Installing (La)TeX for Free

Many things come to you via CTAN (the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network), so know your way there: CTAN

Everything you wanted to know about (La)TeX and more: CTAN help catalogue. This is worth a bookmark.

Most people come here looking for FREE EDITORS. Just scroll down a bit for a list of more than you'll ever want.

If you're starting from scratch, the basic setup is this:

  1. Download and install Ghostscript and Ghostview (if you want it) first.
  2. Then download and install MikTeX ... this can take awhile.
  3. Then download and install TeXnicCenter. This is just my suggestion, of course. There are a bunch of free editors out there and you might want to try a few before you settle on one.

You might also want to check out proTeXt which (supposedly) installs everything listed above (and more) for you. I haven't tried it and don't know much about it.

MikTeX

Get MikTeX and install it. MikTeX is simple to install - just go to MikTeX Download Central and download a (basic system or complete system) setup wizard . The basic system is a quick set-up that automatically pulls packages off the internet as you need them. This should be fine for most users.

If you want to learn more, here is the MikTeX homepage MikTeX Project. If you'd like to leave a little tip, go to the donations page.

buckwheat
After paying hundreds of dollars for TeX, Buckwheat finds out
it's all free.
Follow these instructions and you'll be free TeXing in no time.

Editors

You'll need an Editor... I used to use Programmer's File Editor (PFE). Unfortunately, it's not supported anymore and hasn't been for awhile, but it's still a nice ascii editor. Go here.

A NOTE ON FONTS: Most of these editors use fixed width or monospace fonts, and most of the monospace fonts that come with Windows are... well... they suck. Check out this place Monospace/Fixed Width Programmer's Fonts for a list (with links) of free monospace fonts. I've been using Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, which is very good in that it is easy on the eyes and it's easy to distinguish between similar looking characters such as "l" , "1" , "i" and "o" , "0" , "O".

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Ghostscript

You'll also want to get Ghostscript and Ghostview (maybe - see discussion below).

On Ghostview (technically, the windows version is called GSview), there's a nag for money every time you start it up. Just click OK and it will work fine. You can convert postscript (PS) to PDF by using the 'convert' utility in GSview (File > convert > pdfwrite). To convert your dvi file to PS for distilling to PDF use the command dvips -Ppdf mydoc.dvi (where mydoc is the name of your tex file). In TeXnicCenter, getting a PDF file from your LaTeX file is just a matter of selecting LaTeX => PS => PDF from a menu. This process uses the Ghostscipt converter directly to convert PS to PDF ... you can then open the PDF file using any PDF reader, such as Acrobat reader (free) or Foxit reader (free). If your LaTeX contains no graphics, then select LaTeX => PDF in TeXnicCenter.

The bottom line here is you don't NEED GSview. In the olden days, dvi previewers didn't display graphics, so you had to use Ghostview if you wanted to view your entire document, graphics and text. But now, dvi previewers display everything. So, if you want to be able to get a quick view of a PS file, then get GSview and get nagged OR get IRFANVIEW, which is a free image previewer that will also preview PS and EPS files. By the way, Iranview is worth getting just as an image previewer.

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Spell check for TeX:

Some of the editors suggested above come with a spell check. TeXnicCenter uses the spelling engine of OpenOffice and you can download dictionaries for it, if necessary.

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Using LaTeX in Presentations

Use BEAMER and forget the other stuff, especially powerpoint. How do you get started? First, go here BEAMER CLASS EXAMPLES and download the first example,example-1.tex. Compile the file and MikTeX will automatically download everything it needs to compile the file. Then go back to website and download each of the other example-x.tex files and compile them. By the time you're done, you'll have a pretty good idea of how to work the beamer machine. If you still need help, google "beamer" and you'll find all sorts of examples. Other good sources are the User Guide and some useful examples, both of which are pdf files. Finally, Nabble Beamer Help is a good source for help.

Here's a free alternative to TeXPoint (the used to be FREE addon for PowerPoint described below): MyTeXPoint.

Are you dieing to use LaTeX in Powerpoint? Check out TeXPoint. This WAS a pretty cool device. You can use LaTeX in two ways. First, you can open a text box and type something like: I am the \alpha and \omega. Then run TP and you get: I am the α and ω. TP leaves the Roman stuff alone and changes, e.g., \alpha to symbol font a. The other thing TP can do for more complicated equations is write your LaTeX to a bitmap and then insert the bitmap into the .ppt presentation. TP installs itself into Powerpoint, so it's right there at your fingertips; you can easily revise the LaTeX by clicking on the bitmap.
ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST... TEXPOINT (TP) IS NO LONGER FREE. I've decided to put up an old version, 2.0.3. I might be called on this soon, so get it while you can:

For office XP or 2002, get TP2002-203.msi and for office 2003 get TP2003-203.msi. In case these don't do it for you, I found a very old version (1.5.4) that supposedly works for all versions of ppt: TP154.msi.
...anyway ... PROSPER and BEAMER are FREE. Also, if you're interested, there's OOoLaTeX, which is currently being developed for OpenOffice.

Another FREE alternative to TP is TeX4PPT. Here's a ppt introduction. I downloaded it, but I haven't tried it yet.

And there's always PROSPER.

:::::::::::::::::::::::: BE COOL - USE BEAMER ::::::::::::::::::::::::::

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Math, TeX and HTML

Interested in converting TeX to HTML? Check this out.

Here's another page on web math... be sure to check out gladTeX at the same site.

For complicated math, I think using a pdf file is the best way to go. Also, using html tables, you can do some complicated expressions ... the problem with this approach is that different browsers will display the expressions differently (see web math). Simple expressions such as ∀ ε > 0, ∃ n ≥ N such that δ η π (think about it for a second) are easy to do with HTML 4.

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You say you suck at LaTeX

... and you want to learn more.
The key to getting started with LaTeX, as with most things, is to start small; do something that you can throw away. For example, try to retype a math exam or part of a page from a math text. And remember, you can always go to CTAN (did you forget already?) or go to Google and do a search on LaTeX (or TeX or whatever); you'll pull up a couple of million sites with useful info and probably some porn.

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LinKs

Here are some other links to great TeX sites ...
latex lion ... find out what is up with the TeX lion and contemplate why it's wearing lipstick and has a perm and wears glasses, and why someone would associate a lion with TeX in the first place, and why the hell that damn thing is still used.



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