Introduction to LaTeX and Markup

Question

I've got interest from someone in LaTeX, but she's not a computer person. She is smart, very smart, but not a computer person. i.e. She didn't know that typing something on the command line ran a program, she thought they were all part of the command line. Is there a really basic introduction to LaTeX and markup in general for her? Something that will start from basic concepts, and build from there, without going into 'here are a zillion editor options and different versions of LaTeX' like the wikibook does? I think the wikibook is a great resource once you understand what is going on, but I'd like an introduction to explain the basic concept, perhaps with some very minimal examples?

Not so short introduction to LaTeX which can also be found by texdoc lshort — cmhughes, Aug 22 '12 at 15:03
@cmhughes That looks good, but it needs to be updated for pdflatex desperately. Also needs to explain what markup is. — Canageek, Aug 22 '12 at 15:07
I have found that the tag [tag:tutorials] exist which, I hope, covers what you meant by [tag:introduction]. — yo', Aug 22 '12 at 15:09
This previous question: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/11/what-is-the-best-book-to-start-learning-latex?rq=1 was in the 'Related' section. It may be worth a look, if you haven't already. — User 17670, Aug 22 '12 at 15:41
I think that the best for beginners is a small tutorial like Getting to Grips with LaTeX — Fran, Aug 28 '12 at 02:29

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 22 '14 at 18:07

4

I've learned with this awesome manual and I think it's exactly what you want.

http://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf

If you are a Mac user, for me TexShop is the best option.

http://pages.uoregon.edu/koch/texshop/

For PC Texniccenter is a very good option and it has a very simple installation guide.

http://www.texniccenter.org

edited Dec 22 '14 at 18:07

Burhan Ali

103

answered Oct 06 '12 at 17:46

TexManiac

71

Introduction to LaTeX and Markup

1 Answers1