% Essential LaTeX - Jon Warbrick 02/88 % - Edited May, July 2000 -E. Benedict % Copyright (C) Jon Warbrick and Plymouth Polytechnic 1989 % Permission is granted to reproduce the document in any way providing % that it is distributed for free, except for any reasonable charges for % printing, distribution, staff time, etc. Direct commercial % exploitation is not permitted. Extracts may be made from this % document providing an acknowledgment of the original source is % maintained. % NOTICE: This document has been edited for use in the UW-Madison % Example Thesis file. % counters used for the sample file example \newcounter{savesection} \newcounter{savesubsection} % commands to do 'LaTeX Manual-like' examples \newlength{\egwidth}\setlength{\egwidth}{0.42\textwidth} \newenvironment{eg}{\begin{list}{}{\setlength{\leftmargin}% {0.05\textwidth}\setlength{\rightmargin}{\leftmargin}}% \item[]\footnotesize}{\end{list}} \newenvironment{egbox}{\begin{minipage}[t]{\egwidth}}{\end{minipage}} \newcommand{\egstart}{\begin{eg}\begin{egbox}} \newcommand{\egmid}{\end{egbox}\hfill\begin{egbox}} \newcommand{\egend}{\end{egbox}\end{eg}} % one or two other commands \newcommand{\fn}[1]{\hbox{\tt #1}} \newcommand{\llo}[1]{(see line #1)} \newcommand{\lls}[1]{(see lines #1)} \newcommand{\bs}{$\backslash$} \chapter{Essential \LaTeX{}} This chapter introduces some key ideas behind \LaTeX{} and give you the ``essential'' items of information. This chapter is an edited form of the paper ``Essential \LaTeX{}'' by Jon Warbrick, Plymouth Polytechnic. \section{Introduction} This document is an attempt to give you all the essential information that you will need in order to use the \LaTeX{} Document Preparation System. Only very basic features are covered, and a vast amount of detail has been omitted. In a document of this size it is not possible to include everything that you might need to know, and if you intend to make extensive use of the program you should refer to a more complete reference. Attempting to produce complex documents using only the information found below will require much more work than it should, and will probably produce a less than satisfactory result. The main reference for \LaTeX{} is {\em The \LaTeX{} User's guide and Reference Manual\/} by Leslie Lamport. This contains most of the information that you will ever need to know about the program, and you will need access to a copy if you are to use \LaTeX{} seriously. You should also consider getting a copy of {\em The \LaTeX{} Companion\/} \section{How does \LaTeX{} work?} In order to use \LaTeX{} you generate a file containing both the text that you wish to print and instructions to tell \LaTeX{} how you want it to appear. You will normally create this file using your system's text editor. You can give the file any name you like, but it should end ``\fn{.TEX}'' to identify the file's contents. You then get \LaTeX{} to process the file, and it creates a new file of typesetting commands; this has the same name as your file but the ``\fn{.TEX}'' ending is replaced by ``\fn{.DVI}''. This stands for `{\it D\/}e{\it v\/}ice {\it I\/}ndependent' and, as the name implies, this file can be used to create output on a range of printing devices. Your {\em local guide\/} will go into more detail. Rather than encourage you to dictate exactly how your document should be laid out, \LaTeX{} instructions allow you describe its {\em logical structure\/}. For example, you can think of a quotation embedded within your text as an element of this logical structure: you would normally expect a quotation to be displayed in a recognisable style to set it off from the rest of the text. A human typesetter would recognise the quotation and handle it accordingly, but since \LaTeX{} is only a computer program it requires your help. There are therefore \LaTeX{} commands that allow you to identify quotations and as a result allow \LaTeX{} to typeset them correctly. Fundamental to \LaTeX{} is the idea of a {\em document style\/} that determines exactly how a document will be formatted. \LaTeX{} provides standard document styles that describe how standard logical structures (such as quotations) should be formatted. You may have to supplement these styles by specifying the formatting of logical structures peculiar to your document, such as mathematical formulae. You can also modify the standard document styles or even create an entirely new one, though you should know the basic principles of typographical