[Tex/LaTex] Prerequisites for using LaTeX efficiently

latex-misclearning

I am a student (still in high school) who wants to start using LaTeX more regularly, however, I have on major problem: I know nothing about computer science or computer programming. And I mean nothing. I don't know what a source code is, I don't know what an algorithm is, and just when lurking on this site I see hundreds of words I don't understand, for example 'typeset'. I hope this gives you an idea of my ignorance of this subject.

My question is: What are the prerequisites for using LaTeX efficiently? What programming language is best to learn? What subjects should one read about? I know there are a lot of books and sites such as Wikibooks – Latex, but I doubt one can gain a decent command 'naturally' of LaTeX. With naturally I mean that you actually know what you're doing, instead of just copy-pasting it from site.

Best Answer

Only way to learn latex is to Start using it -- Practical first and reading next

You need not know any programming language. What you need is -- Strong will to use latex, a latex-aware editor (since it will save you from switching to command prompt often), a tex distribution installed and tex.stackexchange.com ;-)

Source code

What you find below is called source code -- it is what you write:

\documentclass{article}
%% This place is called the preamble
\begin{document}
Hello world
\end{document}

You have to save the above code as some file (say mycode.tex). BTW you have to edit/write this code in an editor that is latex aware - like texmaker, texniccenter, texstudio, Vim, winedt (windows only, shareware), Inlage (windows only, not free) to name a few. Now you need to have a Tex distribution to compile the above code - Famous ones are texlive 2012 (multi platform) and miktex (windows only). You may google to find out from where to download ;-). Say you downloaded texlive 2012 and installed it. Now there are two ways to compile the code:

  1. Go to the command prompt. Navigate to the folder where you have kept mycode.tex by typing something like cd c:\my folder. Then type pdflatex mycode Then the source code will be compiled and a pdf file named mycode.pdf will be generated in the same folder. This pdf is the output.

    Or

  2. The editor will have a toolbar button (that is why we call it latex aware). Just click that button and you will be saved from using the command prompt. (trust me, I am also afraid of command prompt, Please keep it a secret ;-))

Additionally in tex/latex, there is a package for every need. Say you want to play with the page magins (layout), then geometry package, if you want to insert a figure, then the graphicx package, so on and so forth. They can be loaded using \usepackage{<package name>}. And how to use those packages? You will find the details in the documentation of respective packages. To access them, you can type texdoc <package name> (for example texdoc geometry) from the command prompt, or the editor you are using will provide some (help) menu item for the purpose. Clicking it, will open a dialogue window where you can type the package name and proceed.

And please don't get intimidated by (some of) the technical documentations. There are well written (I mean easy to follow) manuals too, for example, check the pgfmanual. In case if some thing troubles you a lot and you can't get rid of it by yourself, please post a question here. This site has expertise equivalent to years of reading the documentation and people here are very friendly, helping and very kind hearted.

Hope this will be useful. I wish you less troublesome start and happy texing.

Related Question