http://www.hesspoint.com

Right now I am writing my diploma thesis and I didn’t want to use MS Word as everybody else, because I made the experience that word files often don’t look very nice, especially when using justified alignment and second of all with word I normally waste so much time formating. I heard about a tool called LaTeX, which is a document preparation system for the TeX typesetting system that is widely used for writing books and scientific papers. With LaTeX you can create PostScript (PS), DVI and most importantly PDF files. Click on the linked terms to read more about it. I looked into it and now I just love it, I even use it for my daily correspondece. So to share my enthusiasm, here is a quick insight on how you can use it to:

First of all I got to admit that I am using Windows XP instead of Linux as most LaTeX users. So this is just for you fellow Windows users.

You got to download and install two applications: The LaTeX engine and an editor. Stricly seen, just the engine is absolutely essential, since you could type in wordpad. However, I strongly advise using a special editor, since it makes your life easier. Here is what you do:

1. To download the LaTeX engine, go to the MiKTeX Homepage and Download "Small MiKTeX Installer" (approx. 24 MB). You can alternatively download the full version (approx 250 MB), however I advise the small one because there are many packages you normally don’t need. With the small one you only get the most common packages and whenever a package is needed, it can automatically be downloaded by the system. So you only install what you really need.
2. Install it. It is very staight forward but if you need help, look here.
3. To download the free LaTeX editor, go to the Texniccenter Homepage and Download the TeXnicCenter Setup File. There are other editors you can use, but Texniccenter is a very convinient one and it is freeware.
4. Install it also. Look here for help.

Now you are basically all set. Of course you need to learn LaTeX It is a little bit like html editing in the old days when you coded websites with tools like homesite or even notepad. So you have to learn the syntax. There are tons of sites out there on this topic and even more books. A good guide for beginners is the Kochbuch für LaTeX (sorry only in German). A very good book I recomend is "LaTeX" by Helmut Kopka.

If you want to use the Postscript format, you also need Ghostscript and and GSView to view the documents and if you want to use PDF you need the Acrobat Reader, duh

If you need extensive references I advise to use BibTeX which offers a stuctured way of entering your references. You can either use them manually with Texniccenter or use a dedicated tool for this. Here is a list of tools available. I use BibTexMng which works well.

This are just some suggestions, there are many other sources you can find, just type "LaTeX" into Google. If you get too many porn sites try "latex typesetting" ;-). And I take no responsibility what’s however if you mess up your system

If you have any questions, you can always post a comment and I will try to help.