(La)TeX

1. How to Start

1. it produces nice output, especially mathematical/ scientific/ economic formulae,
2. the program takes care of most of the lay-out, including spacing, sizes, table of contents, and so on,
3. it works the same on different operating systems: MS Windows, Linux, Mac, and files are interchangeable.

1. a text-editor, to make .tex-files: this could just be Notepad, but we have installed a nice, free program, Crimson Editor,
2. a compiler, to turn .tex-files into .dvi-files: this can be started while a file is being edited in Crimson Editor, by pressing Ctrl+1,
3. a viewer for .dvi-files, which is also used to print the files: this can be started from Crimson Editor by pressing Ctrl+2.

1. log-on as usual,
2. in your H:-drive, create a new folder 'tex' for the new files you will make,
3. create a new icon for Crimson Editor on your desktop:
   1. right-click on any empty space on the desktop, and select New > Shortcut,
   2. select Browse, and navigate to the folder C:\Program Files\Crimson Editor,
   3. click on the file 'cedt.exe', (the file with a dog-icon next to it,) and press Next,
   4. enter a name, like 'Crimson Editor', and press Finish.
4. copy the following into the editing window:

   \documentclass{article}
   \begin{document}
   Hello, world!
   \end{document}

5. Save As 'try.tex' (or some other 'filename.tex') in your new 'tex'-folder,
6. press Ctrl+1, (the output-window below the editing window will show how the compilation is progressing: don't worry about this for now,) and then Ctrl+2, to view the file.

(Btw, Crimson Editor is good for other things too, like editing of html-files.)

2. What to Do Next

Note:
If the compilation is successful, the last line in the output-window will be:

Terminated with exit code 0

It may be useful to also create an icon for the LaTeX help-file on your desktop, as follows:

1. right-click on any empty space on the desktop, and select New > Shortcut,
2. select Browse, and navigate to the folder C:\texmf\doc\latex\help,
3. click on the file 'latex2e.html', (or 'latex2e.chm' or 'latex2e.hlp': these are the same file in different formats,) and press Next,
4. enter a name, like 'LaTeX Help', and press Finish.

3. How to ...

I intend to put together an introduction to (La)TeX, at a rate of perhaps a section per week, with the needs of EE-students in mind.

... start making a document

\documentclass{article}
    ... preamble: define layout and general commands ...
\begin{document}
    ... content ...
\end{document}

Note that the commands and special values in (La)TeX start with a back-slash '\'. Some of these take their input from brackets that follow them: so with each such instruction one needs to know what further information is allowed or required, and in which format it needs to be given; (like on the calculator.)

For instance, the first line above could read (-- 'pt' = 'point' is a measure of size; the alternatives here are '10pt' and '11pt'):

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt]{article}

(La)TeX allows all manner of fine adjustment of the output on screen or page; try putting

This text is in normal size.
{\Large This text will be printed larger.}

But before getting used to using these, get used to not using them: the power of (La)TeX comes from the fact that you concentrate on the logical ordering of your material, and leave the details of the lay-out to the program.

Another thing that makes (La)TeX such a powerful tool is that you can define your own commands and values. See what happens when you put the next lines into the 'document' section of your file (-- the '\par' starts a new paragraph):

\newcommand{\mytext}{Try doing this in MS Word \ldots \par}
{\small \mytext}
{\normalsize \mytext}
{\large \mytext}
{\Large \mytext}
{\LARGE \mytext}

... make nice formulae/equations

1. a formula that is part of the line of text in which it apears; (the start and the end command can both be replaced by just a $-sign):

   \( f(x) = (x + 1)^2 \)

2. a formula that is set apart from the text, centered:

   \[ (x + 1)^2 = x^2 + 2x + 1 \]

3. a formula that is set apart from the text, centered, with an equation number at the right margin, (though this can be changed):

   \begin{equation} x^2 + 2x + 1 = 0 \end{equation}

The range of symbols that are available is much too wide to be listed here, so I will just give a few examples.

