Problem with using LaTeX for doing professional documents

[QuantumJG]

hey guys,

I'm considering using to make my uni assignments look more professional, but I can't seem to get it working.

I tried following these steps (http://www.pinteric.com/miktex.html), but kind of got confused.

Please help!

[TrueTears]

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Downloads

[kyzoo]

Just use MathType if it's a word document.

[stonecold]

Just use MathType if it's a word document.

+1

Just go word options, customize, then add commands.  Then add formula and fraction options to your word toolbar.

[GerrySly]

I'm considering using to make my uni assignments look more professional, but I can't seem to get it working.

Something completely unrelated to the thread. Latex actually has their own graphic in the set of images, so you don't have to make it up heh



Now back to the question at hand. I just used tex2pdf then just learnt the syntax that way. Took ages to make up my reference book with it, but by the end it was 10x faster then anything else for maths.

Just use MathType if it's a word document.

MathType is no good when you are creating large maths documents where you need all the spacing and formatting to be perfect and in line.

[QuantumJG]

http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Downloads

Thanks, you basically allowed me to do in 5 minutes, what I spent 5 hours on today!

[Mao]

Code: [Select]

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage[top=2.5cm,bottom=2.5cm,left=2cm,right=2cm]{geometry}

\pagestyle{fancy}
\fancyhead{}
\fancyfoot{}
\lhead{left header}
\chead{center footer}
\rhead{right header}
\lfoot{left footer}
\cfoot{center footer}
\rfoot{Page \thepage}

\title{This is your title}
\author{This is the author name}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

Some body goes in here, $y = x^2 + 2\sqrt{x} - 1$. Notice the formatting of header/footer doesn't apply to the first page.

\[ \frac{d}{dx}\left( \int_{a}^{x} f(t)\; dt \right) = f(x) \]

\begin{align*}
a & = 2x^2 \\
\frac{a}{2} & = x^2 \\
x & = \sqrt{\frac{a}{2}} \\
\end{align*}

\newpage

This is on the second page.

\end{document}

Some sample code, this basically outlines the difference between using here and using it to do whole documents. There are some packages you need to install, they are all 'included' in the above code, install them as the program asks.

[Cthulhu]

The here sucks! amsmath ftw

[Mao]

I think the here has amsmath? [Otherwise aligning equations wouldn't work.]

[enwiabe]

Hi. Download Lyx. http://www.lyx.org

It's like the LaTeX version of "Word", except instead of being WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) as is with word, it's WYSIWYM (what you see is what you mean).

It uses templates, and I've found it extremely easy to use to type up documents of any structure and length.

[humph]

Ugh but Lyx documents are so much uglier than normal TeX

I use TeXnicCenter Though the computers at ANU only have WinEdt installed, which is annoying.
Anyway, check this out for comparisons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_TeX_editors

[enwiabe]

LyX documents are the same as TeX :-/

There's literally no difference, all it does is shortcut the code so you're not constantly having to compile to make sure you didn't leave off a curly brace somewhere.

[humph]

Hmmmm well maybe it's just my friend's computer then - he uses Lyx on his Mac and for some reason it looks horrid.

[enwiabe]

http://www.sendspace.com/file/srf4d9

I wrote that entirely in LyX

[Mao]

I use TeXnicCenter Though the computers at ANU only have WinEdt installed, which is annoying.
Anyway, check this out for comparisons:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_TeX_editors

Same here. But for the reason that I don't want to graphically render everything as I'm typing. I like controlling my equations with text-based syntax.