Difference between revisions of "LaTeX"
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===Simple Tasks=== | ===Simple Tasks=== | ||
| + | Latex is basically a language for "marking up" plain text to indicate how it should be formatted. The Latex compiler reads the marked up text and generate the output that is indicated. In Latex terminology, the user used '''commands''' to tell the Latex compiler what to do. Latex commands start with an '\'. For example, the latex command to create the Greek letter alpha is <code>\alpha</code>. | ||
| + | A bare Latex document must declare the document class and have a document environmtn. | ||
====Inserting Math==== | ====Inserting Math==== | ||
Revision as of 09:06, 14 March 2013
Latex is a program for typesetting papers. It is very good at typesetting math, so it is commonly used in fields that require equations to be displayed in papers.
Installation
To start writing Latex documents, you two things. A Latex ``compiler (this is a set of programs and files that allow you to generate pdfs from a Latex file), and a Latex editor (you can use a plain text editor, but an editor designed for Latex will have many more handy features). There are a few different Latex compilers and editors. The instructions below are to install the texlive compiler and texmaker editor.
- Windows
- download and run the install-tl.zip file from here http://www.tug.org/texlive/acquire-netinstall.html
- install texmaker, which is cross platform, from here http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/
- configure texmaker: go to toolbar, choose options/quick build/User, add the following text
latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|bibtex %.aux|latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|latex -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex|dvips -t letter %.dvi -o %.ps|ps2pdf -dPDFSETTINGS=/prepress %.ps
- Mac
- Follow the instructions here http://www.tug.org/mactex/2011/
- install texmaker, which is cross platform, from here http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/
- Ubuntu Linux
- use synaptic to install the texmaker which will automatically install texlive as well
> sudo apt-get install texmaker
You may also want to to install the REVTeX package (https://authors.aps.org/revtex4/). Many APS journals use a style included in this package. However, it is not necessary to do this before starting to use Latex. For more information on installing custom document and bibliography styles, see http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~hildebr/tex/tips-customstyles.html
Here is a template that can be used for Advanced Lab: File:Advanced lab.tar (Use 7-Zip, http://www.7-zip.org/, on Windows to extract this .tar file.)
Using LaTeX
External References
There are many, many different websites full of tutorials and references for Latex. Here are a couple of good ones.
LaTeX Wikibook: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX
LaTeX Cookbook: http://www.personal.ceu.hu/tex/cookbook.html
Simple Tasks
Latex is basically a language for "marking up" plain text to indicate how it should be formatted. The Latex compiler reads the marked up text and generate the output that is indicated. In Latex terminology, the user used commands to tell the Latex compiler what to do. Latex commands start with an '\'. For example, the latex command to create the Greek letter alpha is \alpha.
A bare Latex document must declare the document class and have a document environmtn.
