Re: LAtex (again)

Johnny wrote:
OK I now got Emacs+Auctex installed. But I haven't a clue how to work it. When I click on RunEmacs.exe, I am all at sea. I navigate to my Word file containing the coded equations I had written and appearing in the work environment I now get a lot of stuff I had never seen before like @^@^@^@^ - lines and lines of it, and also 377/377/377 etc.; and also some recongnisable text.

Given your apparent level of computer knowledge, I would strongly suggest that you not use Emacs. I don't mean that as an insult, only that with the difficulty you're having with the instructions people have given you thus far you are *really* going to get lost with Emacs. It predates Windows by quite a long time and tends to come across as unfriendly even to very experienced computer users who are accustomed to Windows- and Mac-like interfaces and shortcuts. For now, stick with Notepad. If you decide you're going to use LaTeX regularly, try a more Windows-like LaTeX-aware editor such as WinEdt or TeXnicCenter. Once you're comfortable with LaTeX you can think about Emacs, but I think it's a bad idea for you to try to learn Emacs and LaTeX at the same time.

As for all the strange symbols you see when you open your Word file in Emacs, that is normal -- the only program that will reliably and properly open and display a Word file is Word itself. Word files are stored in a proprietary binary format, which is just a fancy way of saying that it has a more-or-less secret code that it uses to record your settings, page layout, etc. When you open the Word file in Emacs you're seeing that code, but it makes about as much sense to programs like Emacs and LaTeX as it does to you.

All I want to know is, how do I edit and how do I view the a final representation of the equations?

It's pretty straightforward once you figure it out, but the process is probably unlike anything you're accustomed to with the usual Windows programs.

Based on your earlier comments, I'm not convinced that you're following the instructions the others have given you quite correctly -- for example, the "I can't find file 'yap'" error you posted suggests that you tried to run LaTeX on a non-existent file called yap.tex. The good news is that LaTeX seems to be running, so I'll assume for the moment that everything is installed correctly. Please try the following, being careful to execute each step exactly as I wrote it:

1. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to your C: drive. Create a new folder called Temp.

2. Open Notepad and type the following:
\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
Hello world!
\end{document}

3. Save the document in the folder Temp you created in step 1, giving it the name test.tex.

4. Open a command prompt window. Type "c:" and hit return. (Again, don't type the double-quotes, only the material in between them.)

5. Type "cd c:\Temp" and hit return. The command prompt (the text to the left of the cursor where you type commands) should look like:

C:\Temp>

6. Type "dir" and hit return. The window should display something like this:

05/05/2007 01:59 PM 198 test.tex

If you *don't* see test.tex, you saved test.tex in the wrong place. Go back to step 1. If you *do* see it, continue to the next step.

7. Type "latex test.tex" and hit return. LaTeX should run, dumping a bunch of information to the screen.

8. Type "yap test.dvi" and hit return. Yap should open and display a document with "Hello world" in the upper left corner.

It's all strangely very un-user-friendly!!

Well, TeX and LaTeX are both very old programs -- like Emacs, they also pre-date Windows -- and they are open-source, built and maintained by volunteers in their free time. So yes, they can be a bit unfriendly, particularly when you're accustomed to everything being menu-driven and graphical. They are hardly the only the programs in the world that are like this, but many computer users either never come in contact with them or use them unknowingly via a specially designed interface.

You might have a look at LyX. I've never used it, but as I understand it has a graphical interface like Word, but does all the typesetting in the background with TeX. I'm not sure what its status is on Windows -- not so long ago, it seems, it was UNIX/Linux-only. Scientific Word does a similar sort of thing, but LyX is free while Scientific Word is even more expensive than MS Word.

Alan
.

Relevant Pages

  • Unable to save document!
    ... OS: Windows 98 ... I received a Word file via e-mail and am unable to save the document after ... "The disk is full trying to write to C::. ... There were no other applications(besides MS Word and MS Outlook) running at ...
    (microsoft.public.word.docmanagement)
  • Re: Missing the _ when making fast access in mainMenu control
    ... > under F of the word File. ... Its a feature of Windows XP & possibly Windows 2000. ... I press the Alt key' option, finally click Ok on both dialog boxes. ... > I run the program but to my big suprice there is no _ under F of the word ...
    (microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp)
  • Re: Linking to a bookmark in a word document
    ... webpage using a link like Bookmark nr 3 i filen ... But my problem is that this does not work anymore - I have narrowed it down to an update version 3283 to Internet Explorer but do not know how to solve this or find out what this update version does - so any ideas are welcome. ... Windows XP sp 2 ... I can supply a simle test html and word file if needed ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser)
  • File options
    ... I am running windows XP with SP2. ... start menu are now Word file icons, ... When selected a Word file opens, after several error windows, with ... of the selections available in that window seemed appropriate. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Latex everyday - how do you use it
    ... customizing Emacs instead of using it. ... For Windows you can download a Emacs/Auctex distribution from the ... still need to enter math in plain text. ... myself way more productive in Word than in LaTeX. ...
    (comp.text.tex)