Getting Started with LaTeX

Branko Ćurgus


Prologue
The instructions below are for installing LaTeX on your personal computer running Windows operating system. For Apple computers there are similar systems. An alternative is to try Overleaf which is an online LaTeX editor. Several of my students used it and were satisfied with it.
Downloading MiKTeX
  1. Go to MiKTeX download page
  2. On this page: Click on "All downloads" -- Click on "Net Installer" - choose the file based on which system you have 64-bit or 32-bit. The current (2020-10-11)
    • file for 64-bit is setup-4.1-x64.exe
    • and for 32-bit system is setup-4.1.exe
  3. Download the appropriate exe file from the previous item by clicking on Download. The file that you downloaded is a small exe file. I will call this file setup-4.1***.exe
  4. Run the setup-4.1***.exe file that you just downloaded.
  5. It will offer two options. Choose "Download MiKTeX"; then choose "Complete MiKTeX".
  6. It will ask you for a location you want to download from. Choose one in US, I was successful with a mirror at UW in Seattle. It will start downloading. This download is large, more than 1GB.
  7. Just follow MiKTeX suggestions. It will download all the files into one directory. Just in case, remember where the files have been downloaded.
Installing MiKTeX
  1. Run again setup-4.1***.exe that you downloaded in item 3. above.
  2. Choose "Install MiKTeX" and again choose "Complete MiKTeX". The installation can take 20 minutes.
  3. Now that you have MiKTeX on your computer. I recommend that you go through the following steps.
  4. Go to Windows "Start" menu. Find MiKTeX folder in the list of programs. In MiKTeX folder, click on "MiKTeX console". Go to "Tasks", then click "Check for updates". Wait patiently. You can see that MiKTeX is working at the bottom of the MiKTeX console window. When "Check for updates" is finished, go to the next item.
  5. Go to "Tasks" then click "Refresh File name database". Wait patiently. You can see that MiKTeX is working at the bottom of the MiKTeX window. When "Refresh File name database" is finished, go to the next item.
  6. Go to "Tasks" then click "Refresh font map files". When "Refresh font map files" is finished, go to the next item.
  7. Go to "Tasks" then click "Update package database". Do not worry if it appears that the program is not responding. It will come back soon. When "Update package database" is finished, MiKTeX is ready to be used.
Using LaTeX
  1. Download some sample TeX files that I provided, or you can find many sample files on the Internet.
  2. Go to Windows "Start" menu. Find MiKTeX folder in the list of programs. In MiKTeX folder, click on "TeXworks".
  3. TeXworks is an editor for TeX files. Now that you are in TeXworks, open one of the sample TeX files that you downloaded.
  4. Click the green triangle at the right-top corner below "File" menu item. This will take a few seconds and it will produce a pdf file of the TeX file that you are working on.
  5. Look through the TeX file that you opened in TeXworks and find \begin{document}. Below that line is the content of the file. You can start modifying the content with your writing. After you modified the content, click the green triangle at the right-top corner below "File" menu item to produce a new pdf file.
  6. That is all! Now you can produce your own LaTeX documents.
LaTeX resources
  1. LaTeX quide at NYU.
  2. A small pdf guide from Princeton University.
  3. The TeX forum at Stack Exchange which I find very, very helpful. If you have a problem you can post a clearly stated question there and you can expect a LaTeX enthusiast from around the world will answer it sooner than you would expect.
  4. In closing, a word about different editors that you can use to edit your LaTeX files. As a part of MiKTeX you have TeXworks as an editor to edit your LaTeX files. But, there are a lot of other LaTeX editors. Here is a page with many LaTeX editors.

    It might be a good idea to try other editors. If you find an editior that you like better, something that might increase your enjoyment of writing, please let me know.

    I recommend that you try TeXmaker and/or TeXstudio. I did not use them, just looking at features, I see that they might increase your productivity. These editors are freeware.

    I use WinEdt, which is a shareware $40 (30 day free trial).
Epilog
Now you are ready to create beautifully typeset (not only math) documents. If you need help in starting with LaTeX feel free to ask me for help. I consider it as important as learning one nice piece of mathematics. And I want to help you with that, not only because that is my job, but more because I deeply believe that both math - through learning rigorous thinking - and professional writing skills - supported by rigorous thinking - will help you in your life more than anything else.