-- SamPreston - 18 Nov 2007

LaTeX Tips

Getting Started

1. Create a minimal document, name it whatever.tex:

      \documentclass[a4paper,11pt]{article}
      % define the title
      \author{H.~Partl}
      \title{Minimalism}
      \begin{document}
      % generates the title
      \maketitle
      % insert the table of contents
      \tableofcontents
      \section{Some Interesting Words}
      Well, and here begins my lovely article.
      \section{Good Bye World}
      \ldots{} and here it ends.
      \end{document}
      

2. Create a dvi:

      latex whatever.tex
      

3. View the dvi with:

      xdvi whatever.dvi
      

   or create a pdf with dvipdf:

      dvipdf whatever.dvi
      

The search path (adding .sty files)

If you need to add a new .sty file, you can usually install it by running latex on the included .ins file, for example:

latex mathdots.ins

But you will still have to put the .sty and possibly a .tex file somewhere on the latex search path. The search path is controlled by the TEXINPUTS environment variable, so have a look at the value and either copy to a directory on the existing search path, or modify the environment variable (perhaps in your .bashrc file) to include a directory of your choice.

See Also

• MathEquationTypesetting
• The (not so) short guide to LaTex2e