design before creating a radically new style. There are a number of good reasons for concentrating on the logical structure rather than on the appearance of a document. It prevents you from making elementary typographical errors in the mistaken idea that they improve the aesthetics of a document---you should remember that the primary function of document design is to make documents easier to read, not prettier. It is more flexible, since you only need to alter the definition of the quotation style to change the appearance of all the quotations in a document. Most important of all, logical design encourages better writing. A visual system makes it easier to create visual effects rather than a coherent structure; logical design encourages you to concentrate on your writing and makes it harder to use formatting as a substitute for good writing. \section{A Sample \LaTeX{} file} \begin{figure} %--------------------------------------------------------------- {\singlespace\tt\footnotesize\begin{verbatim} 1: % SMALL.TEX -- Released 5 July 1985 2: % USE THIS FILE AS A MODEL FOR MAKING YOUR OWN LaTeX INPUT FILE. 3: % EVERYTHING TO THE RIGHT OF A % IS A REMARK TO YOU AND IS IGNORED 4: % BY LaTeX. 5: % 6: % WARNING! DO NOT TYPE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING 10 CHARACTERS EXCEPT AS 7: % DIRECTED: & $ # % _ { } ^ ~ \ 8: 9: \documentclass[11pt,a4]{article} % YOUR INPUT FILE MUST CONTAIN THESE 10: \begin{document} % TWO LINES PLUS THE \end COMMAND AT 11: % THE END 12: 13: \section{Simple Text} % THIS COMMAND MAKES A SECTION TITLE. 14: 15: Words are separated by one or more spaces. Paragraphs are 16: separated by one or more blank lines. The output is not affected 17: by adding extra spaces or extra blank lines to the input file. 18: 19: 20: Double quotes are typed like this: ``quoted text''. 21: Single quotes are typed like this: `single-quoted text'. 22: 23: Long dashes are typed as three dash characters---like this. 24: 25: Italic text is typed like this: {\em this is italic text}. 26: Bold text is typed like this: {\bf this is bold text}. 27: 28: \subsection{A Warning or Two} % THIS MAKES A SUBSECTION TITLE. 29: 30: If you get too much space after a mid-sentence period---abbreviations 31: like etc.\ are the common culprits)---then type a backslash followed by 32: a space after the period, as in this sentence. 33: 34: Remember, don't type the 10 special characters (such as dollar sign and 35: backslash) except as directed! The following seven are printed by 36: typing a backslash in front of them: \$ \& \# \% \_ \{ and \}. 37: The manual tells how to make other symbols. 38: 39: \end{document} % THE INPUT FILE ENDS LIKE THIS \end{verbatim} } \caption{A Sample \LaTeX{} File}\label{fig:sample} \end{figure} %----------------------------------------------------------------- Have a look at the example \LaTeX{} file in Figure~\ref{fig:sample}. It is a slightly modified copy of the standard \LaTeX{} example file \fn{SMALL.TEX}. The line numbers down the left-hand side are not part of the file, but have been added to make it easier to identify various portions. Try entering this file (without the line numbers), save the text as \fn{small.tex}, next run \LaTeX{} on it, and then view the output: {\tt \singlespace\begin{verbatim} % latex small % xdvi small # displays the output on the screen % dvips -o small.ps small # to create a PostScript file, small.ps % lp -d small.ps # to print \end{verbatim}} \subsection{Running Text} Most documents consist almost entirely of running text---words formed into sentences, which are in turn formed into paragraphs---and the example file is no exception. Describing running text poses no problems, you just type it in naturally. In the output that it produces, \LaTeX{} will fill lines and adjust the spacing between words to give tidy left and right margins. The spacing and distribution of the words in your input file will have no effect at all on the eventual output. Any number of spaces in your input file are treated as a single space by \LaTeX{}, it also regards the end of each line as a space between words \lls{15--17}. A new paragraph is indicated by a blank line in your input file, so don't leave any blank lines unless you really wish to start a paragraph. \LaTeX{} reserves a number of the less common keyboard characters for its own use. The ten characters \begin{quote}\begin{verbatim} # $ % & ~ _ ^ \ { } \end{verbatim}\end{quote} should not appear as part of your text, because