An Introduction to LaTeX

Abstract

The aim of this talk is to introduce the LaTeX Document Preparation System, to explain its capabilities, its limitations, how it works within the UNIX environment of the Faculty of Engineering, and to introduce some of the support programs which are used in conjunction with LaTeX.

Overview

• LaTeX
  • What is LaTeX?
  • Capabilities, Limitations and Comparisons
• LaTeX Documents and LaTeX commands
• Support Programs
  • BibTeX, dvips, Graphics, Converters and other programmes
• Some LaTeX Classes and Packages
• Getting Started
• Further Information

LaTeX

• LaTeX is a document processing system in which you specify the content and layout(style) separately
• Many powerful features: Mathematics, Labels, Refs, Equation Numbers, Section Numbers, Table of Contents, List of Figures, List of Tables, Glossaries, Indexes, etc.
• Style Features: Multi-column, Paper Size, Headers, Footers, Page Numbering, Reference Style, etc.
• Available on many systems
• Limitations: Tables, not WYSIWYG, learning threshold, typesetting conventions

Why ``Document Processing''?

• Documents communicate ideas (journal articles, class material, books, reports, memos), in multiple formats
• Need cross-platform means for converting formats as well as presentation
• LaTeX is a high quality, inexpensive, typesetting system.
• Can easily handle PostScript files
• Can easily handle bibliography databases.
• Conversion to HTML, PDF, DVI, and Postscript formats is simple
• LaTeX is Structured

Documents for communication

• articles (expository, research, informative)
• letters
• books
• bibliographies

Forms for dissemination

• Hardcopy
• Electronic Forms (PostScript, dvi, pdf, html)

Why LaTeX2e and not Word Processors?

1. good cross-platform compatibility.
2. Inexpensive or free.
3. Better quality typesetting.
4. WYSIWYG wastes time better spent on content (forget about how it looks until it contains what you want to discuss!)

Why not LaTeX209

1. LaTeX209 isn't supported.
2. LeTeX2e is better packaged with a more natural programming flow.

A Comparison of LaTeX and Word

What are all these TeX things?

TeX

the basic system (a low level programming language for documents).

LaTeX

a set of macros defining document styles (higher level language).

LaTeX209

the old version of LaTeX.

LaTeX2e

the current version of LaTeX.

AMS-TeX or AMS-LaTeX

set of macros, which can be used instead of LaTeX.

This talk will concentrate on LaTeX2e.

Content and Format

• Document contains Description of contents rather than detailed Format of contents, e.g.,

        \section{Introduction}
  

  rather than ``Bold 14pt''

        1. Introduction
  

• LaTeX uses style sheets or document classes

Understanding LaTeX Documents

• \ is used to start command names
• % is used to start a comment
• & $ # _ ^ { } and ~ are special characters
• Words are separated by one or more spaces.
• Paragraphs are separated by one or more blank lines.
• The output is not affected by adding extra spaces or extra blank lines to the input file.
• ` and ' create `Quotes' or ``Double Quotes''
• -- and --- produce en dashes and em dashes
• Bold and emphasised text are easy.

General Form of a LaTeX2e document

% This is a comment
\documentclass[options]{type}            % Must be in document
\usepackage{package name}                % Multiple packages
<Header: options and configuation>
  .
  .
\begin{document}                         % Must be in document
  .
<document content>
  .
\end{document}                           % Must be in document

Header Content

\title{ Document Title }
\author{ Document Author }
\date{ Date for paper } %% this is optional

Also in the header are definitions of new commands, \usepackage commands and suchlike.

Document Content

• Tables of Contents, Lists of Figures, etc.
• Sectional Units
• Text
• Mathematics
• Lists
• Tables and Figures (graphics)
• Bibliographies

Tables of Contents etc.

Tables of Contents, Lists of Figures, Lists of Tables are produced by the following commands:

• \tableofcontents
• \listoffigures
• \listoftables

Sectional Commands

• \section{title}
• \subsection{title}
• \subsubsection{title}
• \paragraph{title}

Books and reports also have \chapter{title} and can have different parts defined by \part{title}.

The \appendix command changes the numbering scheme for sections to letters.

