# LaTeX Beginner's Guide

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Also available on: Select a store Amazon.com Amazon UK Barnes & Noble Safari Books Online O Reilly Overview Table of Contents Author Support Sample Chapters • Use LaTeX's powerful features to produce professionally designed texts • Install LaTeX; download, set up, and use additional styles, templates, and tools • Typeset math formulas and scientific expressions to the highest standards • Include graphics and work with figures and tables • Benefit from professional fonts and modern PDF features ### Book Details Language : English Paperback : 336 pages [ 235mm x 191mm ] Release Date : March 2011 ISBN : 1847199860 ISBN 13 : 9781847199867 Author(s) : Stefan Kottwitz Topics and Technologies : All Books, Other, Beginner's Guides, Open Source ## Table of Contents Preface Chapter 1: Getting Started with LaTeX Chapter 2: Formatting Words, Lines, and Paragraphs Chapter 3: Designing Pages Chapter 4: Creating Lists Chapter 5: Creating Tables and Inserting Pictures Chapter 6: Cross-Referencing Chapter 7: Listing Content and References Chapter 8: Typing Math Formulas Chapter 9: Using Fonts Chapter 10: Developing Large Documents Chapter 11: Enhancing Your Documents Further Chapter 12: Troubleshooting Chapter 13: Using Online Resources Appendix: Pop Quiz Answers Index • Chapter 1: Getting Started with LaTeX • What is LaTeX? • How we can benefit • The virtues of open source • Separation of form and content • Portability • Protection for your work • Comparing it to word processor software • What are the challenges? • Installing LaTeX • Time for action – installing TeX Live using the net installer wizard • Time for action – installing TeX Live offline • Installation on other operating systems • Creating our first document • Time for action – writing our first document with TeXworks • Summary • Chapter 2: Formatting Words, Lines, and Paragraphs • Understanding logical formatting • Time for action – titling your document • Exploring the document structure • Understanding LaTeX commands • How LaTeX reads your input • Time for action – trying out the effect of spaces, line breaks, and empty lines • Commenting your source text • Printing out special symbols • Time for action – writing special characters in our text • Formatting text – fonts, shapes, and styles • Time for action – tuning the font shape • Choosing the font family • Time for action – switching to sans-serif and to typewriter fonts • Switching fonts • Time for action – switching the font family • Summarizing font commands and declarations • Delimiting the effect of commands • Time for action – exploring grouping by braces • Time for action – exploring font sizes • Using environments • Time for action – using an environment to adjust the font size • Saving time and effort – creating your own commands • Time for action – creating our first command using it as an abbreviation • Gentle spacing after commands • Time for action – adding intelligent spacing to command output • Creating more universal commands – using arguments • Time for action – creating a macro for formatting keywords • Using optional arguments • Time for action – marking keywords with optional formatting • Using boxes to limit the width of paragraphs • Time for action – creating a narrow text column • Common paragraph boxes • Boxes containing more text • Time for action – using the minipage environment • Understanding environments • Breaking lines and paragraphs • Improving hyphenation • Time for action – stating division points for words • Improving the justification further • Time for action – using microtype • Breaking lines manually • Time for action – using line breaks • Preventing line breaks • Managing line breaks wisely • Exploring the fine details • Time for action – exploring ligatures • Understanding ligatures • Choosing the right dash • Setting dots • Time for action – using differently spaced dots • Time for action – comparing dots to ellipsis • Setting accents • Time for action – experimenting with accents • Using special characters directly in the editor • Time for action – using accents directly • Turning off full justification • Time for action – justifying a paragraph to the left • Creating ragged-left text • Time for action – centering a title • Using environments for justification • Time for action – centering verses • Displaying quotes • Time for action – quoting a scientist • Quoting longer text • Time for action – quoting TeX's benefits • Time for action – spacing between paragraphs instead of indentation • Summary • Chapter 3: Designing Pages • Defining the overall layout • Time for action – writing a book with chapters • Reviewing LaTeX's default page layout • Defining the margins yourself • Time for action – specifying margins • Using the geometry package • Choosing the paper size • Specifying the text area • Setting the margins • Obtaining package documentation • Time for action – finding the geometry package manual • Changing the line spacing • Time for action – increasing line spacing • Using class options to configure the document style • Time for action – creating a two-column landscape document • Creating a table of contents • Time for action – adding a table of contents • Sectioning and the contents • Time for action – shortening the table of content entries • Designing headers and footers • Time for action – customizing headers with the fancyhdr package • Understanding page styles • Customizing header and footer • Using decorative lines in header or footer • Changing LaTeX's header marks • Breaking pages • Time for action – inserting page breaks • Enlarging a page • Time for action – sparing an almost empty page • Using footnotes • Time for action – using footnotes in text and in headings • Modifying the dividing line • Time for action – redefining the footnote line • Using packages to expand footnote styles • Summary • Chapter 4: Creating Lists • Building a bulleted list • Time for action – listing LaTeX packages • Nesting lists • Time for action – listing packages by topic • Creating a numbered list • Time for action – writing a step-by-step tutorial • Customizing lists • Saving space with compact lists • Time for action – shrinking our tutorial • Choosing bullets and numbering format • Time for action – modifying lists using enumitem • Suspending and continuing lists • Producing a definition list • Time for action – explaining capabilities of packages • Summary • Chapter 5: Creating Tables and Inserting Pictures • Writing in columns • Time for action – lining up information using the tabbing environment • Time for action – lining up font commands • Typesetting tables • Time for action – building a table of font family commands • Drawing lines in tables • Understanding formatting arguments • Increasing the row height • Beautifying tables • Time for action – adding nicer horizontal lines with the booktabs package • Spanning entries over multiple columns • Time for action – merging cells • Inserting code column-wise • Time for action – using the array package • Spanning entries over multiple rows • Time for action – merging cells using the multirow package • Adding captions to tables • Time for action – adding a caption to our font table • Placing captions above • Auto-fitting columns to the table width • Generating multi-page tables • Coloring tables • Using landscape orientation • Aligning columns at the decimal point • Handling narrow columns • Inserting pictures • Time for action – including a picture • Scaling pictures • Choosing the optimal file type • Including whole pages • Putting images behind the text • Managing floating environments • Time for action – letting a figure float • Understanding float placement options • Forcing the output of floats • Limiting floating • Avoiding floating at all • Spanning figures and tables over text columns • Letting text flow around figures • Time for action – embedding a picture within text • Breaking figures and tables into pieces • Summary • Chapter 6: Cross-Referencing • Setting labels and referencing • Time for action – referencing items of a top list • Assigning a key • Referring to a key • Referring to a page • Producing intelligent page references • Time for action – introducing variable references • Fine-tuning page references • Referring to page ranges • Using automatic reference names • Time for action – referring cleverly • Combing cleveref and varioref • Referring to labels in other documents • Summary • Chapter 7: Listing Content and References • Customizing the table of contents • Time for action – refining an extensive table of contents • Adjusting the depth of the TOC • Shortening entries • Adding entries manually • Creating and customizing lists of figures • Time for action – creating a list of diagrams • Creating a list of tables • Using packages for customization • Generating an index • Time for action – marking words and building the index • Defining index entries and subentries • Specifying page ranges • Using symbols and macros in the index • Referring to other index entries • Fine-tuning page numbers • Designing the index layout • Creating a bibliography • Time for action – citing texts and listing the references • Using the standard bibliography environment • Using bibliography databases with BibTeX • Time for action – creating and using a BibTeX database • Looking at the BibTeX entry fields • Understanding BibTeX entry types • Choosing the bibliography style • Listing references without citing • Changing the headings • Summary • Chapter 8: Typing Math Formulas • Writing basic formulas • Time for action – discussing quadratic equations and roots • Embedding math expressions within text • Displaying formulas • Numbering equations • Adding subscripts and superscripts • Extracting roots • Writing fractions • Greek letters • Script letters • Producing an ellipsis • Comparing in-line formulas to displayed formulas • Changing the font, style, and size • Customizing displayed formulas • Time for action – typesetting multi-line formulas • Aligning multi-line equations • Numbering rows in multi-line formulas • Inserting text into formulas • Fine-tuning formulas • Using operators • Exploring the wealth of math symbols • Binary operation symbols • Binary relation symbols • Inequality relation symbols • Subset and superset symbols • Variable sized operators • Arrows • Harpoons • Symbols derived from letters • Variable sized delimiters • Miscellaneous symbols • Writing units • Building math structures • Creating arrays • Writing binomial coefficients: • Typesetting matrices • Stacking expressions • Underlining and overlining • Setting accents • Putting a symbol above another • Writing theorems and definitions • Summary • Chapter 9: Using Fonts • Preparing the encoding • Time for action – directly using special characters • Installing additional fonts • Choosing the main font • Time for action – comparing Computer Modern to Latin Modern • Loading font packages • Latin Modern – a replacement for the standard font • Kp-fonts – a full set of fonts • Serif fonts • Times Roman • Charter • Palatino • Bookman • New Century Schoolbook • Concrete Roman • Sans-serif fonts • Helvetica • Bera Sans • Computer Modern Bright • Kurier • Typewriter fonts • Courier • Inconsolata • Bera Mono • Exploring the world of LaTeX fonts • Summary • Chapter 10: Developing Large Documents • Splitting the input • Time for action – swapping out preamble and chapter contents • Including small pieces of code • Including bigger parts of a document • Compiling parts of a document • Creating front and back matter • Time for action – adding a dedication and an appendix • Designing a title page • Time for action – creating a title page • Working with templates • Time for action – starting with a template • Summary • Chapter 11: Enhancing Your Documents Further • Using hyperlinks and