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--- labs:latex [2008/10/14 20:34] – admin
+++ labs:latex [2012/04/24 20:19] (current) – [Creating LaTeX Files] admin
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+====== LaTeX and BibTeX ======
+**LaTeX** is a document preparation system for high-quality typesetting.  It is often used for scientific and technical papers.  The idea behind LaTeX is that the author should concentrate on the content and the document designer should concentrate on the appearance of document.  This separation of concerns is similar to HTML (containing the content) and CSS (the style to apply to the document).
+===== Creating LaTeX Files =====
+One way:
+  latex <"main" filename, optionally without .tex extension>
+Creates a ''dvi'' file with same name as ''.tex'' file.
+This approach requires less disk space and is faster.  However, ''dvi'' is an older file format and not portable.
+To view a ''dvi'' file, use ''xdvi''.
+Another approach:
+  pdflatex <"main" filename, optionally without .tex extension>
+Creates a ''pdf'' file with the same name as the ''.tex'' file.
+This approach is slower and requires more disk space but creates a portable PDF document.
+==== Adding Bibtex ====
+For either approach, to add bibtex to the document, run
+  bibtex <"main" filename, without .tex extension>
+===== IDEs =====
+Instead of using a text editor and commands to generate your document, you may prefer an IDE.
+  * [[http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/index.html|Texmaker]]
+  * [[http://kile.sourceforge.net/|Kile]]
+===== Help Documents =====
+  * [[http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX|LaTeX on Wikibooks]]
+  * [[http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Bibliography_Management#BibTeX|BibTeX on Wikibooks]]