Selahi's LaTex Info	Home | Seminars & Conferences | LaTex links

I am using the following software to create and view LaTeX documents (as of April 2005):

• MikTex: This is the base, you need this to compile LaTeX documents.
  If you need more packages for graphics, floating objects and similar, visit CTAN archive
• TeXnic Center: This is a text editor for LaTeX. If you have some other programs installed, you can compile and view your documents.
  Now there is another nice editor available: LEd. It works well with wide screens but the built-in DVI viewer was buggy for some fonts when I tried it.
• IPE: This is a good EPS drawing program which works on many platforms. You can type LaTeX code in the figures and while saving it compiles the LaTeX code with your installed LaTeX shell. You can add packages to the preamble, e.g. \usepackage{amsfonts}, to do this go to Edit ->Document Properties ->LaTeX preamble and enter the corresponding LaTeX command. It can edit its own EPS and PDF files but not EPS files generated by other programs. (Mac binary for IPE) Here is an article on IPE. See also the IPE manual, also the IPE user's guide. Another good program is Inkscape with the textext extension.
• YAP is distributed within MikTex, and Texnic Center by default sets YAP as the DVI previewer. Forward search and inverse search are possible, even when the source latex file uses \input and \include commands, to achieve this, in Texnic Center choose main file in project menu. (YAP tips) I had some error on fonts, and had to run MikTex options "mo.exe" (in ...\miktex\bin) to update the font list.
• DviWin: While editing LaTeX, I like having a window that auto refreshes the current page displayed and being able to do inverse search. YAP does it, this one, too. To configure inverse search go to: Options ->General ->Inverse search... and type c:\[directory name]\TeXnicCenter\TEXCNTR.EXE /ddecmd "[goto('$f', '$l')]" and keep uses DDE unchecked.
• GhostScript, GS View, Adobe Acrobat Reader: These are the other viewers, I prefer PDF as the final output format.
  For viewing PDF files, there is a small alternative (1.6Mb): FoxIt PDF viewer, it is as fast as Adobe Reader and doesn't need installation. For creating PDF files from anything else, try the free PDF printer CutePDF writer or BullZip PDF printer.

Useful links

• List of LaTeX Hypertext Help with LaTeX - commands
• LaTeX help - commands and more
• LaTeX symbols
• LaTeX guide by Tobias Oetiker et al - well organized 101 page PDF file, "LaTeX 2e in 87 minutes"
• amsmath user's guide
• Latex hints for PhD thesis
• Defining macros for repeated objects
• HyperTex - hyperlinks in LaTeX files
• Commutative diagrams with pb-diagram (included in MikTex)
• Other links at Cambridge Dept. of Engineering, "Text Processing using LaTeX"
• CTAN - the tex archive