[OS X TeX] Re: Some beginner questions

[Ferguson, Don]

Greetings  "Ramón Figueroa-Centeno" <ramonf at hawaii.edu>
On 07/05/2010 at 05:42 you wrote concerning
[OS X TeX] Re: Some beginner questions


Hi,

RF> Wow that's a lot of questions!

Maybe! But look at all the splendid answers I received!  :-)

RF> Some of the trouble is that you are using amsbook (or any other format). In
RF> LaTeX the format chooses the appearance of the document. This appearance can
RF> be modified with some effort, see
RF> <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Title_Creation>.

RF> So let me try to answer some of the other easier ones.

RF> There is a plethora of drawing apps in the Mac. The most complete free one
RF> is Inkscape, but it has a steep learning curve in my opinion (with a lot of
RF> setup effort it can be made to work beautifully with LaTeX).

RF> Now, if you are willing to spend money then LineForm
RF> <http://www.freeverse.com/mac/product/?id=6020> in combination wit the free
RF> LaTeXit <http://chachatelier.fr/programmation/latexit_en.php>, give you a
RF> graphic editor and equation editor that are linked, so that you can
RF> effortlessly place equations in your drawings.

WOW! That will keep me entertained for a while. Thank you.


RF> Instead of \bar you want \overline (see
RF> <http://amath.colorado.edu/documentation/LaTeX/Symbols.pdf>, a great cheat
RF> sheet for beginners).

I have so many table of symbols hanging around, I probably have not examined "the right one." So I downloaded and printed your reference. Great compact summary, and \overline and \underline in clear view! Many thanks.


RF> Go to the Typeset menu to pick which method you would like to use to
RF> typeset. If you want to force the use of an "engine" (aka "program") use 
RF> use a line at the beginning of the document that that specifies it, for
RF> example

RF> % !TEX TS-program = pdflatex

RF> will force all typesetting to go through pdflatex.

I'll be thinking about that!  :-)


RF> To delete .aux, you can use "Trash Aux Files" from the File menu (or from
RF> the corresponding Console).

OK, found it.


RF> As to "[s]hould I have started off with a PDF or PostScript version of
RF> «Mechanics.pgs»? " YES! apdf or eps file will be great. Then use the
RF> graphicx package (the command is \usepackage{graphicx}) and then use
RF> \includegraphics to load your file (see
RF> <http://amath.colorado.edu/documentation/LaTeX/reference/figures.html>).

I'll try that avenue, but not tonight! 
 

RF> BTW NEVER USE SPACES on the names TeX files or other files you create or
RF> load with LaTeX.

Fortunately, that comes naturally. I hate space in filenames or path, but it very commonplace now.  But not in TeX! Good!  :-)


RF> If all of this intimidates you, don't worry it is worth the initial pain :)
RF> You could also try LyX, which hides a lot of the inner workings from you.

Not so much intimidated, but certainly overwhelmed.


RF> All of George Gratzer's Books are great. I would also, recommend Kopka and
RF> Daly's A Guide to LaTeX (I have a copy at home and one at work, and although
RF> with the Internet I do not find myself reading the book every day, as I used
RF> to, it still can get me out of some sticky problems).

RF> Finally, look at the help menu for TeXShop it is full of useful stuff! It
RF> includes the full manual, an intro to LaTeX, videos, etc.

I appreciate the information and advice. Thank you very much. Bye, Bye, I've got work to do.  ;-)


Cheers  Don (Green Dragon)
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