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LaTeX Introduction

Wenguang WangDepartment of Computer Science

University of Saskatchewan

February 28, 2000

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What is LaTeX

• How to pronounce LaTeX? (Lah-tek, or Lay-tek)

• A typesetting program, not a word-processor

• Macros of TeX (Donald E. Knuth)

• Current version LaTeX2• Designed for producing beautiful books, thesises,

papers, articles...

• De facto standard for writing academic papers

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Why LaTeX, not Word?• Professional result• Platform, version independent (Unix, Windows…)• Pre-set standard formats (for paper, thesis…)• Bibliography management • Fast, professional math equations typesetting• Free available• The commands are easy to learn• Never crash, never lose your file • Can compile very big books (unless your

document is more than 70,000 pages!)

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Disadvantages

• You need other software (xfig) for pictures (Word picture can be used in LaTeX)

• Spelling/grammar checking is not as convenient as those in MS Word (emacs+ispell is good)

• Not WYSIWYG (try klyx and lyx on /grad/wew036/bin)

• Remember some commands• Not straightforward for creating complex tables• Not integrated with other MS Office products

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Where to get LaTeX?

• Unix:– Skorpio, buzz, all ultra* machines in our department

• Windows– MikTeX http://www.miktex.de/

– WinShell, a free LaTeX editor

– Emacs for Windows, ispell for Windows

• Where to get help? newsgroup comp.text.tex• http://www.cs.usask.ca/grads/wew036/latex/

– Introduction and tips for LaTeX

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How To Run LaTeX• Edit emacs myfile.tex• Compile latex myfile

F5 (WinShell)• View the dvi file xdvi myfile (UNIX)

F7 (WinShell) yap myfile (Windows)• Dvi --> PostScript dvips myfile

F8 (WinShell)• View PostScript gv myfile (UNIX)

F9 (WinShell) Use gsview (Windows)

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BibTeX--Bibliography Management• Bibliography database file mybib.bib

• Command \cite{biblabel}

• How to compile– latex myfile– bibtex myfile– latex myfile (may need to run twice)

• “.bib” file template (see my home page)

• Two bibliography servers (see my home page)– Powerful search engines– BibTeX file included

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Spell checking by emacs+ispell

• Edit Spell Check Buffer

• Edit Spell Continue Check

• Commands:– Space: keep unchanged– a: accept this word for this session– i: insert to my directory– <num>:replace the word– x: exit spell checking

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LaTeX Skeleton% my first LaTeX file

\documentclass{article}

% preamble

\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}

\section{This is a section}

\subsection{This is a subsection}

First paragraph is here.

Second paragraph is here.

\end{document}

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Now let’s learn by samples

We concentrate on

what you can do, not how do you do.

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Thank you!For more details, check my home page:

http://www.cs.usask.ca/grads/wew036/latex

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How to run LaTeX

latex myfile

xdvi myfile (UNIX)

Edit myfile

Resolve cross-

reference

Resolve compile error

yap myfile (Windows)

myfile.tex

myfile.dvi

dvips myfile myfile.ps

print