Learning and Using LaTeX

  • Introductory texts:
    • M. Downes, "Short Math Guide to LaTeX," pdf
    G. Graetzer, "Math into LaTeX", (go directly to Short-Course.pdf or the sample article sampart.tex)
    T. Oetiker et. al., "The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX 2e," pdf
    K. Reckdahl, "Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX 2e," pdf

  • Practical matters:
    • LaTeX is free software. The most popular distribution for Windows is MikTeX. Once you have LaTeX installed, you can write documents in any text editor (like XEmacs or even Wordpad). There are some more specialized editors, like WinEdt, for Windows (free trialware), or TeXnicCenter, also for Windows, or Kile, for the (mainly Linux) KDE environment.

  • Examples and Templates:
    • the file template.tex can be used as a skeleton for your papers; it also contains some useful advice about mathematical writing, and examples of basic mathematical typesetting. Here is a pdf file of the typeset article. The file matrices.tex shows various ways of typesetting matrices (copying some classical math textbooks). The pdf file is here.