Crash Course in LaTeX

Getting Started: Downloading LaTeX

Fact: LaTeX is free, and many good editors are free or very inexpensive.

There are two pieces of software you need to use LaTeX: a LaTeX distribution, and an editor.

You use the editor to type your document. Examples include nano, emacs, and vi on Linux systems, and notepad on Windows systems. I recommend Winefish for Linux and WinEdt for Windows users. WinEdt is free to use if you don't mind an occasional annoying message; you can get rid of the annoying messages by registering (about $40). Alternatively, you can use TeXnicCenter which is free; I don't usually use it, but that is mostly because I was already using WinEdt.

If you don't have theAdobe Acrobat Reader (cost: free!) already, you might want to install it.

How do I get a LaTeX distribution?

Linux users:

You may already have LaTeX installed on your system. Type which latex at a command prompt to find out; if you have it, it will respond with /usr/bin/latex or something like that. If you don't have it, ask your administrator to install it. If you are on your own, and using Ubuntu or some other Debian-based Linux distribution, run the following as root:

apt-get install tetex-base tetex-bin tetex-extra

If you are using another linux distribution, you can download teTeX and install it. The instructions are written in something reasonably close to English. I'm no UNIX expert, and I was able to install it on my Linux machine without screwing anything up. Good luck.

Windows users:

proTeXt is a high quality free version of LaTeX that installs easily. It includes MiKTeX (a LaTeX distribution), TeXnicCenter (a free editor), and a couple of other programs (Ghostscript and GSview) that make it easier to view the files LaTeX creates.

Download the proTeXt installer here, then run it. The directions are pretty simple and you can accept the defaults safely. For the MiKTeX preferences you should change A4 to Letter if you use 8.5 x 11 paper, and you should make one other decision mindfully: Is your computer usually connected to the Internet?

If 'yes': When asked if you want to install missing packages on the fly, go ahead and choose 'yes'.
If 'no': When asked if you want to install missing packages, choose 'Ask me first'. This will prevent hangups when you are not online by allowing you to choose 'no' when you compile a document and are missing a package. Of course, without the package you will not be able to compile the document, but next time you are connected to the Internet you can compile the document and answer 'yes' to install the missing package.

Once you have installed proTeXt, go ahead and install the WinEdt if you are planning to use that and then install the Acrobat Reader if you don't have it already.

Does the order of installation matter?
Not really. I like to install WinEdt after LaTeX if I have a choice, but it shouldn't make a difference.

Mac users:

MacTeX is an easy and common distribution for the Mac. It includes a LaTeX distribution and several other programs including an editor called TeXShop. You can download the dmg file here and install it following the instructions here.

Now let's create your first LaTeX document!