latex forum texlive install (zenwalk) general guide general guide latex basics latex basics formatting formatting tips font info more font equations
Unlike MS Word, LaTeX's features are transparent,non-proprietary, and configurable to very fine grain. LaTeX is large at first, before one understands what set of binaries they will typically use. One becomes more efficient and more accurate as they learn, but the easiest approach for a noob appears to be to download a complete 2.8 GB TexLive or MiKTeX iso. Just burn it to DVD and then install it to the hard-drive from the DVD. One will avoid encountering missing binary requirements by having a complete installation.
tex files
The basic LaTeX file is the ascii .tex file. It can be edited with any text editor. Once complete, the source .tex is compiled into a .dvi file (device independent), but it can also be compiled into other formats, such as .pdf, .ps, .ep, etc.
tex file syntax
The default settings for margins are huge, around 2" in every direction. In the basic .tex file below, I added {geometry} package information to overcome this but, if the default geometry is desired, {geometry} can be deleted. One can create their own style sheets and call them with \usepackage, applying desired behavior across any document, similar to the way a css sheet does in an html document.
test.tex
% percents are comments
\documentclass[letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage[left=3cm,top=3cm,right=3cm,nohead,nofoot]{geometry}
\usepackage[british]{babel}
% \usepackage[T1]{fontenc} accents, umlauts, etc
% \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} chinese characters
% \usepackage{graphicx} if photos
% \usepackage{indentfirst} indents first para in section
% \usepackage[scaled]{helvet} sans serif pt1
% \renewcommand*\familydefault{\sfdefault} sans serif pt2
\author{\LaTeX Newbie}
\title{A Quick Example}
\begin{document}
\section{Notes Wk 1}
Math 674 -- Spring 2010
\subsection{20100116 Introduction}
We review the syllabus and introductions. A primary concern seems to be the use of a calculator.\\
Here are a couple of equations that are pretty well known, the second being the quadractic formula. I'm uncertain how to make a larger space between the two equations:
\begin{displaymath}
E = mc^2
\begin{array}{*{20}c} {x = \frac{{ - b \pm \sqrt {b^2 - 4ac} }}{{2a}}} &
{{\rm{when}}} & {ax^2 + bx + c = 0} \\ \end{array}
\end{displaymath}
\noindent
Just a short follow-up text
\end{document}
If we then compiled it into a .pdf with the command, say $ pdflatex test.tex , it looks like this:
combine files into larger document
I can't write it any better than this excellent post for combining multiple .tex files into a book or other larger document.
