## Archive for the ‘LaTeX’ Category

### LaTeX vs. Microsoft Word – part 2

December 25, 2006

Word is WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). But in LaTeX, LaTeX separates the content from the command that will determine what the format of the content will look like.

Some things in LaTeX are more difficult to do as compared with Microsoft Word. But for academic, its strength is in generating cross-reference, tables of contents, bibliography, methamatical typesetting…

Preparing a LaTeX document requires an extra step to format or typeset the document (i.e. converting from .tex to .pdf.) When using LaTeX, it is normally we cannot see the final output while typing the text as in Microsoft Word (a WYSIWYG system). But the final output can be previewed.

### Introduction to LaTeX – part 1

December 25, 2006

LaTeX is a de-factor standard tool of scientific writings in almost all fields of computer science.

LaTeX is not a word procesor nor is it a text editor. It is rather a kind of a formal language by which you describe what your document should look like. You can use a text editor (e.g. WinEdt, Lynx…) to write your text and include formatting commands.

For example: \textit{Hello World!} –> output: Hello World!

Then, run LaTeX on that text file to produce output that looks better than that of Microsoft Word.

LaTeX is a macro package that enables user to produce highest typography quality, using a predefined, professional layout