LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
LATEX crash course
(for PhDs)
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
T. Hengl1
Comparison
Literature
1 Research group on Computational Geo-Ecology
Instituut voor Biodiversiteit en Ecosysteem Dynamica
Universiteit van Amsterdam
June 26, 2010
Outline
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
1
Important points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
2
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
3
LATEX versus MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important assumptions/facts
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
I am not really familiar with TEX programming (I never
developed any LATEX package).
LATEX has a steep learning curve.
I also use MS Word (e.g. to write short documents).
LATEX comes (as any GNU) without any warranty.
Outline
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
1
Important points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
2
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
3
LATEX versus MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
The course programme
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Wednesday 14 Oct 16:00-17:30
Introduction to TEX (philosophy, history).
Installation of software and first steps.
Common LATEX commands.
Thursday 15 Oct 14:00-17:30 (2 blocks)
Generate your first document with LATEX.
Writing a thesis with LATEX.
Preparing slides with Beamer (UvA template).
Export to HTML (Google Earth).
Outline
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
1
Important points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
2
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
3
LATEX versus MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Software
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
You should have installed these already!
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
MikTEX v2.8 (LATEX engine);
WinEdt v5.6 (TEX editor);
a number of WinEdt plugins:
JabRef — references editor;
BibTEX menu — WinEdt menu for references;
MathType — Equation editor;
R-Sweave — full WinEdt–R integration;
Optional: Scientific Word — the commercial programme
for producing LATEX documents under Windows;
word2tex — a shareware programme that converts MS
WORD documents to LATEX.
The course programme
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
I am not really familiar with TEX programming (I never
developed any LATEX package).
LATEX has a steep learning curve.
I also use MS Word (e.g. to write short documents).
LATEX comes (as any GNU) without any warranty.
Outline
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
1
Important points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
2
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
3
LATEX versus MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
TEX history
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
In 1978, Donald Knuth (one of the most famous and
well respected computer scientists) embarked on a
project to create a typesetting system, called TEX
(pronounced ‘tech’), after being disappointed with the
quality of his acclaimed The Art of Programming series.
Around 10 years later, he froze the language after
originally anticipating spending a single year!;
In the mid-80s Leslie Lamport created a set of macros
that abstracted away many of the complexities (this
allowed for a simpler approach for creating documents,
where content and style were separate). This extension
became LATEX (pronounced ‘lay-tech’);
MiKTEX (pronounced ‘mick-tech’) is an up-to-date
implementation of TEX and related programs for
Windows;
Outline
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
1
Important points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
2
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
3
LATEX versus MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
What is LATEX?
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
essentially a markup language;
analogous to HTML with CSS;
programming environment with many contributed
packages and styles;
renders the content into a document (PDF);
it’s not a code based system!
Who is it for?
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Anybody writing anything maths related will not find a
richer and better quality system.
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
You plan to write research articles, books (thesis) and
make professional and stable overheads;
If you are in academia, you really ought to be using it!
Even WikiPedia use LATEX for rendering any formulas
that appear on their site.
See also: “LATEX isn’t for everyone but it could be for
you” by Andy Roberts.
Why TEX?
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
. . . portability, lightness, security;
it is easier than XML (and has less bugs);
it is open source / free!
it is professional (MS Word is not a press software!);
Comparison
Literature
You can get LATEX to do just about anything you can
think of! (it’s just a question of time / effort)
TEX saves time
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
focus on content, let LATEX bother about the layout;
the software takes care of the actual typesetting,
structuring, numbering, referencing and
cross-referencing, indexing and page formatting;
compile documents in PDF (export to HTML, RTF);
hyphenation, typesetting, fine-tuned control;
Outline
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
1
Important points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
2
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
3
LATEX versus MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
LATEX versus MS Word
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
MS Word
LATEX
WYSIWYG world;
code world;
XML;
nonstandard styles;
TEX language;
standard styles;
not-suited for large
(collaborative)
documents;
perfect for large
collaborative
documents;
compatibility problems
(MS Word 97, 2000,
XP, 2003, 2007);
the syntax staid the
same ever since the
beginning!
. . .and the winner is. . .
MS Word
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
MS Word does in fact have a similar Styles feature (but
people don’t often know it exists).
Microsoft has a software to prepare documents for press —
Microsoft Office Publisher, but even this can not be
compared with e.g. Adobe InDesign (do you have money to
buy all this software?)
TEX versus MS Word
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Andy Roberts’ Laws on Word:
1
Likelihood of a crash is directly proportional to the
importance of a document.
2
Likelihood of a crash is inversely proportional to the time
left before its deadline.
3
Likelihood of a crash is directly proportional to the
duration since you last saved.
4
Likelihood of you throwing your computer out of the
window is directly proportional to the number of times
Clippy pops up.
5
That’s enough laws for now. . .
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
See also: “LATEX vs. MS Word”
Outline
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
1
Important points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
2
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
3
LATEX versus MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Comparison
Literature
Literature
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Important
points
Disclaimer
The programme
Software in use
What is TEX?
TEX philosophy
What is LATEX?
LATEX versus
MS Word
Lamport, L., 1994. LATEX: A Document Preparation
System. Addison-Wesley, 291 p.
Oetiker, T. 2008. The (Not So) Short Introduction to
LATEX2e. self-published, 155 p.
Comparison
Literature
LATEX on wikibooks.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX
Layout galleries
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Appendix
The TEX showcase;
Page and chapter headings by Vincent Zoonekynd;
LATEX font catalogue;
Copernicus publications (HESS);
LATEX to HTML/KML
LATEX crash
course
T. Hengl
Appendix
convert your LATEX document to HTML (install TtH);
install some KML editor (or use WinEdt);
Put the slides as HTML in the description field;
to get some idea what you can do with KML, look at the
KML interactive sampler and/or Google Earth Outreach;
You can also convert from LATEX document to Wiki (e.g.
using this Python script);