if they do \LaTeX{} will get confused. \subsection{\LaTeX{} Commands} There are a number of words in the file that start `\verb|\|' \lls{9, 10 and 13}. These are \LaTeX{} {\em commands\/} and they describe the structure of your document. There are a number of things that you should realize about these commands: \begin{itemize} \item All \LaTeX{} commands consist of a `\verb|\|' followed by one or more characters. \item \LaTeX{} commands should be typed using the correct mixture of upper- and lower-case letters. \verb|\BEGIN| is {\em not\/} the same as \verb|\begin|. \item Some commands are placed within your text. These are used to switch things, like different typestyles, on and off. The \verb|\em| command is used like this to emphasize text, normally by changing to an {\it italic\/} typestyle \llo{25}. The command and the text are always enclosed between `\verb|{|' and `\verb|}|'---the `\verb|{\em|' turns the effect on and and the `\verb|}|' turns it off. \item There are other commands that look like \begin{quote}\begin{verbatim} \command{text} \end{verbatim}\end{quote} In this case the text is called the ``argument'' of the command. The \verb|\section| command is like this \llo{13}. Sometimes you have to use curly brackets `\verb|{}|' to enclose the argument, sometimes square brackets `\verb|[]|', and sometimes both at once. There is method behind this apparent madness, but for the time being you should be sure to copy the commands exactly as given. \item When a command's name is made up entirely of letters, you must make sure that the end of the command is marked by something that isn't a letter. This is usually either the opening bracket around the command's argument, or it's a space. When it's a space, that space is always ignored by \LaTeX. We will see later that this can sometimes be a problem. \end{itemize} \subsection{Overall structure} There are some \LaTeX{} commands that must appear in every document. The actual text of the document always starts with a \verb|\begin{document}| command and ends with an \verb|\end{document}| command \lls{10 and 39}. Anything that comes after the \break \verb|\end{document}| command is ignored. Everything that comes before the \break\verb|\begin{document}| command is called the {\em preamble\/}. The preamble can only contain \LaTeX{} commands to describe the document's style. One command that must appear in the preamble is the \verb|\documentclass| command \llo{9}. This command specifies the overall style for the document. Our example file is a simple technical document, and uses the {\tt article\/} class. The document you are reading was produced with the {\tt withesis\/} class. There are other classes that you can use, as you will find out later on in this document. \subsection{Other Things to Look At} \LaTeX{} can print both opening and closing quote characters, and can manage either of these either single or double. To do this it uses the two quote characters from your keyboard: {\tt `} and {\tt '}. You will probably think of {\tt '} as the ordinary single quote character which probably looks like {\tt\symbol{'23}} or {\tt\symbol{'15}} on your keyboard, and {\tt `} as a ``funny'' character that probably appears as {\tt\symbol{'22}}. You type these characters once for single quote \llo{21}, and twice for double quotes \llo{20}. The double quote character {\tt "} itself is almost never used and should not be used unless you want your text to look "funny" (compare the quote in the previous sentence). \LaTeX{} can produce three different kinds of dashes. A long dash, for use as a punctuation symbol, as is typed as three dash characters in a row, like this `\verb|---|' \llo{23}. A shorter dash, used between numbers as in `10--20', is typed as two dash characters in a row, while a single dash character is used as a hyphen. From time to time you will need to include one or more of the \LaTeX{} special symbols in your text. Seven of them can be printed by making them into commands by proceeding them by backslash \llo{36}. The remaining three symbols can be produced by more advanced commands, as can symbols that do not appear on your keyboard such as \dag, \ddag, \S, \pounds, \copyright, $\sharp$ and $\clubsuit$. It is sometimes useful to include comments in a \LaTeX{} file, to remind you of what you have done or why you did it. Everything to the right of a \verb|%| sign is ignored by \LaTeX{}, and so it can be used to introduce a comment. \section{Document Classes