LaTeX Intro

[mechengr2000]

I hate how involved LaTeX is, but I feel it is unavoidable that I learn it.

Does anyone have a good resource that teaches LaTeX in a quick and "to the point" fashion?

[db2290]

I just started using it - I'm not in the hard sciences though so haven't delved too deeply into equations and so on. I found this template particularly useful for beginners to play around with and get a sense of the command structure: http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/textprocessing/ThesisStyle/

[IRdreams]

http://www.quantoid.net/ICPSR.php the latex presentation is pretty good and on the short side

[jblsmith]

I started using it with my undergrad honors thesis and have been using it ever since. I use it for any paper or presentation where I have a lot of equations or tables. Like any other language you just have to dive in and start writing, and use google a lot. I can send you a couple short TeX files using the article and beamer document classes if you want.

[LawlQuals]

The thing about LaTeX is that once you get a handle on it, you very well might end up loving how "involved" it is.

Start slow, and experiment with it on a few of your assignment submissions. I started out using 'getting to grips with LaTeX' tutorials, which you may locate readily via search. That helped me get started (junior year of undergrad), and I got better, learned more on every lab report I submitted, and every assignment I decided to typeset. I learned outside of this primer, from the not-so short introduction to LaTeX, talking with others for troubleshooting, but mostly by googling each query I had as it came to me. Now that I have been using it for more than 5 years, I have picked up a lot about it. Though, in no way would I still call myself an advanced user given the manner in which Iearned it, but I still am able to produce exactly what I want, the way I want it to look. Some universities have free seminars for LaTeX new users you may wish to check out if available.

There are shortcut applications that do much of the typesetting for you, such as Lyx, though I have not tried them out. I fear those would also be damaging for a new user's education in LaTeX, for it would not provide direct incentive to learn it in a raw fashion. If you use something like Lyx, you would use it essentially like MS word, which would prohibit you from knowing how to use it, and because of that lack of knowledge you do not know how much better you could be doing it.

[waddle]

I hate how involved LaTeX is, but I feel it is unavoidable that I learn it.

Does anyone have a good resource that teaches LaTeX in a quick and "to the point" fashion?

Welcome to the dark side! http://forum.thegradcafe.com/uploads/emoticons/default_wink.png' alt=';)'> CONVERT OR YOU SHALL BE CONVERTED

The easiest reference for me to consult for basic things is the Wikibooks on LaTeX (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX). I've found it invaluable for quickly finding the command for easily-forgettable, but common things, like how to change the size of page margins.

The thing about LaTeX is that once you get a handle on it, you very well might end up loving how "involved" it is.

Start slow, and experiment with it on a few of your assignment submissions. I started out using 'getting to grips with LaTeX' tutorials, which you may locate readily via search. That helped me get started (junior year of undergrad), and I got better, learned more on every lab report I submitted, and every assignment I decided to typeset. I learned outside of this primer, from the not-so short introduction to LaTeX, talking with others for troubleshooting, but mostly by googling each query I had as it came to me. Now that I have been using it for more than 5 years, I have picked up a lot about it. Though, in no way would I still call myself an advanced user given the manner in which Iearned it, but I still am able to produce exactly what I want, the way I want it to look. Some universities have free seminars for LaTeX new users you may wish to check out if available.

There are shortcut applications that do much of the typesetting for you, such as Lyx, though I have not tried them out. I fear those would also be damaging for a new user's education in LaTeX, for it would not provide direct incentive to learn it in a raw fashion. If you use something like Lyx, you would use it essentially like MS word, which would prohibit you from knowing how to use it, and because of that lack of knowledge you do not know how much better you could be doing it.

This. I've been using LaTeX for two years now, and I only started because I decided I would turn in a darn-good-looking report for a class (rather than something put together with Microsoft Equation Editor), and so I bit the bullet and spent a full weekend setting up LaTeX to do what I wanted (fancyhdr and all).

If you are on Windows, I would download the MikTeX distribution (I use the portable version (comes with TeXworks, a great little editor)) and start putting together documents with pdfLaTeX. MikTeX is great in that it auto-downloads any packages you call that are not installed on your computer.

I always just start with a basic document (see below), and expand from there (add packages for features you find you need (google works great--the LaTeX community hivemind is really good about figuring out solutions to problems or workarounds for TeX's many idiosyncrasies). LyX never worked for me, and after trying some of the more feature-packed (bloated, IMO) TeX source editors, I settled on the no-frills TeXworks. In a pinch (e.g., on somebody else's computer), I'd just use notepad and compile elsewhere.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{lipsum}  %calls the package "lipsum" (lorem ipsum)

\title{A Basic \LaTeX Article}

\author{waddle}

\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\begin{abstract} \LaTeX is awesome! \end{abstract}

This is the introduction to my document! The next few paragraphs are generated by the \textsf{lipsum} package. I haven't actually compiled this file so I hope I haven't made any major typos.

\section{Meaningless Text}

\lipsum

\section{This Code Box}

\ldots it's not doing what I want it to. What's with the colors?

\end{document}

Take the plunge! You'll like the way it looks. I guarantee it!*

*I'm not really going to guarantee that.

Edited January 5, 2012 by waddle

[ktel]

I started using it with my undergrad honors thesis and have been using it ever since. I use it for any paper or presentation where I have a lot of equations or tables. Like any other language you just have to dive in and start writing, and use google a lot. I can send you a couple short TeX files using the article and beamer document classes if you want.

This is exactly what I do. I take a template and just dive in. If I want to do something and don't know how, a quick Google search always does the trick. I may not have a thorough knowledge, but I can do what I need.