LaTeX

LaTeX is a fantastic typesetting package. Unfortunately it has a big problem: no useful documentation. So this is a collection of useful tips I have learnt while spending a lot of time googling for LaTeX documentation.

LaTeX Distribution

• As of 2008, the best available distribution for Linux/UNIX seems to be TexLive (version 2007, 2008 is not released yet). It has a stable ebuild for Gentoo Linux (the old tetex distribution is now obsolete).

Font size and style

• Use the commands \tiny, \large, \Large, \huge to change the font size.

• Use {\bf } for boldface, {\it } for italics.

Alignment

• By default LaTeX justifies a paragraph. Should you need to have it aligned use:

\begin{flushright}
This is some text.
\end{flushright}

• There is also a \begin{flushleft} environment, of course. To center a block, use the \begin{center} command.

Eclipse Support (via Texlipse)

• The support is good overall. It allows you to mix freely *.tex files within another project (with PHP files for example). It will configure a LaTeX builder for the project, which will build your document. However, it is intended that only one document is created (although you can combine multiple source TeX files to create it).

• Check the project properties to define which is the main LaTeX source file and which document will be built. You can also define what program will be used for the build (pdflatex etc).