and Class Options}\label{sec:styles} There are four standard document classes available in \LaTeX: \nobreak \begin{description} \item[{\tt article}] intended for short documents and articles for publication. Articles do not have chapters, and when \verb|\maketitle| is used to generate a title (see Section~\ref{sec:title}) it appears at the top of the first page rather than on a page of its own. \item[{\tt report}] intended for longer technical documents. It is similar to {\tt article}, except that it contains chapters and the title appears on a page of its own. \item[{\tt book}] intended as a basis for book publication. Page layout is adjusted assuming that the output will eventually be used to print on both sides of the paper. \item[{\tt letter}] intended for producing personal letters. This style will allow you to produce all the elements of a well laid out letter: addresses, date, signature, etc. \end{description} An additional document class, the one used for this document and for University of Wisconsin--Madison theses, is \fn{withesis}. These standard classes can be modified by a number of {\em class options\/}. They appear in square brackets after the \verb|\documentclass| command. Only one class can ever be used but you can have more than one class option, in which case their names should be separated by commas. The standard style options are: \begin{description} \item[{\tt 11pt}] prints the document using eleven-point type for the running text rather that the ten-point type normally used. Eleven-point type is about ten percent larger than ten-point. \item[{\tt 12pt}] prints the document using twelve-point type for the running text rather than the ten-point type normally used. Twelve-point type is about twenty percent larger than ten-point. \item[{\tt twoside}] causes documents in the article or report styles to be formatted for printing on both sides of the paper. This is the default for the book style. \item[{\tt twocolumn}] produces two column on each page. \item[{\tt titlepage}] causes the \verb|\maketitle| command to generate a title on a separate page for documents in the \fn{article} style. A separate page is always used in both the \fn{report} and \fn{book} styles. \end{description} The University of Wisconsin--Madison thesis style, \fn{withesis} also has some class options defined. These class options are for ten-point type (\fn{10pt}), tweleve-point type (\fn{12pt}), two-sided printing (\fn{twoside}), Master Thesis margins (\fn{msthesis}) and an option to print a small black box on lines which exceed the margins (\fn{margincheck}). \section{Environments} We mentioned earlier the idea of identifying a quotation to \LaTeX{} so that it could arrange to typeset it correctly. To do this you enclose the quotation between the commands \verb|\begin{quotation}| and \verb|\end{quotation}|. This is an example of a \LaTeX{} construction called an {\em environment\/}. A number of special effects are obtained by putting text into particular environments. \subsection{Quotations} There are two environments for quotations: \fn{quote} and \fn{quotation}. \fn{quote} is used either for a short quotation or for a sequence of short quotations separated by blank lines: \egstart\singlespace \begin{verbatim} US presidents ... remarks: \begin{quote} The buck stops here. I am not a crook. \end{quote} \end{verbatim} \egmid% US presidents have been known for their pithy remarks: \begin{quote} The buck stops here. I am not a crook. \end{quote} \egend Use the \fn{quotation} environment for quotations that consist of more than one paragraph. Paragraphs in the input are separated by blank lines as usual: \egstart\singlespace \begin{verbatim} Here is some advice to remember: \begin{quotation} Environments for making ...other things as well. Many problems ...environments. \end{quotation} \end{verbatim} \egmid% Here is some advice to remember: \begin{quotation} Environments for making quotations can be used for other things as well. Many problems can be solved by novel applications of existing environments. \end{quotation} \egend \subsection{Centering and Flushing} Text can be centered on the page by putting it within the \fn{center} environment, and it will appear flush against the left or right margins if it is placed within the \fn{flushleft} or \fn{flushright} environments. Text within these environments will be formatted in the normal way, in {\samepage particular the ends of the lines that you type are just regarded as