TeX getting started

The following will help you install a TeX distribution on your computer and typeset a simple document–this is not entirely necessary but will help you gain familiarity with TeX formatting. There are different options at each stage, but these are fairly straight-forward options that are good for beginners and experienced users alike.

1. Go to https://miktex.org/. Choose the appropriate operating system and download the installer. Follow the instructions to install the program on your computer. (Other common software used is atom or sublime.)

2. Once installation is done, there should be a text editor on your computer called TeXworks. Open this program. 3. Download the file tex_example.tex from Canvas. Open it in TeXworks.

4. Change the typesetting option to “pdfTeX”, and then press the green button to typeset the file. It should create a pdf file that opens to the right of the text editor window.

You will be asked about downloading a file called “table.tex”. Say yes, and the file will automatically be downloaded and installed on your computer. (This file contains macros making tables much easier to create. I use it extensively.)

5. Explore the .tex file to get a sense of which code produces which results. You can also look at the TEX Reference Card for other useful commands.

A very brief and mostly accurate summary of what you are doing here: TEX is the program that takes a text file (usually) as input and outputs a typeset document. TEX itself has a large number of primitive commands, but not nearly enough to do even some of the simplest of common typesetting operations. Therefore, what you are actually using is Plain TEX, which is a set of macros written in and for TEX which makes typesetting much easier. LATEX is another set of such macros; LATEX has many more built-in commands than does Plain TEX, but I find it overly restrictive and never use it when typing things for my own use. I think that Plain TEX is a better place to start learning.

When you open the source file (e.g., something.tex), you view it in a text editor. The reason to use a text editor such as TeXworks is that it has built-in functions for talking to TEX. There are many other options for text editors, but Texworks is a fine place to start, and many people use it exclusively.

Want Images?

1. To upload an image, click the image tab and upload image
1. Images will be uploaded as squares, when you crop the image to be included you make it a square so it doesn’t warp 
2. To insert the uploaded image, copy and paste the bracket below your image (e.g. dfig [1234, 150])
3. To change the sizing of the image adjust the second number such that it renders at the appropriate size.
4. More info on image uploads here!

Ready for more? Here's a side by side example of what different TeX functions do--change the header drop down to pdfTeX to view what would look like in pdf.