Good LaTeX editor and compiler for beginners [duplicate]

Question

I am new to LaTeX and I would like to know which are the good editor for a beginner user like me, who has no previous experience with this. I'm interested in writing a report on my project and thesis in LaTeX. I'll be using Windows.

I did find in this link LaTeX Editors/IDEs people agreeing that emacs and vim are good, but I have no idea how to install them. I be grateful if someone can help me out in this regard. Or suggesting an editor which can be used without much complication for basic use of creating a simple document.

Answer 1

Because you are a complete beginner a good choice would be to use an online editor like ShareLaTeX. This way you don't have to install anything and you can begin writing rightaway.

That was the way that I started using LaTeX. Also I used to believe that the installation process was a little tricky (generally it is not). Also that way you can always have your projects always with you as they are stored online.

But in the long run you will choose an editor, as it is best to have LaTeX installed in your computer for many reasons. I will name a few, but as I am not yet so experienced other users may add more of them in the comments.

Some reasons are:

1. it is faster to compile a document in your computer than online,
2. most users want to customize their editor with key combinations etc and
3. the intenet may be down and you have to write something.

Because you mentioned Emacs and Vim I want to say that they are great. I personally use Emacs and I find it awesome, but both have a very steep learning curve so you will need to invest a lot of time learning them.

Personally after using ShareLaTeX (that I still use when I am not at home as it is extremelly convenient) I started using TeXMaker which is one of my fovarites and I recommend it to check it.

Answer 2

Interesting timing. I just spent most of the day hooking up Notepad++ to MiKTeX for my Windows machine. It was fairly involved but I like the result. I think one consideration to contemplate is what else you do with computers. If your project will involve any programming or other analysis, then you may want to chose an editor that you can use for those other aspects. That way, the time you spend learning the editor will help with multiple aspects of your project. Of course, this is true for vi or emacs as well as Notepad++.

Look here:

http://johnbruer.com/2013/05/21/latex-editing-using-notepad/

The complexity on the front end should be made up for by simplicity on the back end. Plus, it's free. The only thing that doesn't seem to be working exactly right is the forward and inverse search highlighting (clicking in the pdf to highlight the corresponding source line and vice versa).

Bruer's blog discusses the advantages at length but in a nutshell, Notepad++ is a remarkably full-featured, lightweight text editor for Windows, especially for a free one. I suppose programmers will generally appreciate it the most since it provides syntax highlighting and auto-complete functionality. Bruer's blog provides utility files and full instructions for getting the system set-up to work with a lightweight, free, pdf viewer called SumatraPDF. Finally, while it can be set up to work with various LaTeX implementaitons, he recommends MiKTeX which seems like one of the most popular for windows.

The setup for Notepad++ while a little complicated, amounts to a simple intro to some of Notepads higher level functions like macros.

So, it boils down to: Notepad++ -> MiKTeX -> SumatraPDF