spaces. To indicate a ``newline'' you need to type the \verb|\\| command. For example: \egstart\singlespace \begin{verbatim} \begin{center} one two three \\ four \\ five \end{center} \end{verbatim} \egmid% \begin{center} one two three \\ four \\ five \end{center} \egend } \subsection{Lists} There are three environments for constructing lists. In each one each new item is begun with an \verb|\item| command. In the \fn{itemize} environment the start of each item is given a marker, in the \fn{enumerate} environment each item is marked by a number. These environments can be nested within each other in which case the amount of indentation used is adjusted accordingly: \egstart\singlespace \begin{verbatim} \begin{itemize} \item Itemized lists are handy. \item However, don't forget \begin{enumerate} \item The `item' command. \item The `end' command. \end{enumerate} \end{itemize} \end{verbatim} \egmid% \begin{itemize} \item Itemized lists are handy. \item However, don't forget \begin{enumerate} \item The `item' command. \item The `end' command. \end{enumerate} \end{itemize} \egend The third list making environment is \fn{description}. In a description you specify the item labels inside square brackets after the \verb|\item| command. For example: \egstart\singlespace \begin{verbatim} Three animals that you should know about are: \begin{description} \item[gnat] A small animal... \item[gnu] A large animal... \item[armadillo] A ... \end{description} \end{verbatim} \egmid% Three animals that you should know about are: \begin{description} \item[gnat] A small animal that causes no end of trouble. \item[gnu] A large animal that causes no end of trouble. \item[armadillo] A medium-sized animal. \end{description} \egend \subsection{Tables} Because \LaTeX{} will almost always convert a sequence of spaces into a single space, it can be rather difficult to lay out tables. See what happens in this example \nolinebreak \begin{eg} \begin{minipage}[t]{0.55\textwidth} \singlespace \begin{verbatim} \begin{flushleft} Income Expenditure Result \\ 20s 0d 19s 11d happiness \\ 20s 0d 20s 1d misery \\ \end{flushleft} \end{verbatim} \end{minipage} \begin{minipage}[t]{0.3\textwidth} \begin{flushleft} Income Expenditure Result \\ 20s 0d 19s 11d happiness \\ 20s 0d 20s 1d misery \\ \end{flushleft} \end{minipage} \end{eg} The \fn{tabbing} environment overcomes this problem. Within it you set tabstops and tab to them much like you do on a typewriter. Tabstops are set with the \verb|\=| command, and the \verb|\>| command moves to the next stop. The \verb|\\| command is used to separate each line. A line that ends \verb|\kill| produces no output, and can be used to set tabstops: \nolinebreak \begin{eg} \begin{minipage}[t]{0.6\textwidth} \singlespace \begin{verbatim} \begin{tabbing} Income \=Expenditure \= \kill Income \>Expenditure \>Result \\ 20s 0d \>19s 11d \>Happiness \\ 20s 0d \>20s 1d \>Misery \\ \end{tabbing} \end{verbatim} \end{minipage} \vspace{1ex} \begin{minipage}[t]{0.35\textwidth} \begin{tabbing} \singlespace Income \=Expenditure \= \kill Income \>Expenditure \>Result \\ 20s 0d \>19s 11d \>Happiness \\ 20s 0d \>20s 1d \>Misery \\ \end{tabbing} \end{minipage} \end{eg} Unlike a typewriter's tab key, the \verb|\>| command always moves to the next tabstop in sequence, even if this means moving to the left. This can cause text to be overwritten if the gap between two tabstops is too small. \subsection{Verbatim Output} Sometimes you will want to include text exactly as it appears on a terminal screen. For example, you might want to include part of a computer program. Not only do you want \LaTeX{} to stop playing around with the layout of your text, you also want to be able to type all the characters on your keyboard without confusing \LaTeX. The \fn{verbatim} environment has this effect: \egstart \begin{flushleft}\singlespace \verb|The section of program in| \\ \verb|question is :|\\ \verb|\begin{verbatim}| \\ \verb|{ this finds %a & %b }| \\[2ex] \verb|for i := 1 to 27 do| \\ \ \ \ \verb|begin| \\ \ \ \ \verb|table[i] := fn(i);| \\ \ \ \ \verb|process(i)| \\ \ \ \ \verb|end;| \\ \verb|\end{verbatim}| \end{flushleft} \egmid% The section of program in question is: \begin{verbatim} { this finds %a & %b } for i := 1 to 27 do begin table[i] := fn(i); process(i) end; \end{verbatim} \egend The \fn{withesis} document style also provides the command {\tt \verb|\verbatimfile{foo.fe}|} which will read in the file {\tt foo.fe} into the document in \fn{verbatim} format