$\sin^2 \theta + \cos^2 \theta = 1$

$\displaystyle \int_0^{\frac 1 2}
\frac{1}{\sqrt {1 - x^2}} \;dx = \frac \pi 6$

$\pmatrix{ 3 & -1 & 2 \cr 4 & 2 & 0 }^{-1}
\cdot \overrightarrow{PQ}$

\newcommand{\D}{\displaystyle}
$\D S_n = a\, \frac {r^n - 1}{r - 1}$

\newcommand{\N}{\mbox{$I\!\!N$}}
$3 \in \N$ but~ $\ln 3 \notin \N$

\newcommand{\area}[3]
{area $= {1 \over 2} \, #1 \, #2 \, \sin #3$}
\area{b}{c}{A}

Happy TeXing!

... structure a document

This is what a basic document might look like; you could copy and paste this into an empty document and then compile it (-- up to three times, for the table of contents to be compiled --) and look at it:

\documentclass[a4paper,12pt,titlepage]{article}
\title{Extended Essay:\\ My Really Interesting Topic}
\author{Who I. Am,\\ Atlantic College}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
\begin{abstract}
\noindent
   This is a very brief abstract of no Extended Essay,
   which probably looks better without an indent in the
   first line; (an indent is the \LaTeX default.)
\end{abstract}
\tableofcontents
\newpage
\section{First Header}
   Here goes the introduction, including something like a
   'research question' that the IB says every essay should
   have.
\newpage
\section{Second Header}
   Here is where the body of the argment goes; of course
   it makes sense to divide it into subsections.
\subsection{My Hypothesis}
   With the documentclass 'article', to put the title page
   and the abstract on separate pages, specify the option
   'titlepage'.
\subsection{My Experiment}
   By default, \LaTeX includes sections, subsections and
   subsubsections in the table of contents, but this can
   be changed.
\subsection[My Results]{How I Fiddled It}
   Here, the text that appears in the table of contents
   is 'My Results', but the heading in the text is the
   truth, of course.
\subsection*{My Evaluation}
   With the command in this form, the subsection is not
   numbered and not entered into the table of contents.
\newpage
\section{Conclusion}
   An E$^2$, like a novel, as was once recommended to an
   eager beginner, should have a beginning, a middle and
   an end.\par
   The next line, by the way, enters a line which is not
   a heading in the text into the table of contents
\newpage
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Appendix}
\appendix
\section{What I had no space for ...}
   Note that after the command $\backslash$appendix,
   sections are labelled with letters rather than
   numbers.
\end{document}

As it is, the date when the document is compiled will be appear; with the command \date{07 November 2003} in the preamble, the fixed date will appear instead.

Happy TeXing!

... set font defaults and change fonts

1. We will first see how to change the default font families for a document. Note that all these changes must be made in the preamble, before the \begin{document} command.

   For each document three default fonts are set, a roman (serif) font, a sans serif font and a typewriter (monospace) font; the values of these are set by commands of the form

   \renewcommand{\rmdefault}{ptm}

   You can then choose which of the three to take as the main font family for your document by means of something like

   \renewcommand{\familydefault}{\rmdefault}

   Which families are available depends on the particular installation, but you should find at least the following:

   roman (serif)	\rmdefault	cmr, pbk, pnc, ppl, ptm
   sans serif	\sfdefault	cmss, pag, phv
   typewriter (monospace)	\ttdefault	cmtt, pcr
   speciality fonts		cmfib, cmfr, cmdh, pzc

   The (La)TeX defaults for \documentclass{article} are the Computer Modern fonts cmr, cmss and cmtt, and the default for the main document font is \rmdefault.

   (Unfortunately the characters are not in the same order in all font files, so if you get some 'funny' characters, try putting

   \renewcommand{\encodingdefault}{T1}

   into the preamble.)
2. There are also packages available that set the default text fonts, or change or extend features available in mathematical mode, or set both a text font and a matching mathematical font. To load, use a command like

   \usepackage{bookman}

   in the preamble; (try it first without using any of the other commands to change defaults -- you can always 'comment out' the text on a line without having to remove it, by putting a %-sign in front of it.)

   text fonts	bookman, palatino, times
   math fonts	amsmath	provides a variety of extra mathematical features
   	eucal	sets up the command \CMcal{} to use the Euler script symbols in math mode
   	eufrak	sets up the command \mathfrak{} to use the Euler Fraktur alphabet in math mode
   text font and a matching math font	mathpazo, mathpple, mathptmx

3. Once you have defined the defaults for the three font families, you can select the default series and shape in the same way:

   \renewcommand{\seriesdefault}{bx}
   \renewcommand{\shapedefault}{it}

   The possible values for the series are 'bx' (= bold face) and 'm' (= medium,) and for the shape 'it' (= italics,) 'sl' (= slanted,) 'sc' (= small capitals) and 'n' (= normal.) The defaults are medium normal.

