.. Objectives .. ---------- .. By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to .. 1. Become familiar with the history of, development of LaTeX. .. #. Description of a typical work flow, when using LaTeX to typeset documents. .. #. Advantages and disadvantages of typesetting documents using .. the LaTeX approach. .. #. Create a very simple LaTeX document .. Prerequisites .. ------------- .. 1. Should have already installed LaTeX and its supported packages on the host machine. .. #. Should be comfortable using a text editor of choice. .. Author : Harish Badrinath < harish [at] fossee [dot] in > Internal Reviewer : External Reviewer : Langauge Reviewer : Checklist OK? : Script ------ .. L1 {{{ Show the first slide containing title, name of the production team along with the logo of MHRD }}} .. R1 Hello Friends and Welcome to the tutorial on introduction to LaTeX. .. L2 {{{ Show the objectives slide }}} .. R2 At the end of this tutorial, you will be able to, 1. Have an insight on the history and development of LaTeX. #. Adopt a simple work flow, that uses LaTeX to typset documents. #. Know about the Advantages and disadvantages of typesetting documents using .. the LaTeX approach. #. Will have gone through an example on creating a very simple LaTeX document. .. L3 {{{ Switch to the pre-requisite slide }}} .. R3 Before beginning this tutorial,we would suggest having a working installation of LaTeX on your computer. You can do this by completing the tutorial titled "Installing LaTeX". .. L4 {{{ switch to the photograph of Donald E. Knuth }}} .. R4 LaTeX began as TeX, a computer program originally created by Donald E. Knuth. Its was designed mainly to aid typesetting of text and mathematical formulae. TeX was started to reverse the trend of deteriorating typographical quality of the then, nascent digital publishing industry. LaTeX is a document preparation system for high quality type setting. It is based on the TeX typesetting language or certain extensions. .. L5 {{{ switch to pronunciation stock photograph }}} .. R5 LaTeX is pronounced Lah-tech or Lay-tec. TeX is pronounced Tech. TeX is also the first syllable in the greek word for technology. LaTeX allows authors to typeset and print their content at the highest typographical quality, using predefined, professional layouts. .. L6 {{{ switch to Image saying/symbolizing work flow }}} .. R6 LaTeX input files are simple ASCII text files that are processed by a TeX processing engine. Next comes the question compiling LaTeX input files and viewing the output typeset document. The process is a little different from other markup languages like HTML. We compile ASCII text files into typeset files that are normally DVI,Postscript or PDF files. The latex command converts LaTeX input files into dvi files. We can view DVI files on Gnu/Linux using xdvi. Further DVI files can be converted either to a post script file, using the dvips command or to a PDF file using the dvipdfm command. The command pdflatex is used to convert LaTeX input files directly to pdf files. The resultant PDF files can be viewed using standard tools on most platforms (Eg: evince on Gnu/Linux). PDF file are also widely supported. .. L7 {{{ switch to stock photograph of/symbolizing advantages and disadvantages }}} .. R7 Some of the advantages of using LaTeX approach to typesetting are (1) Easy availability of professionally crafted layouts. (2) Typesetting of mathematical formulae is supported in a convenient environment. (3) Typesetting for most cases can be done with very little learning curve using easy to use/understand commands, that only specify the logical structure of the document. (4) Presence of lots of add-on packages. (5) It encourages creation of well structured texts. .. L8 {{{ switch to stock photograph of/symbolizing advantages and disadvantages }}} .. R8 Some of the disadvantages of using LaTeX approach to typesetting are (1) Designing a whole new layout is difficult. (2) Typesetting even complex documents, is done using mostly text editors. .. L9 :: {{{ Show slide with exercise 1 }}} \documentclass{article} \title{My First LaTeX Document} \author{Harish} \begin{document} \maketitle Hello world! \end{document} .. R9 Now, we try to create a simple LaTeX document. Pause the tutorial and type the content shown on the screen in a text editor. Save the file as temp.tex .. L10 {{{continue from paused state}}} latex temp.tex .. R10 Now we compile the commands in the LaTeX input file that is, temp.tex into a typeset file. The first alternative is to compile LaTeX input file into a DVI file. We use the latex command for this purpose. For compiling the LaTeX input file temp.tex into a DVI file, we use the following command latex temp.tex. The output file would be temp.dvi. On Gnu/Linux use a program like xdvi to view the output file. .. L11 pdflatex temp.tex .. R11 The other alternative is to create PDF files from LaTeX input files. We use the pdflatex command for this purpose. For compiling the LaTeX input file temp.tex into a PDF file, we use the following command pdflatex temp.tex The output file would be temp.pdf On Gnu/Linux use a program like evince to view the output file. .. L12 {{{ Show summary slide }}} .. R12 This brings us to the end of this tutorial. In this tutorial, we have, 1. An insight on the history and development of LaTeX. #. Adopted a simple work flow, that uses LaTeX to typeset documents. #. Come to Know the Advantages and disadvantages of typesetting documents .. using the LaTeX approach. #. Have gone through an example on creating a very simple LaTeX document. .. L13 {{{Show self assessment questions slide}}} .. R13 Here are some self assessment questions for you to solve 1. Convert the temp.dvi created during the course of this tutorial to temp_1.ps using the dvips command. Verify that the two files indeed look the same. 2. Convert the temp.dvi created during the course of this tutorial to temp_1.pdf using the dvipdfm command. Verify that the two files indeed look the same. 3. Remove the line "\maketitle" from temp.tex file. Recompile the file into either a DVI or a PDF file. what is the difference between the original output and the output from the newer version of the temp.tex file ?? .. L14 {{{Show self assessment questions slide}}} .. R14 And the answers, 1. We can use the following command to convert temp.dvi to temp_1.ps dvips -o temp_1.ps temp.dvi 2. We can use the following command to convert temp.dvi to temp_1.pdf dvipdfm -o temp_1.pdf temp.dvi 3. The output file consists of a file with a single line of text "Hello world!". .. L15 {{{ Show the thank you slide }}} .. R15 Hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and found it useful. Thank you!