with the font \verb|\tt|. See Appendix~\ref{matlab} for an example. \section{Type Styles} We have already come across the \verb|\em| command for changing typeface. Here is a full list of the available typefaces: \begin{quote}\singlespace\begin{tabbing} \verb|\sc|~~ \= \sc Small Caps~~~ \= \verb|\sc|~~ \= \sc Small Caps~~~ \= \verb|\sc|~~ \= \kill \verb|\rm| \> \rm Roman \> \verb|\it| \> \it Italic \> \verb|\sc| \> \sc Small Caps \\ \verb|\em| \> \em Emphatic \> \verb|\sl| \> \sl Slanted \> \verb|\tt| \> \tt Typewriter \\ \verb|\bf| \> \bf Boldface \> \verb|\sf| \> \sf Sans Serif \end{tabbing}\end{quote} Remember that these commands are used {\em inside\/} a pair of braces to limit the amount of text that they effect. In addition to the eight typeface commands, there are a set of commands that alter the size of the type. These commands are: \begin{quotation}\singlespace\begin{tabbing} \verb|\footnotesize|~~ \= \verb|\footnotesize|~~ \= \verb|\footnotesize| \= \kill \verb|\tiny| \> \verb|\small| \> \verb|\large| \> \verb|\huge| \\ \verb|\scriptsize| \> \verb|\normalsize| \> \verb|\Large| \> \verb|\Huge| \\ \verb|\footnotesize| \> \> \verb|\LARGE| \end{tabbing}\end{quotation} \section{Sectioning Commands and Tables of Contents} \label{ess:sectioning} Technical documents, like this one, are often divided into sections. Each section has a heading containing a title and a number for easy reference. \LaTeX{} has a series of commands that will allow you to identify different sorts of sections. Once you have done this \LaTeX{} takes on the responsibility of laying out the title and of providing the numbers. The commands that you can use are: \begin{quote}\singlespace\begin{tabbing} \verb|\subsubsection| \= \verb|\subsubsection|~~~~~~~~~~ \= \kill \verb|\chapter| \> \verb|\subsection| \> \verb|\paragraph| \\ \verb|\section| \> \verb|\subsubsection| \> \verb|\subparagraph| \\ \end{tabbing}\end{quote} The naming of these last two is unfortunate, since they do not really have anything to do with `paragraphs' in the normal sense of the word; they are just lower levels of section. In most document styles, headings made with \verb|\paragraph| and \verb|\subparagraph| are not numbered. \verb|\chapter| is not available in document style \fn{article}. The commands should be used in the order given, since sections are numbered within chapters, subsections within sections, etc. A seventh sectioning command, \verb|\part|, is also available. Its use is always optional, and it is used to divide a large document into series of parts. It does not alter the numbering used for any of the other commands. Including the command \verb|\tableofcontents| in you document will cause a contents list to be included, containing information collected from the various sectioning commands. You will notice that each time your document is run through \LaTeX{} the table of contents is always made up of the headings from the previous version of the document. This is because \LaTeX{} collects information for the table as it processes the document, and then includes it the next time it is run. This can sometimes mean that the document has to be processed through \LaTeX{} twice to get a correct table of contents. \section{Producing Special Symbols} You can include in you \LaTeX{} document a wide range of symbols that do not appear on you your keyboard. For a start, you can add an accent to any letter: \begin{quote}\singlespace\begin{tabbing} \t{oo} \= \verb|\t{oo}|~~~ \= \t{oo} \= \verb|\t{oo}|~~~ \= \t{oo} \= \verb|\t{oo}|~~~ \= \t{oo} \= \verb|\t{oo}|~~~ \= \t{oo} \= \verb|\t{oo}|~~~ \= \t{oo} \= \kill \a`{o} \> \verb|\`{o}| \> \~{o} \> \verb|\~{o}| \> \v{o} \> \verb|\v{o}| \> \c{o} \> \verb|\c{o}| \> \a'{o} \> \verb|\'{o}| \\ \a={o} \> \verb|\={o}| \> \H{o} \> \verb|\H{o}| \> \d{o} \> \verb|\d{o}| \> \^{o} \> \verb|\^{o}| \> \.{o} \> \verb|\.{o}| \\ \t{oo} \> \verb|\t{oo}| \> \b{o} \> \verb|\b{o}| \\ \"{o} \> \verb|\"{o}| \> \u{o} \> \verb|\u{o}| \\ \end{tabbing}\end{quote} A number of other symbols are available, and can be used by including the following commands: \begin{quote}\singlespace\begin{tabbing} \LaTeX~\= \verb|\copyright|~~~~ \= \LaTeX~\= \verb|\copyright|~~~~ \= \LaTeX~\= \kill \dag \> \verb|\dag| \> \S \> \verb|\S| \> \copyright \> \verb|\copyright| \\ \ddag \> \verb|\ddag| \> \P \> \verb|\P| \> \pounds \> \verb|\pounds| \\ \oe \> \verb|\oe| \> \OE \> \verb|\OE| \> \ae \> \verb|\AE| \\ \AE \> \verb|\AE| \> \aa \> \verb|\aa| \> \AA \> \verb|\AA| \\ \o \> \verb|\o| \> \O \> \verb|\O| \> \l \> \verb|\l| \\ \L \> \verb|\E| \> \ss \> \verb|\ss| \> ?