7.2. Latex Document Environments and Layout

By now you should be able to create PDF files of the sample latex documents shown in the last section. If not, contact me immediately for help.

Next we need to learn about common structures that you will want to use in your latex documents. There are many of these, for which there is much freely available literature on the web. However We will focus on the following set since these are plenty to get you started making really nice reports. The basic structures are:

• Environments or Modes, of which the following are special examples

  • Tables
  • Math modes
  • Figures
  • Verbatim mode

• Layout

• Bibliography

Finally, we need to learn how to troubleshoot (i.e. Fix our files) from the output of pdflatex. This can be kind of obscure, but is common to anyone who has done some programming.

Rather than transcribe all of this to HTML for display in your browser, I’ve put the discussion in a Latex file, which you can read here. You’ll likely want to open the PDF document, second.pdf (“Open Link in New Window”) and simultaneously follow along looking at the source file, second.tex the text document that made latex turned into second.pdf.

• second.pdf
• The LateX source code: second.tex).
• s8.png Graphics file needed to compile second.tex

Please read second.pdf and have a look at the Latex source, then do Homework 7

For convenience, second.pdf is reproduced below. However the PDF file is much clearer.