Getting to grips with LaTeX

Here are some tutorials I have written for getting up to speed with this excellent document processing system. If you are not sure why LaTeX is any good, find out the benefits. I wouldn't consider myself an expert, but I'm learning all the time. I recall finding it quite taxing when I started to learn LaTeX, which is why I have started these tutorials. However, I hope that my experiences plays to your advantage, since I hope I can let you into the sort of questions and problems I had when I first learning LaTeX.

Online Tutorials

There is now a fair amount of material to get your teeth stuck into! I am continuously adding more, especially as there are some important topics yet to be covered. If you intend to work through a tutorial, then I'd recommend that you look at the example files at the end of the page, as these will give good insights. (PS Feel free to leave feedback.)

#	Name	Description
0	Setting up Latex	This is a precursor to the following tutorials. It is not much point trying to guide you through LaTeX, and then not being able to actually get the software working properly! This tutorial shows people within the School of Computing how to run the LaTeX system (and not a guide on how to install LaTeX on your own PC!)
1	Absolute Beginners	Just when you thought Hello World! was only for programming languages. This tutorial walks through just about the most basic document LaTeX could produce: just a single page with those famous words. This should give you an idea of the bare bones of a LaTeX source document, and also instructs on how to use the software, as well as converting output to PS and PDF.
2	Document Structure	With Hello World! under your belt, it's time to get on with more practical documents. This tutorial creates a basic article, similar in style to a research paper. There is a strong focus on document structure. A few extras are also covered, including lists, tables and bibliographies.
3	Bibliographies	Although introduced in the previous tutorial, there is much more on offer. This tutorial will delve in to using BibTex to manage your references as an external file. How to customise you bibliography using style files and quick look at the Natbib package for a more flexible system of citations, including the Harvard and numerical systems.
4	Tables	Tables are common in many documents. Tables can be tricky in LaTeX, which is why it's important to get some practice - so follow this tutorial to help you understand the most useful aspects of LaTeX's table functions.
5	Importing Images	A picture speaks a thousand words, and all that. So, if you need to add them to your documents, then this tutorial will show you how. Includes help on converting your images to EPS, the format that LaTeX requires; how to import; and some useful effects on your images that can be achieved from within LaTeX.
6	Floats, Figures and Captions	Following on from the previous two tutorials, the concept of floats is introduced. They allow you to add captions to your tables and images. They also permit better page layout. This tutorial also covers how to wrap text around floats. Figures within figures and even creating your own float types.
7	Formatting	A broad topic, mainly focussed on formatting of text (font styles, size etc); accents; symbols; Paragraph formatting (justification, line spacing, special paragraph styles). List structures and how to customize; Footnotes and margin notes. And some other extra bits!
8	Page Layout	This tutorial shows you how to gain more control of the page layout. How to select page orientation; change margin sizes; have multiple columns; customise headers/footers; use manual formatting.
9	Mathematics - Part I	This tutorial covers the basics of using the math mode to nicely output your maths. Covers maths environments, symbols, fractions, exponents, roots, matrices, etc.
10	Mathematics - Part II	Expanding on the material from the previous tutorial, more advanced topics are introduced. These include equation alignment environments, customising spacing, AMS extension packages, etc.
11	PDFs	This tutorial will focus solely on creating PDFs and utilising PDF-specific features. (NB, it's still in draft form. Still some rough edges to smooth out.)
12	Contents and Indices	For large documents you will may require tables of contents and indices. Latex provides all the necessary commands to produce this content and this tutorial gives you an overview of them. NB This tutorial is only partially complete. The section on Indices is still pending.
13	Tables - Part 2	Coming soon. Tables are frequently the biggest cause of headaches for LaTeX users! This tutorial builds upon the first tables tutorial and provides more packages, commands and tips and tricks for getting your desired tables.

Is there something missing that you would like to be included in my tutorials? Maybe an entirely new topic not covered yet, or additional material to one of the existing tutorials? If so, please leave feedback. I am adding to these tutorials (albeit slowly) over time, I'd be happy to know what sort of things people would like to learn. I can then tailor future additions accordingly. Otherwise, I'll just keep adding things that I feel are most beneficial.

Real Tutorials

This sections relates to the three tutorials organised for postgrads (and others) in the School of Computing. All slides and any materials presented are available here.

Session	Slides	Additional materials
1	pdf	texpath.bat Hello World.tex WinShell.pdf
2	pdf	structure.txt | structure.tex | structure.pdf bib_example.tex | bib_example.pdf bib_example_nat.tex | bib_example_nat.pdf andyr.bib (needed for bibtex examples) bibentries.pdf Reference sheet for all Bibtex types and fields.
3	pdf	See tutorials 4, 5 and 6 above.

LaTeX packages

Go to the packages page for more details about my packages.

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