Linked Questions

385 votes
34 answers
165k views

What are good learning resources for a LaTeX beginner?

Which book (free or otherwise) was the most useful to you when you started learning LaTeX? I am frequently asked this question by friends who want to learn LaTeX, and I recommend the book which got ...
190 votes
23 answers
164k views

Why should I use LaTeX?

I have heard a lot about LaTeX, but never used it myself. It is mainly used for typesetting professional research papers. But I am not writing research papers. Is LaTeX for me? If yes, why should I ...
105 votes
50 answers
33k views

What professions use TeX/LaTeX besides CS?

TeX and LaTeX are widely used in Computer Science. What other academic disciplines or professionals use it?
68 votes
10 answers
31k views

Best Way to Start Using LaTeX/TeX?

I'm not really a programmer but I'm quite interested in learning how to use LaTeX/TeX. I've looked it up on Wikipedia and scanned through it and the documents created through this way of editing is ...
32 votes
4 answers
11k views

Why is LaTeX used as the defacto standard for math equations?

In almost every application I've ever seen that uses math equations, it always supports LaTeX. If LaTeX does so much more than just math equations, why is it the defacto standard for math equations? ...
Senseful's user avatar
  • 421
25 votes
6 answers
8k views

Is LaTeX outdated?

Word processors are getting better these days, and I'm wondering if LaTeX was a solution in the past for a buggy Microsoft Word, and it programmatically gave you the options to do formatting. I'm ...
14 votes
1 answer
2k views

What is TeX used for?

I'm a student right now and I'm wondering if it would be beneficial for me to learn LaTeX as of right now and if it would have any use of it to me. I do quite a lot of writing but they don't require ...
JFW's user avatar
  • 291
13 votes
7 answers
3k views

Function like macro?

If you have programmed in a high level programming language, you must be familiar with the concept of functions, subroutines which return a value. For example, if you write in C, you can write a ...
Yossi Gil's user avatar
  • 16k
12 votes
1 answer
17k views

How do I change a font document wide?

How do I change a font for a latex document? I am using the \documentclass{article}, which sets the document in a serif font. I also declared \usepackage{helvet}, since that's the font I would like ...
jottr's user avatar
  • 374
11 votes
2 answers
3k views

Alternatives or Successor for TeX [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Why are there no alternatives to TeX, or, why is TeX still used? My problem with the current version of (La-)TeX is that it's pretty brittle. Some documents run well on ...
Aaron Digulla's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
776 views

Conditionally including a TikZ figure

I have the following construction for a figure. The background is, when \submit is defined, only the caption is included, but no figure. Otherwise the figure is included. The problem is that I have ...
Faheem Mitha's user avatar
  • 7,778
6 votes
2 answers
221 views

Why do spaces stop my hrules from all being flush with each other?

I'm trying to make a typeset form using some custom commands that I've built. Part of that effort is making "blanks": macros for blank space where someone can write something in after the document has ...
Beelzebielsk's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
1k views

LaTeX resources for non-technical writing

I have read dozens of tutorials on creating LaTeX documents. All of them have one thing in common: they all focus on writing a technical thesis or a math paper of some sort. I'm a programmer and I ...
Honza Pokorny's user avatar
-27 votes
2 answers
3k views

Stringified commands to macros sequence [closed]

First, what is the proper terminology for a "string" in TeX/LaTeX that is an argument for a macro? e.g., \macro{somestring} Obviously somestring is a token, set of tokens, string, argument, etc. I ...
Uiy's user avatar
  • 6,122