   If, as sometimes happens, there are no font files for some combination of family, series, shape and size, then (La)TeX will produce a warning

   Font shape `T1/cmss/m/sc' in size <12> not available

   and try to find a substitute.
4. Having defined the default settings for your document, you can then change the font of sections of text by using simple declarations:

   This is normal text and {\scshape Small Capitals,}\\
   {\ttfamily monospace and {\slshape slanted monospace,}}\\
   {\itshape italics and {\bfseries bold italics,}} and \\
   {\sffamily it even works {\large in different sizes.}}

   Conveniently, each of these declarations has a corresponding command, i.e. the following two lines will produce the same output:

   {\slshape slanted text {\bfseries and also bold}}
   \textsl{slanted text \textbf{and also bold}}

   And once again you can easily define new commands for fonts that you use frequently:

   \newcommand{\myfont}[1]{\texttt{\textsc{#1}}}
   I can now \myfont{change to My New Font} and back.

   -- here the new command \myfont takes one argument, which is the section of text to which it is applied.

Happy TeXing!

... draw pictures and graphs

\setlength{\unitlength}{0.8cm}
\begin{picture}(8,5)
...
\end{picture}

Objects are drawn into the picture with the \put -command:

\put(0.2,1){\vector(1,0){7.6}}
\put(1,0.2){\vector(0,1){4.6}}
\put(0.5,4){\line(2,-1){5.5}}

Here are some more things we can draw into our picture:

\multiput(2,1)(1,0){6}{\line(0,-1){0.2}}
\put(1.9,0.3){1}
\put(7.5,1.2){$x$}
\put(3.4,3){gradient $m = - \frac 1 2$}

It is easy to look up the commands for other objects in the help-file -- it may be useful to put a link to ...\texmf\doc\latex\help\latex2e.html onto your desktop.

Unfortunately, the (La)TeX picture-environment is rather limited in what can be done; for instance only circles up to 40pt diameter and only lines whose gradients are very simple ratios can be drawn. Fortunately, though, there are packages that can be used that make available many more useful commands.

To be able to use a package, you have to load it in the preamble, i.e. before the line \start{document}, with a command like

\usepackage{curves}

With the package curves.sty, commands like the following become available (-- all the details can be found in curves.dvi):

\put(4,2.5){\bigcircle{4.8}}
\put(4,2.5){\arc(3,0){-45}}
\put(1,1){\curve(0,1,1,0,2,1,3,4)}

%  draw lines of any gradient
\put(3.6,0.4){\line(7,3){4}}
%  define symbols to use in the graphs
\newcommand{\mybull}{\makebox(0,0){$\bullet$}}
\newcommand{\mycirc}{\makebox(0,0){$\circ$}}
%  draw a line graph, method 1
\put(1,3){\path(0,0)(5,1)(6,-2)}
\put(1,3){\mybull}
\put(6,4){\mybull}
\put(7,1){\mybull}
%  draw a line graph, method 2
\begin{dashjoin}{0.1}
  \jput(1,1.5){\mycirc}
  \jput(2,4.5){\mycirc}
  \jput(7,0.5){\mycirc}
\end{dashjoin}
\put(2.2,4.6){maximum}

Happy TeXing!

... draw bar charts and functions

... make your own page layout

\setlength{\hoffset}{-15.4mm}
\setlength{\voffset}{-25.4mm}
\setlength{\evensidemargin}{5mm}
\setlength{\footskip}{5.4mm}
\setlength{\oddsidemargin}{5mm}
\setlength{\textwidth}{180mm}
\setlength{\textheight}{260mm}