bookmarks • Time for action – adding hyperlinks • Time for action – customizing the hyperlink appearance • Time for action – editing PDF metadata • Creating hyperlinks manually • Creating bookmarks manually • Math formulas and special symbols in bookmarks • Benefitting from other packages • Time for action – visiting the TeX Catalogue Online • Time for action – installing a LaTeX package • Designing headings • Time for action – designing chapter and section headings • Coloring your document • Summary • Chapter 12: Troubleshooting • Understanding and fixing errors • Time for action – interpreting and fixing an error • Using commands and environments • Writing math formulas • Handling the preamble and document body • Working with files • Creating tables and arrays • Working with lists • Working with floating figures and tables • General syntax errors • Handling warnings • Time for action – emphasizing on a sans-serif font • Justifying text • Referencing • Choosing fonts • Placing figures and tables • Customizing the document class • Avoiding obsolete classes and packages • General troubleshooting • Summary • Chapter 13: Using Online Resources • Web forums, discussion boards, and Q&A sites • Usenet groups • comp.text.tex • Newsgroups in other languages • Web forums • LaTeX-Community.org • TeX and LaTeX on Stack Exchange • Time for action – asking a question online • Frequently Asked Questions • UK TeX FAQ • Visual LaTeX FAQ • MacTeX FAQ • AMS-Math FAQ • LaTeX Picture FAQ • Mailing lists • texhax • tex-live • texworks • List collections • TeX user group sites • TUG – the TeX users group • The LaTeX project • UK TUG – TeX in the United Kingdom • Local user groups • Homepages of LaTeX software and editors • LaTeX distributions • LaTeX editors • Cross-platform • Windows • Linux • Mac OS X • LaTeX archives and catalogs • CTAN – the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network • The TeX Catalogue Online • The LaTeX Font Catalogue • TeX Resources on the Web • Friends of LaTeX • XeTeX • LuaTeX • ConTeXt • LyX • LaTeX blogs • The TeXblog • Some TeX Developments • LaTeX Alive • LaTeX for Humans • The TeX community aggregator • Summary • Appendix: Pop Quiz Answers • Chapter 2: Formatting Words, Lines, and Paragraphs • Commands • Lines and paragraphs • Chapter 3: Designing Pages • Chapter 4: Creating Lists • Chapter 5: Creating Tables and Inserting Pictures • Tables • Pictures and floats • Chapter 6: Cross-Referencing • Chapter 7: Listing Content and References • Chapter 8: Typing Math Formulas • Chapter 9: Using Fonts • Chapter 10: Developing Large Documents • Chapter 11: Enhancing Your Documents Further • Chapter 12: Troubleshooting • Chapter 13: Using Online Resources ### Stefan Kottwitz Stefan Kottwitz studied mathematics in Jena and Hamburg. Afterwards, he worked as an IT Administrator and Communication Officer onboard cruise ships for AIDA Cruises and for Hapag-Lloyd Cruises. Following 10 years of sailing around the world, he is now employed as a Network & IT Security Engineer for AIDA Cruises, focusing on network infrastructure and security such as managing firewall systems for headquarters and fleet. In between contracts, he worked as a freelance programmer and typography designer. For many years he has been providing LaTeX support in online forums. He became a moderator of the web forum http://latex community.org/ and of the site http://golatex.de/. Recently, he began supporting the newly established Q&A site http://tex.stackexchange.com/ as a moderator. He publishes ideas and news from the TeX world on his blog at http://texblog.net. Sorry, we don't have any reviews for this title yet. ### Code Downloads Download the code and support files for this book. ### Submit Errata Please let us know if you have found any errors not listed on this list by completing our errata submission form. Our editors will check them and add them to this list. Thank you. ### Errata - 4 submitted: last submission 15 Jul 2014 Errata type: Code | Page number: 134 | Errata Date: 20 September 2012 In step 2, in the code line \multirow{3}{*}{Family} & textrm & rmfamily & \rmfamily & \\. The last & is wrongly placed. Errata type: Technical | Page number: 134 | Errata Date: 20 September 2012 In the second line of the page, "... span this cell over three columns...". The word "rows" should be used instead of "columns" Errata type: Technical | Page number: 235-236 | Errata Date: 20 September 2012 In Time for action: creating a title page, There should be an item 2 inserted: Insert \include{title} right after \frontmatter. Errata type: Code | Page number: 123-124 | Errata Date: 20 September 2012 The code in Step 2 should be: \begin{tabbing} \head{Type} \= \head{Command} \= \head{Declaration} \= \head{Example}\\ Family \> \verb|\textrm{...}| \> \verb|\rmfamily| \> \rmfamily Example text\\ \end{tabbing} Errata Type: Code | Page Number: 31 In the code files for the Time for action – writing special characters in our text section, there's should have been a blank line in the code that would give the output, which was shown in the book: Statement #1: 50% of$100 makes $50. More special symbols are &,_, { and } Errata Type: Code | Page Number: 114 The last bullet at the bottom of the page: \begin{enumerate}[label=\alph*)],nolistsep] for a very compact list numbered a), b), c), ... should be: \begin{enumerate}[label=\alph*),nolistsep] for a very compact list numbered a), b), c), ... Errata Type: Code | Page number: 38 The code present in section should include a blank line after A small example, shown as follows: \documentclass{article} \begin{document} \begin{huge} \bfseries A small example \end{huge} \bigskip This is just another small illustrative example. \end{document} ### Sample chapters You can view our sample chapters and prefaces of this title on PacktLib or download sample chapters in PDF format. ## Frequently bought together + = 50% Off the second eBook Price for both:$41.55

