Click [slideshow] to begin presentation.

 

Page Zero

The LaTeX Language

  • Special characters.
  • The structure of a LaTeX document.
  • Document classes (stylesheets/templates).
  • LaTeX environments (lists, tables. . .).
  • Sections, subsectionsAccents and special symbols.



The LaTeX Language

Some Fundamentals

Special Characters
  • Some characters reserved: 
        #   $   %   &   ~   _   ^   \  {   }
  • These should not appear as part of your text: if they do TeX will get confused. Instead use 
        \#    \$    ...    \textbackslash    $\backslash$
TeX Commands
  • begin with \;
  • are case-sensitive;
Some commands have arguments, some don't:
\begin{document}
Here is an {\it italicised phrase\/} in the middle of a sentence.
\end{document}



The LaTeX Language

LaTeX

  • A macro package for (Plain) TeX.
  • Uses document class — cf. wordprocessor template or HTML CSS
    • formerly document style
  • Many styles available: research papers, books, articles, letters. . .
    • Most journals have own style sheet to download and use.
    • Presentations: Beamer — example

Structure: 
  \documentclass[11pt]{article}         % Select style.
  \begin{document}                      % Begin document.
    .
    .                                   % Text of document.
    .
  \end{document}                        % End document.



The LaTeX Language

Example Document: A LaTeX Letter

\documentclass{letter}
\begin{document}

\address{1234 Avenue of the Armadillos \\
         Gnu York, G.Y. 56789}
\signature{R. (Ma) Dillo \\ Director of Cuisine}

\begin{letter}{G. Nathaniel Picking \\
               Acme Exterminators \\
               Illinois}

\opening{Dear Nat,}

I'm afraid that the armadillo problem is still with us.

\closing{Best Regards,}
\cc{Jimmy Carter\\Richard M. Nixon}
\end{letter}

\end{document}



The LaTeX Language

Document Classes

Several standard document styles available in LaTeX including:

article
For short structured documents, e.g., journal articles (no chapters; title at top of first page).
report
For longer documents (chapters available; title on own page).
book
Layout adjusted for verso (even, left-hand) and recto (odd, right-hand).
letter
Address, signature, etc.

. . .And many more. . .



The LaTeX Language

Document Class Options

Stylesheets can we tweaked

a4paper
Default is US "letter" size.
11pt, 12pt
Prints document using 11pt or 12pt running text (default is 10pt).
twoside
Layout adjusted as book.
twocolumn
Two columns a page.
titlepage
Causes title to be on its own page.

N.B. Not all options apply to all style-sheets.



The LaTeX Language

LaTeX Environments

A number of special effects are obtained by putting text into particular environments.

Lists

Lists in LaTeX are very much like those in HTML:

Centering and Flushing

Verbatim Output

Quotations



The LaTeX Language

LaTeX Environments: Tables

Tables

Tabbing Environment — simple tables:
The fully-functioning tabular environment. . .
Multicolumn and Multirow
. . .with caption added via the table environment:



The LaTeX Language

LaTeX Fonts and Typefaces

  • The typefaces and font sizes available by default are listed below.
  • Many, many, more are available by loading extra fonts.

Type Faces

By default we have Roman, Italic, Small Caps, Slanted, Typewriter, Boldface and Sans Serif. Here they are:

Font Size

The easiest way to change font size in LaTeX is to use the following commands: 
  \tiny          \small       \large       \huge
  \scriptsize    \normalsize  \Large       \Huge
  \footnotesize               \LARGE
for example 
  Some {\Large text} in a sentence.



The LaTeX Language

LaTeX Title, Author, etc.

  • The article, report, and some other stylesheets have these attributes in common,
    • though not letter.
  • To add a title, just after \begin{document}, include something like 
        \title{Introduction to \LaTeX}
    \author{Simon Hood}
    \date{14th February 2001}
    \maketitle
    • The format depends on the document style.



The LaTeX Language

LaTeX Sections and Tables of Contents

LaTex makes it easy to divide a document into (chapters and) sections, using 
    \chapter    \subsection       \paragraph
    \section    \subsubsection    \subparagraph

  • LaTeX takes care of the section numbering.
  • \paragraph and \subparagraph are really "\subsubsubsection" and "\subsubsubsubsection", not paragraphs.
  • Including the command 
            \tableofcontents
    will cause a table of contents to be included! (You may need to compile/process twice.)

N.B. Article, report, etc.; not letter.



The LaTeX Language

LaTeX Special Symbols

You can include many symbols that do not appear on your keyboard:

Accents
Other symbols



The LaTeX Language

Hands On

Where appropriate below, use Kile, or your favourite editor (e.g., gedit) and the command-line; use evince to view PDFs.

  1. Download letter.tex — choose save file.
  2. Compile and preview the letter. Next, modify letter.tex — add a sentence or two to the main letter content — then compile again and refresh your preview.
  3. Download lists.tex — choose save file.
  4. Modify the file lists.tex to produce a list of lists of lists — experiment with the three list environments (bullets, numbered and titled); compile and preview.
  5. Download sections.tex — choose save file.
  6. First, compile it — twice — and preview it. Notice the table of contents. Add some sections, subsections and subsubsections of your own, then re-compile and refresh your preview.