Mathematics

TeX was originally designed to presentation mathematics well. LaTeX basically uses the same commands with a few modifications. The equation:

is created using the commands

\[
\Theta(s) = \int_0^\infty \theta(t)e^{-st}\,dt
          = \mathcal{L} \{\theta(t)\}
\]

List Environments

• enumerate: Numbered lists
• itemize: Bulletted lists

For example, use the list environment:

\begin{enumerate}
  \item This is a two item list
  \item This is the second item
\end{enumerate}

1. This is a single item list
2. This is the second item

Tables and Figures

is produced by:

\begin{table}
  \begin{tabular}{|l|c|c|c|}
  \hline
        & 9.00 -- 10.00 & 10.00 -- 11.00 & 11.00 -- 12.00 \\ \hline 
Monday  & Applicable Mathematics I & Basic Engineering I
        & Engineering Design I \\ \hline
Tuesday & Applicable Mathematics I & Basic Engineering I
        & Engineering Practive I \\ \hline
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{First Year Timetable}
\end{table}

Including Postscript Files

When using LaTeX2e it is better to use \usepackage[dvips]{graphicx}, rather than the old LaTeX method of including graphics. Then use:

\begin{figure}[htbp]
  \begin{center}
    \includegraphics[height=3in,width=4in,angle=270]
                      {figure.ps}
    \caption{This is the Caption}
    \label{fig:label}
  \end{center}
\end{figure}

Bibliographies and BibTeX

• use list or itemize environments.
• use thebibliography environment
• use BibTeX: Use the \cite command in the text to cite the required references and let BibTeX create the bibliography at the end of the document

Support Programs

BibTeX

References database and citation

(X)Emacs

Context sentitive editor

latex2html

Convert LaTeX source to HTML

rtf2latex

Convert RTF to LaTeX

xdvi

Show output on screen

dvips

Convert output suitable for printing on a PostScript printer.

ghostview

Show PostScript on screen

xfig

Useful for diagrams

Others

Many programs exist which can be used in conjunction with LaTeX.

BibTeX

Need to construct a bibliography file (use a .bib suffix). This will be the database for all your references!

However, (X)Emacs will do much of the formatting for you (you simply fill in the blanks for the bibliography file).

\cite{GawBal97}
  .
  .
\bibliography{/home/mech/group/references/common}
\bibliographystyle{IFAC}

Editing Documents: Emacs

LaTeX files can be edited using any text editor. Under Unix, one approach is to use Emacs in combination with Auc-TeX; this allows for the whole development of your document to occur without needing to leave your editor, except perhaps to construct figures using XFig or other programs.

Printing

To print a standard file:

dvips filename.dvi -Pprinter

dvips filename.dvi -Pprinter -t landscape

Graphical Overview

Standard Classes

article

The article class described in LaTeX: A Document Preparation System.

book

The book class described in LaTeX: A Document Preparation System.

report

The report class described in LaTeX: A Document Preparation System.

letter

The letter class described in LaTeX: A Document Preparation System.

slides

The slides class described in LaTeX: A Document Preparation System, formerly SLiTeX.

proc

A document class for proceedings, based on article. Formerly the proc package.

ltxdoc

The document class for documenting the LaTeX program, based on article.

ltxguide

The document class for LaTeX2e for Authors and LaTeX2e for Class and Package Writers, based on article. The document you are reading now uses the ltxguide class. The layout for this class is likely to change in future releases of LaTeX.

ltnews

The document class for the LaTeX News information sheet, based on article. The layout for this class is likely to change in future releases of LaTeX.

Standard Packages

The following packages are distributed with LaTeX:

doc

Allows the documentation of LaTeX programs. Described in doc.dtx and in The LaTeX Companion.

exscale

Provides scaled versions of the math extension font. Described in ltexscale.dtx.

fontenc

Specifies which font encoding LaTeX should use. Described in ltoutenc.dtx.

ifthen

Provides commands of the form `if...then do...otherwise do...'. Described in ifthen.dtx and The LaTeX Companion.

latexsym

Loads the LaTeX symbol font (Not loaded by default). Described in latexsym.dtx and in The LaTeX Companion.

makeidx

Provides commands for producing indexes. Described in LaTeX: A Document Preparation System and in The LaTeX Companion.

newlfont

Emulates the font commands of LaTeX 2.09 with the New Font Selection Scheme. Described in The LaTeX Companion.

oldlfont

Emulates the font commands of LaTeX 2.09. Described in The LaTeX Companion.

syntonly

Processes a document without typesetting it. Described in syntonly.dtx and in The LaTeX Companion.

tracefnt

Allows you to control how much information about LaTeX's font loading is displayed. Described in The LaTeX Companion.