` \> \verb|?`| \\ !` \> \verb|!`| \> \ldots \> \verb|\ldots| \> \LaTeX \> \verb|\LaTeX| \\ \end{tabbing}\end{quote} There is also a \verb|\today| command that prints the current date. When you use these commands remember that \LaTeX{} will ignore any spaces that follow them, so that you can type `\verb|\pounds 20|' to get `\pounds 20'. However, if you type `\verb|LaTeX is wonderful|' you will get `\LaTeX is wonderful'---notice the lack of space after \LaTeX. To overcome this problem you can follow any of these commands by a pair of empty brackets and then any spaces that you wish to include, and you will see that \verb|\LaTeX{} really is wonderful!| (\LaTeX{} really is wonderful!). \section{Titles}\label{sec:title} Most documents have a title. To title a \LaTeX{} document, you include the following commands in your document, usually just after \verb|begin{document}|. \begin{quote}\singlespace\begin{verbatim} \title{required title} \author{required author} \date{required date} \maketitle \end{verbatim}\end{quote} If there are several authors, then their names should be separated by \verb|\and|; they can also be separated by \verb|\\| if you want them to be centred on different lines. If the \verb|\date| command is left out, then the current date will be printed. \egstart \singlespace \begin{verbatim} \title{Essential \LaTeX} \author{J Warbrick \and An Other} \date{14th February 1988} \maketitle \end{verbatim} \egmid \begin{center} {\normalsize Essential \LaTeX}\\[4ex] J Warbrick\hspace{1em}A N Other\\[2ex] 14th February 1988 \end{center} \egend The exact appearance of the title varies depending on the document style. In styles \fn{report} and \fn{book} the title appears on a page of its own. In the \fn{article} style it normally appears at the top of the first page, the style option \fn{titlepage} will alter this (see Section~\ref{sec:styles}). In the \fn{withesis} style, the title is created on a seperate page in the format appropriate to a UW-Madison thesis or dissertation. \section{Errors} When you create a new input file for \LaTeX{} you will probably make mistakes. Everybody does, and it's nothing to be worried about. As with most computer programs, there are two sorts of mistake that you can make: those that \LaTeX{} notices and those that it doesn't. To take a rather silly example, since \LaTeX{} doesn't understand what you are saying it isn't going to be worried if you mis-spell some of the words in your text. You will just have to accurately proof-read your printed output. On the other hand, if you mis-spell one of the environment names in your file then \LaTeX won't know what you want it to do. When this sort of thing happens, \LaTeX{} prints an error message on your terminal screen and then stops and waits for you to take some action. Unfortunately, the error messages that it produces are rather user-unfriendly and a little frightening. Nevertheless, if you know where to look they will probably tell you where the error is and went wrong. Consider what would happen if you mistyped \verb|\begin{itemize}| so that it became \break\verb|\begin{itemie}|. When \LaTeX{} processes this instruction, it displays the following on your terminal: \begin{quote}\singlespace\begin{verbatim} LaTeX error. See LaTeX manual for explanation. Type H for immediate help. ! Environment itemie undefined. \@latexerr ...for immediate help.}\errmessage {#1} \endgroup l.140 \begin{itemie} ? \end{verbatim}\end{quote} After typing the `?' \LaTeX{} stops and waits for you to tell it what to do. The first two lines of the message just tell you that the error was detected by \LaTeX{}. The third line, the one that starts `!' is the {\em error indicator}. It tells you what the problem is, though until you have had some experience of \LaTeX{} this may not mean a lot to you. In this case it is just telling you that it doesn't recognise an environment called \fn{itemie}. The next two lines tell you what \LaTeX{} was doing when it found the error, they are irrelevant at the moment and can be ignored. The final line is called the {\em error locator}, and is a copy of the line from your file that caused the problem. It start with a line number to help you to find it in your file, and if the error was in the middle of a line it will be shown broken at the point where \LaTeX{} realised that there was an error. \LaTeX{} can sometimes