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Does anyone know, where I can buy help for LaTeX? I have a lot of beginner problems with LaTeX and I'm looking to buy help. Does anyone know, where I can hire someone to help me? I would probably need help for 2 hours. I can pay 50-100 USD per hour. Alternative is me getting expensive treatment for the ulcer, which LaTeX is helping to develop.

EDIT 04mar2015:

I think there is an impression, that I'm not willing to learn. That is not true. I am very willing to learn, but the information is scattered, which is not useful for a beginner. It is currently better for me to invest money instead of time. Hopefully I will be the one answering questions a year from now.

I had an expert look at my document. So far he has shown no interest in being paid. I learned among other things, that I should use subcaption instead of subfloat. I'm not sure how a beginner is supposed to know that.

I also taught myself how to use relative paths:

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/231113/how-can-i-use-relative-paths

I'm making progress, but when you are working against deadlines and you run into a problem every 20 minutes, then it can be frustrating and a better investment to pay an expert instead of buying a book or searching the internet.

I currently have a problem that not all of my abbreviations are showing up in my list of abbreviations. I can't formulate a question and show a minimal non-working example. I don't have that level of expertise yet.

tommy.carstensen
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    Related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/19553 and http://tex.stackexchange.com/q/56044 – LaRiFaRi Mar 03 '15 at 15:01
  • http://tug.org/consultants.html but really you are likely better asking focussed questions and learning what you are doing here or in other similar places – Joseph Wright Mar 03 '15 at 15:02
  • Is there a local TeX users group near you? – Gonzalo Medina Mar 03 '15 at 15:02
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    Thanks @LaRiFaRi and joseph-wright ! The list of consultants is very helpful. No more frustrations and tears. – tommy.carstensen Mar 03 '15 at 15:06
  • http://latex-community.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=25609 – Johannes_B Mar 03 '15 at 15:15
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    @JosephWright: I disagree (and not because I'm in the business too ;-)): While you can get very good informations on sites like this here, the information is splitted and needs some background knowledge before you can use it in a sensible way. – Ulrike Fischer Mar 03 '15 at 15:15
  • @UlrikeFischer I guess my point was that consultants in the main are the domain of publishers, etc., where the job will be less one or two hours and more a 'complete' project. As an end user my feeling is you do have to be prepared to put in the effort to learn or at least learn how to ask for help. – Joseph Wright Mar 03 '15 at 15:22
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    @JosephWright: I don't see any indication that Tommy is not prepared to learn and to put an effort in it. But not every learning has to be done alone, with google, in do-it-yourself and without any costs. If I want to learn something I buy a good book and when I have the feeling that I understand the main points I start to use groups and internet search. Other people prefer to learn from people. So why should he not buy some training hours? – Ulrike Fischer Mar 03 '15 at 15:30
  • How do people get to be 'professional TeX consultants'? Is there another list for non-professional consultants? – cfr Mar 03 '15 at 20:00
  • @tommy.carstensen I hope I've not mis-represented you: I was only reading 'I need help ...' as more toward the 'quick fix' side of things as opposed to something like 'I'd like some training/guidance in learning ...'. In any case, I hope the comments and answer are helpful (that is in the end the key point). – Joseph Wright Mar 04 '15 at 09:45
  • @JosephWright Long term I want training, so I can help myself and others. Short term I'm working against a deadline and need someone to fix my problems. – tommy.carstensen Mar 04 '15 at 10:01
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    @cfr: You get to be a "professional" on the TUG list if you pay $20 every year ;-). – Ulrike Fischer Mar 04 '15 at 10:19

1 Answers1

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You can have a look at the TUG’s list: https://www.tug.org/consultants.html or google “LaTeX consultant”.

Another option is a local TeX users group: http://tug.org/usergroups.html

But if you can separate your problems in parts that you can make in to a minimal working example (MWE) you can get help here for free …

Community
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Tobi
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  • Thanks for this answer. I'm not yet good enough with LaTeX that I can pinpoint the problem and provide MWEs. – tommy.carstensen Mar 03 '15 at 15:24
  • Well then it is likely much easier to ask a consultant … I’m not at TUG’s list but if you like you can send an e-mail (mail@tweh.de), so I may help you ;-) – Tobi Mar 03 '15 at 17:07