Typesetting with LaTeX

Content:

  1. The idea of text formatting
  2. What is TeX and LaTeX?
  3. Different packages of LaTeX
  4. Typesetting LaTeX file
  5. Viewing and printing DVI files
  6. Writing LaTeX file

The idea of text formatting

  1. entering text
  2. formatting text
  3. displaying output text to monitor
  4. send output to printer
flowchart
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What is TeX and LaTeX?

TeX is created by Donald E. Knuth, a Mathematician in 1984. Initially it is produced for typesetting Mathematical formula. TeX is an engine to generate a Device Independent (.dvi) files from a source (.tex) file. The dvi file can be displayed on any kind of monitor or printer as long as the device driver exists.

Since the origin of TeX, many different formats are generated by other people, the most common formats are LaTeX, amsTeX and amsLaTeX though many people has used the most primitive Plain TeX for a long time.

LaTeX is produced by Leslie Lamport, an American Scientists in 1985, since then, a lot of different update has been found. There are two common version nowadays, 2e (made in mid 1994) and 2.09 (last updated in 1991, obselete). LaTeX2e is now commonly used not only by Scientist, but many publications of Journals, Proceedings and Reports.

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Different packages of LaTeX

LaTeX is common not only because of its powerful and fruitful commands of formatting text, the central engine of TeX is free. Many platforms have it variant of TeX and LaTeX. Free TeX packages such as teTeX on UNIX/Linux, emTeX on DOS/Win, MikTeX and fpTeX on Windows, OzTeX on Macintosh, AucTeX for use with Emacs, can be freely download in CTAN sites (http://ctan.tug.org). Commercial TeX packages can also be found and supported by some companies. Examples are PCTEX on Windows, Scientific WordPlace on Windows and Texture on Macintosh.

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Miktex and TexnicCenter on Windows

You may download MikTeX (current version is 2.9) and TexnicCenter (current version is 2 beta 1 ) on Windows for free from the Internet and install on Windows plaform.
MikTeX 2.9 can be found in http://www.miktex.org/download and TexnicCenter can be found here.
First install MikTeX 2.9. MikTeX 2.9 is the backend engine and style packages can be built from the backend. After installing MikTeX 2.9, TexnicCenter can be installed. When TexnicCenter first invoke, it will run the configuration wizard to find the path of MikTeX 2.9 (usually in c:\Program Files\MikTeX 2.9\miktex\bin) and any pdf reader such as Acrobat.

Typesetting LaTeX file

For example, given a well formatted latex file ( sample.tex) with an extension .tex 
      latex sample.tex      produce dvi file
      pdflatex sample.tex   produce pdf file directly
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Viewing and printing

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Writing LaTeX files

  1. Structure of LaTeX file
  2. Commands and Environment
  3. Special Characters
  4. Work Example: Word file LaTeX file
    1. Paragraphing and sectioning
    2. Basic formatting of word: making bold, italic, underline, etc.
    3. adding lists such as item and enumerated list
    4. adding tables
    5. inserting mathematical formula
    6. inserting graphics and postscript files
    7. adding title, author and abstract
    8. reference
    9. bibliography
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Self study reference

  1. A gentle introduction to TeX
  2. The Short Introduction to LaTeX
  3. Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX2e
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Extension to LaTeX

Packages added to LaTeX can extend the features of Scientific Typesetting. Thus LaTeX can be used to produce chemical formula, nucleotide and peptide alignments, music score and games like crossword puzzle, chess and bridges.
The end