A lot of the time, the TDS is a good option. You download package.tds.zip put it in your local texmf tree and unzip it. It puts all the files exactly where you want them.
This doesn't track dependencies, however.
The comments above suggest that there may be a way to solve your problem without learning how to manually install LaTeX packages. But, it's not a bad idea to know how for troubleshooting, and quick fixes.
Overview:
- create a TDS directory structure (once)
- place mathtools directory inside (most packages should go in
latex/)
- run
tex on .dtx files (creating .sty files)
- (I think I've more often seen
latex <some package>.ins)
- (Optional) further cleanup towards TDS conventions
You'll want to create a texmf directory. Determining where to put it, that is, the default location, in Windows, is discussed here: packages - Where is texmf on a Windows install - TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange.
So in your explorer, you'll want to head to your home directory, and create directories until you have the following chain:
c:\Users\<your user name>\texmf\tex\latex\
You would put the mathtools directory there, so that you have for instance
c:\Users\<your user name>\texmf\tex\latex\mathtools\mathtools.dtx
Now, open up a command prompt, and cd (change directory) to this location, that is,
cd c:\Users\<your user name>\texmf\tex\latex\mathtools\
From there, run tex on the appropriate files, that is, type
tex mathtools.dtx
You may also need
tex empheq.dtx
This will create the style files, mathtools.sty and empheq.sty.
This is enough. Latex may now know where to find the style files because of TDS (TeX directory structure). If it does not, you many have to run texhash or similar.
You could follow convention further, cleaning up, putting the documentation (pdfs) into texmf\doc\mathtools\, and put the .dtx (and sometimes .ins) files into some source directory for easy access if you want to recover them later (without internet?).
Best Answer
AFAIK the TDS ZIP files need to be provided by the package authors and are only then available in the http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/install/macros/latex/contrib directory. It seems that the author of that particular package didn't uploaded a TDS ZIP file.
I also agree that the TDS ZIP files are hard to find. I wondered for a while if the ones I uploaded (together with a normal ZIP file) are really used. It would be nice if the web interface of CTAN (
http://www.ctan.org/pkg/<PACKAGE>) would also link to these files. However, the TDS ZIP file of a package is linked by the TeX catalogue entry athttp://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/<PACKAGE>.htmlunder Distributions and in the package page onhttp://ctanhg.scharrer-online.de/pkg/<PACKAGE>under On CTAN (usually the last in the list).If you are looking for a list of all available TDS ZIP files instead:
There is a text file which lists all files under http://mirrors.ctan.org/FILES.byname. It shows that almost all TDS ZIP files are under
/install/...where...represents their normal location on CTAN, i.e./install/macros/latex/contribfor contributed LaTeX packages. An exception are the one which are placed in thegraphicsfolder (e.g. PGF/TikZ supporting packages liketikz-timing). The only one there is mytikz-timingpackage located at/install/graphics/pgf/contrib/tikz-timing.tds.zip. The fonts, support and info related TDS ZIP files are in the appropriate subdirectories below/install.A full list can be produces by downloading the above mentioned
FILES.bynamefile and use e.g.grep '\.tds\.zip' FILES.bynameon it. The result is shown below. If it isn't listed there, it is not on CTAN. However, it is of course possible that the author or someone else uploaded it only on its private website or other place.