Latex

The (in)famous scientific text-processor. Good for producing high quality documents in scientific and literary areas. You can also use a subset of latex commands in this wiki editor for producing mathematical formulas.

Installing

Windows

1. Download and install <goto>miktex</goto>, the latex processor for windows,
2. Download and install <goto>ghostscript</goto>, the postscript processor,
3. Download and install <goto>ghostview</goto>, the postscript viewer,
4. Download and install <goto>acrobat reader</goto>, the pdf reader (only if it isn't already installed),
5. Download and install <goto>winedt</goto>, the popular latex text-editor,
6. Download <goto>winedt dictionaries</goto> for spelling auto-correction,
7. Unzip the dictionaries somewhere in a folder,
8. To configure winedt with the dictionaries do

winedt-->Options-->Dictionaries
Add new dictionary (black upside down triangle icon),
Give it a name,
Open the .dic file (farther right open folder icon); should appear in the definition text-area, 
Then load the dictionary (farther left open folder icon),
Tick load on start, save on exit, add new words,
Tick enabled,
Save configuration as a .dat file (farther left save disk icon) in some folder.

That's it!

Available documentation

I heartily recommend:

• <goto>The Not So Short Introduction To Latex</goto>,
• <goto>Uma Não Tão Pequena Introdução Ao Latex</goto> (same, but in portuguese),
• wikibook on Latex.

Difference between latex and pdflatex

Advantages of pdflatex over simple latex:

• allows for hyperlinked hyperlinked table of contents,
• includes png graphics

Disadvantages:

• doesn't include ps files. Have to be converted to pdf
• From a original ps files, final pdf size of document is higher (This was tested with a 730.3 kB ps figure, which gave a 151 kB pdf document with latex/dvi2pdf and 153.5 kB with pdflatex)

Useful tips

Commandline syntax

Compile and create dvi file

> latex main.tex

Compile and create pdf file

> pdflatex main.tex

Create postscript file

> dvi2ps main.dvi

Create pdf file

> dvipdf main.dvi

Create a bibliography

> bibtex main
> latex main.tex
> latex main.tex

NOTE: Do it twice.

Template

Here you'll find a full latex template.

Makefile

Here you'll find a useful makefile.

Links in Table Of Contents

\usepackage[pdftex]{hyperref}

Index

Add to preamble

\usepackage{makeidx}
\makeindex

Add to main (after bibliography):

\printindex

In the text:

Let's talk about cheese \index{cheese}
Let's talk about gouda \index{cheese!gouda}
Let's talk about crackers to go with cheese \index{cheese|see{crackers}}

Nomenclature Table

Use nomencl package from CTAN.

Add to preamble:

\usepackage[refpage]{nomencl}
\makenomenclature 

Add to main (after \tableof contents):

\printnomenclature

In the text:

bla bla bla 
numerical weather prediction (NWP) \nomenclature{NWP}{Numeric Weather Prediction} models are very good.
bla bla bla

The make file must have 2 prior calls to pdflatex and then makeindex like below:

FILE = 00_main
TEXFILE = "$(FILE).tex"

all:
       pdflatex $(TEXFILE)
       bibtex $(FILE)
       pdflatex $(TEXFILE)
       pdflatex $(TEXFILE)
       makeindex $(FILE).nlo -s nomencl.ist -o $(FILE).nls
       pdflatex $(TEXFILE)

clean:
       @rm -f *.aux *.lof *.log *.lot *.nlo *.nls *.out *.pdf *.toc *.bbl *.blg *.bak *.sav

Graphics

Side by side:

\newcommand{\myfigcol}[6]{
    \begin{figure}[htb] % Duas figuras lado a lado
       \begin{minipage}[b]{0.48 \linewidth}
          \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{#1}\\
          \caption{#2}
          \label{#3}
      \end{minipage}\hfill
      \begin{minipage}[b]{0.48 \linewidth}
          \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{#4}\\
          \caption{#5}
          \label{#6}
      \end{minipage}
  \end{figure}
}

4-Mosaic:

\newcommand{\quadmosaic}[6]{
    \begin{figure}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=0.5 \textwidth]{#1}\includegraphics[width=0.5 \textwidth]{#2}\\
        \includegraphics[width=0.5 \textwidth]{#3}\includegraphics[width=0.5 \textwidth]{#4}\\
        \caption{#5}
        \label{#6}
    \end{figure}
}

pspictures

Example with MOHID hierarchical structure (download eps_image/code). The image was made with latexdraw, which is a visual interface that produces the pspicture code. To compile: latex -> dvips.

Another very interesting alternative (probably) to create illustrations and sketches and other vectorial graphics for latex consists using Inkscape and its TexText extension! They-re both free software. Some use those tools to create math posters...

Latex editors

• Winedt, commercial, windows.
• TexnicCenter, free, windows.
• Texmaker, free, cross-platform.
• vi, free, gnu distros.

Troubleshootings

P : When I convert my document to pdf I get deteriorated fonts and a poor readibility!

A: Check if you're using

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

If so, then that's your problem. Either erase it (not recommended) or simply add this extra package

\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{ae,aecompl}

Recompile your tex file and convert it to pdf, and that should do the trick.

External references

• Wikipedia
• <goto>Miktex</goto>
• <goto>Winedt</goto>
• <goto>The Not So Short Introduction To Latex</goto>
• <goto>CiteULike</goto>
• <goto>Comprehensive TeX Archive Network</goto>
• wikibook on latex