Latex documentation?

war1025 · 07-05-2009, 02:19 AM

I've recently decided to learn how to use LaTeX and have been pretty successful with the basic stuff.

I've installed texlive-latex-extra which comes with a whole boatload of packages according to apt-cache show texlive-latex-extra

My question is: How do I go about finding the documentation for these packages / what they do and how to use them?

jdkaye · 07-05-2009, 03:28 AM

Here's one:
http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/...tml/ltx-2.html
You can download it or use it from the web on your browser. Since there's some much very specific stuff you'll need to google to find it. People are forever adding new .sty files and it's hard for the standard documentation to keep up, if you see what I mean. The CTAN tex archive is also a good place to look.
http://www.ctan.org/
Of course, sometimes there isn't any

cheers,
jdk

jschiwal · 07-05-2009, 04:57 AM

Some packages also install pdf or ps documentation. Some have links to documentation on the CTAN website.
It may also depend on how much the debian packager decided to include.

vharishankar · 07-05-2009, 05:45 AM

Best book I've found for LaTeX is the LaTeX Companion by Mittelbach, Goosens and Samarin.

http://www.amazon.com/Latex-Companio.../dp/0201541998

Provides a lot of useful information on additional packages and utilities you might need to use to create excellent documentation (eg. BibTeX, multilingual support etc.)

LaTeX - A Document Preparation System by the original creator Leslie Lamport is also highly recommended for the basics.

war1025 · 07-05-2009, 09:28 AM

Awesome, thanks everyone!

amani · 07-05-2009, 11:47 AM

The easiest introduction is by Leslie Lamport. You will find it on the Internet.

On *buntu plenty of documentation can be installed. You will find them in /usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/english

jdkaye · 07-05-2009, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by amani

The easiest introduction is by Leslie Lamport. You will find it on the Internet.

On *buntu plenty of documentation can be installed. You will find them in /usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/english

Not just *buntu I have the same documents in the same place.
jdk

war1025 · 07-05-2009, 12:36 PM

Okay, now another question:

As I mentioned, I installed the texlive-latex-extra package
I want to use one of the packages provided by this. Specifically, paralist.

However when I run pdflatex I get the following output:

Code:

! LaTeX Error: Environment paralist undefined.

See the LaTeX manual or LaTeX Companion for explanation.
Type  H <return>  for immediate help.

Do I need to set some environment variable so latex knows where to find the package? What is it and where do I point it to?

I've found paralist on my system:

Code:

$ locate paralist
/usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/latex/paralist
/usr/share/doc/texlive-doc/latex/paralist/README
/usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-extra-doc/latex/paralist
/usr/share/doc/texlive-latex-extra-doc/latex/paralist/README
/usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex/paralist
/usr/share/texmf-texlive/tex/latex/paralist/paralist.sty

war1025 · 07-05-2009, 12:39 PM

Nevermind, it seems that I was doing \begin{paralist} when I should have used \begin{inparaenum}

vharishankar · 07-05-2009, 12:39 PM

There is documentation for paralist:
http://www.ctex.org/documents/packag...e/paralist.pdf

The package name in LaTeX often doesn't reflect the name of the environments or commands it provides.

Often these packages also have a PDF file for help or examples. Go through them to get an idea of how to use them. Also get that book I mentioned. The LaTeX companion is enough to cover most scenarios you will use in a typesetting program.

Stefan_K · 10-16-2009, 10:54 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by war1025

My question is: How do I go about finding the documentation for these packages / what they do and how to use them?

one important tool that hasn't been mentioned yet is texdoc. Just type

Code:

texdoc paralist

at the command line and a reader program should show the package documentation of paralist. Often there's no need to search online.

Stefan