a simple LaTeX file

\documentclass{article} \begin{document} This is a LaTeX document. \end{document}

Note that when creating an index or bibliography, it may be necessary to run latex or pdflatex twice; the first time xxxxxxxxxx counts.

create a .dvi file from the file somefile.tex (assumes that the extension is lowercase)

latex somefile

view the file somefile.tex

xdvi somefile &

create a PDF

pdflatex somefile

create an index

in the header of the .tex file, include

\usepackage{makeidx} \makeindex

and at the place in the file where the index should appear place

\printindex

then run using

makeindex somefile

create a bibliography

at the end of the file where the bibliography should appear, include (style alpha is used here)

\bibliography{somefile} \bibliographystyle{alpha}

then run using

bibtex somefile

check spelling -- words not in the dictionary but that are spelled correctly can be saved from within ispell (they will be in the file ~/.aspell.english.pws)

ispell -t somefile.tex

remove the LaTeX statements and check spelling

detex somefile | spell > errors.txt

extract the images from somefile.pdf

pdfimages somefile.pdf root

to skip a number in the eqnarray environment
something &=& somethingelse \nonumber\\


change section numbers to capital Roman numerals:
\renewcommand \thesection{\Roman{section}}


to insert an Arabic section number after the section title:
\section {Section Title \arabic{section}}


to skip a line:
\vspace{\baselineskip}		


to get first level enumerations to use lowercase letters:
\renewcommand{\labelenumi}{(\alph{enumi})}

to get second level enumerations to use lowercase Roman numerals:
\renewcommand{\labelenumii}{(\roman{enumii})}


to create side-by-side tables:
\begin{minipage}{2in}
	\begin{tabular}{c}
		Table1
	\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}
\begin{minipage}{2in}
	\begin{tabular}{c}
		Table2
	\end{tabular}
\end{minipage}

\usepackage[
]
{hyperref} colorlinks=true % change links from a box to be colored
linkcolor=blue
pdfpagemode=FullScreen % begin in fullscreen (ctrl-L) mode
pdfpagelayout=SinglePage % put each section on a separate page
pdfstartview=FitH % fit to window

References

1. LaTeX for Word Processor Users
2. The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2e
3. Using Imported Graphics in LaTeX2e
4. A BibTeX Guide Through Examples
5. BibTeX and bibliography styles good examples of style files
6. A Guide to LaTeX, 4^th Ed., Addison Wesley
7. More Math Into LaTeX, 4^th Ed.
8. LaTeX Tips and Tricks — great collection of tips
9. LaTeX isn't for everyone but it could be for you — the benefits of using LaTeX
10. Sebastien's Latex Tricks — good examples of working with figures
11. http://www.math.uiuc.edu/~hildebr/tex/ — good tutorials for representing math in LaTeX
12. AMS-LaTeX — how and why you should use the AMS-LaTeX packages