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<html>
<head>
<title>Hypertext Help with LaTeX</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="#ffffff"
text="#000000" link="#000099" vlink="#cc0000" alink="#cc0000">

<h1><font color="#cc0000">Hypertext Help with LaTeX</font></h1>

<p>LaTeX is a word processing (or, more accurately, a typesetting)
program. It typesets a file of text using the TeX program and
the LaTeX Macro package for TeX. It does this by processing an
input file containing the text of a document with interspersed
commands that describe how the text should be formatted.</p>

<p>Unike many word processing programs, which concentrate on formatting
material on the page (often called WYSIWYG, for "what you see is what
you get"), LaTeX concentrates on "content." 
LaTeX is a Generalized Mark-up Language macro package for the TeX 
typesetting program. That is, one specifies
the structure: sections, title, appendix, authors' names, etc.,
which bear little relation to how this will look on a page. 
That is determined by the
<a href="ltx-22.html">document style</a> 
files (*.sty); 
standard ones are provided for such things as articles, reports,
books, and letters. However, these style files may be readily replaced
by others, giving a completely different look.
Of course, it is possible in LaTeX to specify much about 
the physical layout, but this tends
to be done with commands that define things like space between lines or
amount to indent paragraphs rather than by positioning each piece of text
on the page as is typical in WYSIWYG systems.</p>

<p>LaTeX produces
as output a Device Independent (*.dvi) file that contains
commands that can be translated into commands for a variety of output
devices. It also produces a transcript or log (*.log) file
that contains summary
information and diagnostic messages for any errors discovered in the
input file and an auxiliary (*.aux) file which contains cross
refererence information for Tables, citations, etc. It is sometimes
necessary to run LaTeX twice so that it has correct cross reference
information, especially when modifications have changed the numbering.</p>

<p>These hypertext help files are meant to provide reference information
for those with some familiarity with LaTeX. They are not an introduction
or tutorial.</p>


<dl>
  <dt><big><b><a href="ltx-2.html">Table of Contents</a></b></big>
  <dd>Links to help by subject, LaTeX command, or environment
  <p></p>

  <dt><big><b><a href="versions.html">Notes on Versions</a></b></big>
  <dd>LaTeX 2.09 and LaTeX2e
  <p></p>

  <dt><big><b><a href="refs.html">Reference Books</a></b></big>
  <p></p>

  <dt><big><b><a href="LaTeX-info.html">About these files</a></b></big>
  <dd>Plus info on how to obtain them via ftp
  <p></p>

  <dt><big><b><a href="externals.html">LaTeX resources on the Web</a></b></big>
  <dd>Including REVTeX, AMSTeX, and AASTeX
  <p></p>

  <dt><big><b><a href="mirror.html">Mirrors of this site</a></b></big>
  <dd>Copies of these files which might provide faster access
  <p></p>

</ul>


<p>&nbsp;</p>


<p>These pages were originally created by
<a href="http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/sgreen/">Sheldon Green</a>,
who passed away in December 1995.
Updates subsequent to Dr. Green's death have been made only for
purposes of page formatting and link verification.
Please contact
<a href="mailto:webmaster@giss.nasa.gov">webmaster@giss.nasa.gov</a>
if you are interested in assisting with maintenance and updates to
these pages.</p>

<hr>

<address>
Updated: 1998-12-03, RBS
</address>

</body>
</html>