\\_") -*))
     ((*- set text = text|replace("{","\\{") -*))
     ((*- set text = text|replace("}","\\}") -*))
     ((*- set text = text|replace("|","\\vert") -*))
@@ -117,11 +221,10 @@ not get touched by the templating system. =))
     \begin{center}\setlength{\fboxsep}{5pt}
     \shadowbox{\box0}\end{center}
 
-
 ((========================================================================
     EVERYTHING BELOW HERE STILL NEEDS TO BE FILLED IN!
   ========================================================================))
-
+((=
 ((*- block codecell scoped -*))
     ((*- block input_group -*))
         ((*- block in_prompt -*))((*- endblock in_prompt -*))
@@ -161,3 +264,5 @@ not get touched by the templating system. =))
     ((*- endblock output_group -*))
         ((*- endif -*))
 ((*- endblock codecell -*))
+=))
+