LaTeX - The First Time

The way to learn LaTeX is to get some sample files and a good reference book (ie LaTeX by Lamport, LaTeX Companion by Goossens et al). Play around and when you get stuck ask your office mates.

Getting started

Start with a sample TeX file, sample.tex
Edit the file using a text editor, say emacs. For example, at the command prompt:
```
 > emacs sample.tex & 
```
After editing and saving, run LaTeX on the file. Either at the command prompt:
> latex sample
or within emacs, under the Command menu select Latex (Ctrl c Ctrl f).

If you get errors after running LaTeX, you must edit and save the file then run LaTeX again. When LaTeX is successful, LaTeX will generate a .dvi file (device-independent): sample.dvi.
To create a .ps (postscript) file, at the command prompt:
```
 > dvips sample -o sample.ps 
```
To view the .ps file:
```
 > ghostview  sample.ps & 
```
To print the file (from gauss or newton):
```
 > lp sample.ps 
```
When you are done with LaTeX, you may clean up your directory of unnecessary files:
```
 > clean 
```
This command removes .dvi, .aux and .log files.

Some Sample Files

Example	.tex	.ps	Figures
M175 Quiz	m175_quiz.tex	m175_quiz.ps	none
M181 Quiz	m181_quiz.tex	m181_quiz.ps	none
M221 Quiz	m221_quiz.tex	m221_quiz.ps	vects.eps
M176 Exam	m176_exam.tex	m176_exam.ps	none
M175 Final Exam	m175_final.tex	m175_final.ps	s02fa.ps, s02fb.ps, s02fc.ps,

Unix and TeX Help

Unix help: Short tutorial (html), List of commands (postscript version), short command list (html)
TeX Reference Card: (pdf format), (postscript version)
AMSTeX Reference Card: (pdf format), (postscript version)

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Last Modified: Tuesday, 14-Jun-2011 16:52:16 MDT