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I've been wanting to learn ConTeXt for a while, mainly due to its promises of finer typographic control than what LaTeX offers. However, every time I try, I fail and eventually give up due to some insurmountable difficulty that I can't seem to get out of. I found that I have an extremely hard time navigating the ConTeXt documentation (what I can find anyway).

The ConTeXt website isn't really that helpful. I find it kind of messy, confusing, frequently out of date, and often riddled contradicting information. While I've been able to find some up-to-date documentation detailing certain things, they're not really useful unless I'm trying to do that specific thing---and even then, very often I fail because I'm missing something else the document doesn't cover.

EDIT: The post: The definitive guide to ConTeXt MkIV documentation, which brings attention to some ConTeXt documentation is a great resource, but I still don't think it's sufficiently beginner-friendly. There's only one tutorial there about creating a 'presentation,' which is helpful, but also limited. And, even going through it, I ran into compilation issues which I wasn't able to figure out.

So I'm looking for any good beginner's tutorials or guides into ConTeXt. More than the above link offers. Similarly, for those of you who moved from LaTeX to ConTeXt, how did you go about it? What was your process and what steps did you take to make the transition? Any advice on how to go about it?

ps: Even the name itself "ConTeXt" seems to be a deterrent to my learning it, lol. Whenever I try to search for some ConTeXt-related issue, search engines almost always confuse it with the dictionary word "context." I find that both hilarious and extremely frustrating.

johnymm
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  • You cannot go wrong by starting at the context garden wiki – Dr Krishnakumar Gopalakrishnan Jan 30 '19 at 15:44
  • I'm familiar with The definitive guide to ConTeXt MkIV documentation, and it definitely helps, but I still don't think it's sufficiently simple for the beginner. – johnymm Jan 30 '19 at 15:51
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    @Krishna Imho, the wiki is not really suited to be used as structured tutorial for beginners. You can use it to search for solutions though. – TeXnician Jan 30 '19 at 15:52
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    My personal way to get to know ConTeXt has been similar to yours. At some point, I have tried to make sense of the unexplained setup-en.pdf and the sources. For anything else, I just ask questions here (although you might be more successful on the mailing list). – TeXnician Jan 30 '19 at 15:55
  • Asking questions here (or other forums) is great, but I'd like to get a handle on the basics first. Like, I'd like to be able to compose simple documents by myself before I ask questions about (possibly) more complicated stuff. – johnymm Jan 30 '19 at 15:57
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    I totally agree with the notion that the name ConTeXt is not helpful when searching the web for anything related. I don't know if changing its name at this stage would be any possible. Dreaming may be. – doctorate Jan 30 '19 at 15:58
  • @doctorate I would really like to be a fly on the wall on the meeting that the name "ConTeXt" was decided, lol. I don't understand, why add the "t" in the end, when everything TeX-related ends with "TeX".... I think that if it was just ConTeX, it would be much easier. – johnymm Jan 30 '19 at 16:01
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    @johnymm What about ConTeXt for beginners? I haven't read it myself, that's why it's not in my guide. If you're searching for ConTeXt online, better search for “ConTeXt MkIV”, or just search the mailing list. On Google you can add site:mailman.ntg.nl to your search terms. – Henri Menke Jan 30 '19 at 21:48
  • Thanks! Improving search terms on google is certainly going to be a big help. I've checked out the mailing list, I even subscribed to it, but I've had a hard time navigating through it. I'm not as familiar with the interface. – johnymm Jan 30 '19 at 22:16
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    @johnymm: According to this interview, the name "context" was decided around 1996. I don't think that "ease of search" was a concern at that time :-) – Aditya Jan 31 '19 at 17:29

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