Related Software

In addition, the following software should be available.

amslatex

Advanced mathematical typesetting from the American Mathematical Society

babel

Supports typesetting in many languages.

color

Provides support for colour.

psnfss

Typesetting with Type 1 (PostScript) fonts.

tools

Miscellaneous packages written by the LaTeX3 project team.

These packages come with documentation and each of them is also described in at least one of the books The LaTeX Companion and LaTeX: A Document Preparation System.

Tools

This collection of packages includes, at least, the following (some files may have slightly different names on certain systems):

array

Extended versions of the environments array, tabular and tabular*, with many extra features.

dcolumn

Alignment on `decimal points' in tabular entries. Requires the array package.

delarray

Adds `large delimiters' around arrays. Requires array.

hhline

Finer control over horizontal rules in tables. Requires array.

longtable

Multi-page tables. (Does not require array, but it uses the extended features if both are loaded.)

tabularx

Defines a tabularx environment that is similar to tabular* but it modifies the column widths, rather than the inter-column space, to achieve the desired table width.

afterpage

Place text after the current page.

enumerate

Extended version of the enumerate environment.

fontsmpl

Package and test file for producing `font samples'.

ftnright

Place all footnotes in the right-hand column in two-column mode.

indentfirst

Indent The first paragraph of sections, etc.

multicol

Typeset text in columns, with the length of the columns `balanced'.

rawfonts

Preload fonts using the old internal font names of LaTeX2.09.

somedefs

Selective handling of package options. (Used by the rawfonts package.)

showkeys

Prints the `keys' used by \label, \ref, \cite etc.; useful whilst drafting.

theorem

Flexible declaration of `theorem-like' environments.

varioref

`Smart' handling of page references.

verbatim

Flexible extension of the verbatim environment.

xspace

`Smart space' command that helps you to avoid the common mistake of missing spaces after command names.

Getting Started

host:project > use tetex
New Latex
host:project > use gnu
GNU Utilities for Solaris 2
host:project > use x11
X Window System (Openwindows + MIT X11R5)
host:project > textedit <filename>.tex
host:project > latex <filename>           % run latex to create .aux file
This is TeX, Version 3.14159 (C version 6.1)
(slides.tex
LaTeX2e <1996/06/01>
  .
host:project > bibtex <filename>          % run bibtex to process references
host:project > latex <filename>           % run latex to include references
host:project > latex <filename>           % run latex to get cross-references

The commands to view and print the output would be:

host:project > xdvi <filename>                    % view on screen
host:project > dvips -o <filename>.ps <filename>  % create PostScript file
host:project > ghostview <filename>               % view on screen
host:project > dvips <filename>                   % print to standard printer
host:project > dvips -P<printer> <filename>       % print to printer
host:project > dvips -p 4 -n 2 <filename>         % print pages 4 and 5

Further Information

• Example Documents
  • /local/tetex/texmf/tex/latex/base/small2e.tex
  • /local/tetex/texmf/tex/latex/base/sample2e.tex
  • The Not So Short Guide to LaTeX2e
  • Essential LaTeX ++
• On-line Help via
  • http://www.mech.gla.ac.uk/Control/Facilities.html
• Books
  • LaTeX A Document Preparation System
  • The LaTeX Companion
  • LaTeX Notes: Practical Tips for Preparing Technical Documents
• many other files in the hierarchy under /local/tetex

Summary

• System is not WYSIWYG, more a programming language
• Powerful
• Relatively easy to use, although not that ``friendly''
• Good for mathematics and technical papers
• Multi-platform: DOS, Windows, Mac, UNIX, Vax, ...
• FREE