LaTeX

First steps

LaTeX = markup language
- Syntactically easy to distinguish from the text
- We have text and we have instructions
TeX vs LaTeX
- TeX = computer program
  - Input = file with text and instructions
  - Output = document with a certain style
- LaTeX = TeX + set of macros (small programs)
  - Objective = make easier the life of editors
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Introduction#What_is_TeX.3F

Used in:
- Books
- Scientific articles
- Thesis
- Presentations
Useful for:
- Collaborative writing
- Not to struggle with formatting
- Mathematical formulas
- Bibliographic references

Flexibility and modularity
- Split the document into different files
- Reorder sections without any complication
Concentrate in the content, not the layout
Could be used within many editors
Easy to create:
- Indexes
- Citations
- References
- Footnotes
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Introduction

\environment
  Text under environment

\begin{environment}
  Text under environment
\end{environment}

% Comments
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
  \begin{center}
     Hello world!
  \end{center}
\end{document}

Documents, more than one page
- Create a .tex file for each section
Tables => usually a nightmare
- Starting point => http://www.tablesgenerator.com
Inkscape
- Convert bitmaps to vectorial images
- Create vectorial images
- Safe in many different formats
  - Including PDF
Good to know how LaTeX works
- Difference between DVI, PS, PDF
- http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Basics
- http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Basics#mediaviewer/File:LaTeX_diagram.svg

Starting point => BiBTeX file
- Bibliography database file
Compile => bbl file
If small changes are needed, like special characters
- Copy bbl content into our .tex file
- Modify the entries
- No need to compile again

Split the document into different files
- Each collaborator can work in a different section
Each sentence in a new line.
- Easier to work with software version control system

+ -----------.  ----x------.
- --------.      -------.
- -----------.  -----------.

+ -----------. --------. -----------.    -----------. ---x----. -----------.