Ulrich Berger

Using Latex for writing a report, coursework, presentation, or dissertation

New: Neil Carter's fabulous LaTeX tricks

• Preparatory steps
  
  
  • To get started, you can download a few Latex source files:
    la.tex (pdf output) contains instructions similar to the ones you are just reading.
    sample.tex (pdf output) can serve as a frame for a report (written by M Otto).
    article-template.tex (pdf output) can serve as a frame for an article (written by N Carter).
    pic.tex (pdf output) contains examples of pictures and diagrams (taken from the lecture notes for the course CS-376).
    proofs.tex (pdf output) contains a proof tree created using the macro package bussproofs.sty.
    beechafer.jpg, beechafer.eps, mouse.jpg, mouse.eps, robinspincushion.jpg, robinspincushion.eps, .jpg, .eps, files needed for the pictures in article-guide.tex and pic.tex.
    
    There is also a nice and short Latex guide by my colleague Neil Carter from the Psychology Department.
  
  
  
• Loading, editing, compiling and viewing a Latex document
  
  
  • It is recommended that you use the text editor Emacs for typing your Latex source files.
    An Emacs Reference Card is here.
    Follow the instructions in the Reference Card to enter Emacs and read the file "sample.tex" into Emacs.
  
  
  
  • You can use Emacs to modify the file a bit. The Emacs Reference Card tells you how to save the changes.
  
  
  
  • Run Latex on this file by typing in the comand tool
    
    latex sample
  
  
  
  • To view the document type in the comand tool
    
    xdvi sample &
  
  
  
• Printing



• First, the file "sample.dvi" has to be translated into a postscript file: Type in the command tool
  
  dvips sample.dvi



• This generates the post script file "sample.ps" which can be viewed by
  
  gv sample.ps &



• In the window appearing you may click on File, Print, Okay.



• Other information



• More information on Latex is in the following dvi-files (to be viewed using xdvi): lshort.dvi, guide.dvi, symbols.dvi.



• For information on how to download and run Latex on Windows PCs or Macintosh you may visit the website
  http://faculty.smu.edu/barr/latex/
  or follow the links at
  
  in the section Document preparation