LaTeX- A Pithy and Incomplete Introduction
1. Open WinEdt.
2. Close out the long vertical rectangle on the right of the screen
3. Right click on the top close to the icons and check the option that says “Show GUI page control.”
This will allow you to view all the helpful icons you might need.
4. Open a new file by clicking on File  New or using the shortcut command Cnrl+N.
5. Save the file as Practice.tex or something. Make sure you save it in a directory where you are
organizing all you Tex documents.
6. Now we will begin to work on our document. In the very first line, type
\documentclass[12pt]{article} This specifies the kind of paper you will be writing.
7. You will also want to load some packages. The following are used often, and if you always load
them immediately, you will save the trouble of Tex asking you for them if you want to use a
command that requires them.
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{latexsym}
\usepackage{amsmath}
8. Now type \begin{document} Hit enter several times and type \end{document} You are now
ready to start working in the space between \begin{document} and \end{document}
9. Type Hello. Then from the pull down menu, choose Tex  PDF  PDFTexify. This will create a
pdf of your work. This is called compiling. It is highly recommended that you compile often so
that you catch errors in your code early.
10. Use the command \smallskip , \bigskip, \\, or \vfill in to skip lines. Some commands, like the
double dollar signs (see below) automatically skip lines and induce proper spacing. Play around
with them to see exactly how they work.
11. All math stuff is written inside of dollar signs. Type
Let $A$ A be a set.
Compile. Compare the A in dollar signs with the A not in dollar signs.
12. Most math symbols can be found in the icon tabs at the top of the screen. Write “R is a subset
of the Cartesian product of A and B” using symbols. The subset symbol is found under the <>=
tab and the multiplication symbol is found under the +/- tab. Make sure to begin with a dollar
sign and end with a dollar sign. Compile.
13. A large equation is usually given its own line. To do this, begin the large equation with a double
dollar sign, $$, and end it with a double dollar sign. Try writing “the integral from 0 to 10 of x dx
equals x^2/2 evaluated from 0 to 10 =100/2 – 0 = 50” in double dollar signs. You will need to
find the integral icon. To define the limits of the integral, use _ for the lower limits and ^ for the
upper limits. To write a nice fraction, use the command \frac{50}{100}
14. For further practice, try writing down the problem and proof given on the back of this paper.
15. In addition, a LaTeX file titled “Help.tex” will be placed on the course website. This file will have
many different examples of equations and other things that you may want code for.