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## What you will learn from this book

• Install LaTeX and use the TeXworks editor to compile documents
• Design the page layout; create dynamic headers and footers
• Fine-tune appearances and the space of words, symbols, and lines
• Apply intelligent justification and customized hyphenation to achieve fine text design
• Typeset professional-looking tables and create bulleted and enumerated lists
• Write sophisticated math formulas, from in-text expressions to complex multi-line equations with various alignments
• Cross-reference objects such as figures, tables, and equations
• Load fonts and vary their shape and style; choose between thousands of LaTeX symbols from specialized fonts
• Use macros to save time and effort; load packages to extend LaTeX's capabilities
• Generate an index, cite books, and create bibliographies
• Use external pictures, color, PDF bookmarks, and hyperlinks
• Structure and manage large documents by splitting the input
• Manage large documents containing lists, index, and bibliography

## In Detail

LaTeX is high-quality Open Source typesetting software that produces professional prints and PDF files. However, as LaTeX is a powerful and complex tool, getting started can be intimidating. There is no official support and certain aspects such as layout modifications can seem rather complicated. It may seem more straightforward to use Word or other WYSIWG programs, but once you've become acquainted, LaTeX's capabilities far outweigh any initial difficulties. This book guides you through these challenges and makes beginning with LaTeX easy. If you are writing Mathematical, Scientific, or Business papers, or have a thesis to write, then this is the perfect book for you.

LaTeX Beginner's Guide offers you a practical introduction to LaTeX with plenty of step-by-step examples. Beginning with the installation and basic usage, you will learn to typeset documents containing tables, figures, formulas, and common book elements like bibliographies, glossaries, and indexes and go on to managing complex documents and using modern PDF features. It's easy to use LaTeX, when you have LaTeX Beginner's Guide to hand.

This practical book will guide you through the essential steps of LaTeX, from installing LaTeX, formatting, and justification to page design. Right from the beginning, you will learn to use macros and styles to maintain a consistent document structure while saving typing work. You will learn to fine-tune text and page layout, create professional looking tables as well as include figures and write complex mathematical formulas. You will see how to generate bibliographies and indexes with ease. Finally you will learn how to manage complex documents and how to benefit from modern PDF features. Detailed information about online resources like software archives, web forums, and online compilers completes this introductory guide. It's easy to use LaTeX, when you have LaTeX Beginner's Guide to hand.

Create professional-looking texts, articles, and books for Business and Science

## Approach

Packed with fully explained examples, LaTeX Beginner's Guide is a hands-on introduction quickly leading a novice user to professional-quality results.

## Who this book is for

If you are about to write mathematical or scientific papers, seminar handouts, or even plan to write a thesis, then this book offers you a fast-paced and practical introduction. Particularly during studying in school and university you will benefit much, as a mathematician or physicist as well as an engineer or a humanist. Everybody with high expectations who plans to write a paper or a book will be delighted by this stable software.