pass the point where the real error is before discovering that something is wrong, but it doesn't usually get very far. At this point you could do several things. If you knew enough about \LaTeX{} you might be able to fix the problem, or you could type `X' and press the return key to stop \LaTeX{} running while you go and correct the error. The best thing to do, however, is just to press the return key. This will allow \LaTeX{} to go on running as if nothing had happened. If you have made one mistake, then you have probably made several and you may as well try to find them all in one go. It's much more efficient to do it this way than to run \LaTeX{} over and over again fixing one error at a time. Don't worry about remembering what the errors were---a copy of all the error messages is being saved in a {\em log\/} file so that you can look at them afterwards. If you look at the line that caused the error it's normally obvious what the problem was. If you can't work out what you problem is look at the hints below, and if they don't help consult Chapter~6 of the manual~\cite{lamport}. It contains a list of all of the error messages that you are likely to encounter together with some hints as to what may have caused them. Some of the most common mistakes that cause errors are \begin{itemize} \item A mispelled command or environment name. \item Improperly matched `\verb|{|' and `\verb|}|'---remember that they should always come in pairs. \item Trying to use one of the ten special characters \verb|# $ % & _ { } ~ ^| and \verb|\| as an ordinary printing symbol. \item A missing \verb|\end| command. \item A missing command argument (that's the bit enclosed in '\verb|{|' and `\verb|}|'). \end{itemize} One error can get \LaTeX{} so confused that it reports a series of spurious errors as a result. If you have an error that you understand, followed by a series that you don't, then try correcting the first error---the rest may vanish as if by magic. Sometimes \LaTeX{} may write a {\tt *} and stop without an error message. This is normally caused by a missing \verb|\end{document}| command, but other errors can cause it. If this happens type \verb|\stop| and press the return key. Finally, \LaTeX{} will sometimes print {\em warning\/} messages. They report problems that were not bad enough to cause \LaTeX{} to stop processing, but nevertheless may require investigation. The most common problems are `overfull' and `underfull' lines of text. A message like: \begin{quote}\footnotesize\begin{verbatim} Overfull \hbox (10.58649pt too wide) in paragraph at lines 172--175 []\tenrm Mathematical for-mu-las may be dis-played. A dis-played \end{verbatim}\end{quote} indicates that \LaTeX{} could not find a good place to break a line when laying out a paragraph. As a result, it was forced to let the line stick out into the right-hand margin, in this case by 10.6 points. Since a point is about 1/72nd of an inch this may be rather hard to see, but it will be there none the less. This particular problem happens because \LaTeX{} is rather fussy about line breaking, and it would rather generate a line that is too long than generate a paragraph that doesn't meet its high standards. The simplest way around the problem is to enclose the entire offending paragraph between \verb|\begin{sloppypar}| and \verb|\end{sloppypar}| commands. This tells \LaTeX{} that you are happy for it to break its own rules while it is working on that particular bit of text. Alternatively, messages about ``Underfull \verb|\hbox'es''| may appear. These are lines that had to have more space inserted between words than \LaTeX{} would have liked. In general there is not much that you can do about these. Your output will look fine, even if the line looks a bit stretched. About the only thing you could do is to re-write the offending paragraph! \section{A Final Reminder} You now know enough \LaTeX{} to produce a wide range of documents. But this document has only scratched the surface of the things that \LaTeX{} can do. This entire document was itself produced with \LaTeX{} (with no sticking things in or clever use of a photocopier) and even it hasn't used all the features that it could. From this you may get some feeling for the power that \LaTeX{} puts at your disposal. Please remember what was said in the introduction: if you {\bf do} have a complex document to produce then {\bf go and read the manual}. You will be wasting your time if you rely only on what you have read here.