How to get started with LaTeX?

[NGene]

I'm completely fed up with gui wordprocessors. They're confusing, hard to use, and they don't get anything right. They're good for small documents, but big documents with a lot of formatting are just a pain in the arse. Formatting a text document by clicking through an endless jungle of dialog boxes is anything but user-friendly.

Ok, to the topic (boy, ranting is fun). I want something that can be made using a nice simple text editor, so LaTeX is what first comes into my mind.

1. So where do I start? Google found a lot of introductions to LaTeX so documentation shouldn't be a problem, but is there some tutorial you guys especially recommend?

2. Where can I find some examples of LaTeX documents? The best way to learn is to watch how somebody else does it.

3. What software do I need and what additional software would be useful?

Thanks in advance for any info.

[redhead]

1)The not so short introduction to LaTeX http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info...lish/lshort.ps
If you havn't read it, go read it..

2)Hmm.... lets see.. read the documentation, hack around till you create a document form, that suits you, keep a copy of that, and start your following documents from that level.
(Edit)
What the hell, if you can read danish, here is one of my standard(tm) document form http://www.diku.dk/students/redhead/tex.tgz
The frontpage.sty file creates the nice frontpage, once its compiled, and teh other .sty files will be usefull, if you should include C/C++/fortran code into your documents.. \include_c{my_c_code.c}
With correct indentation and the like automatic created..
(Edit again)
Still if you like a _very_ simple.. http://www.diku.dk/students/redhead/tex1.tgz
The beetlepack.sty is there to create the document style/titlepage/conversions etc.. But the document itself is so simple as it can get..

3)You could use teTeX http://www.tug.org/teTeX/

Redhead.... you're back to...

today is really a good day...

[redhead]

Redhead.... you're back to...

today is really a good day...

Nah, not quite that good.. Just found out, a friend of mine has been in a coma for the past 10 days..

Nah, not quite that good.. Just found out, a friend of mine has been in a coma for the past 10 days..

Damn... accident?

I hope he wakes up... if it makes you feel any better I just got word this morning that my aunts ALS is getting worse. She has now lost the ability to raise her arm to wave goodbye, due to her not being strong enough to lift it anymore.

So my parents left me in the house by myself to go see her, and I couldn't join them because I have school. So I guess I won't get to say goodbye to her.

So you're not alone...

[redhead]

Damn... accident?

You could say so.. They treated him for cancer by surgery, turned out they made a small NO NO..

If it makes you feel any better I just got word this morning that my aunts ALS is getting worse. She has now lost the ability to raise her arm to wave goodbye, due to her not being strong enough to lift it anymore.

Sorry to hear about that.

[cga]

Welcome to the Better Way, NGene.

The above are good. *"The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX" is the best beginning point. *See also

www.latex-project.org

And, the WindowMaker home page has the user manual LaTeX source available for download, if you want a nice example.

And those of us here who use LaTeX will always answer questions. * ;D *

[cga]

Another format to look into is sgml. *Sgml along with the docbook DTD and sgml-tools is a great way to create documents because you write one source file, which is much like writing html source, and then you can create output in several formats from that same file. *You can make html, LaTeX, RTF, ps and pdf from the same source file. *Very, very cool.

Checkout

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/docbo...k/docbook.html

for lots of great information.

[gmoreno]

What one use to preview latex docs? xpdf?

[pbharris]

http://lahelper.sourceforge.net/