Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) [Paperback]

Helmut Kopka (Author), Patrick W. Daly (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0321173856 | ISBN-13: 978-0321173850 | Publication Date: December 5, 2003 | Edition: 4

LaTeX is the text-preparation system of choice for scientists and academics, and is especially useful for typesetting technical materials. This popular book shows you how to begin using LaTeX to create high-quality documents. The book also serves as a handy reference for all LaTeX users. In this completely revised edition, the authors cover the LaTeX2ε standard and offer more details, examples, exercises, tips, and tricks. They go beyond the core installation to describe the key contributed packages that have become essential to LaTeX processing.

Inside, you will find:

• Complete coverage of LaTeX fundamentals, including how to input text, symbols, and mathematics; how to produce lists and tables; how to include graphics and color; and how to organize and customize documents
• Discussion of more advanced concepts such as bibliographical databases and BIBTeX, math extensions with AMS-LaTeX, drawing, slides, and letters
• Helpful appendices on installation, error messages, creating packages, using LaTeX with HTML and XML, and fonts
• An extensive alphabetized listing of commands and their uses

New to this edition:

• More emphasis on LaTeX as a markup language that separates content and form--consistent with the essence of XML
• Detailed discussions of contributed packages alongside relevant standard topics
• In-depth information on PDF output, including extensive coverage of how to use the hyperref package to create links, bookmarks, and active buttons

As did the three best-selling editions that preceded it, Guide to LaTeX, Fourth Edition, will prove indispensable to anyone wishing to gain the benefits of LaTeX.

The accompanying CD-ROM is part of the TeX Live set distributed by TeX Users Groups, containing a full LaTeX installation for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux, as well as many extensions, including those discussed in the book.

0321173856B10162003

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

LaTeX is the text-preparation system of choice for scientists and academics, and is especially useful for typesetting technical materials. This popular book shows you how to begin using LaTeX to create high-quality documents. The book also serves as a handy reference for all LaTeX users. In this completely revised edition, the authors cover the LaTeX2ε standard and offer more details, examples, exercises, tips, and tricks. They go beyond the core installation to describe the key contributed packages that have become essential to LaTeX processing.

Inside, you will find:

• Complete coverage of LaTeX fundamentals, including how to input text, symbols, and mathematics; how to produce lists and tables; how to include graphics and color; and how to organize and customize documents
• Discussion of more advanced concepts such as bibliographical databases and BIBTeX, math extensions with AMS-LaTeX, drawing, slides, and letters
• Helpful appendices on installation, error messages, creating packages, using LaTeX with HTML and XML, and fonts
• An extensive alphabetized listing of commands and their uses

New to this edition:

• More emphasis on LaTeX as a markup language that separates content and form--consistent with the essence of XML
• Detailed discussions of contributed packages alongside relevant standard topics
• In-depth information on PDF output, including extensive coverage of how to use the hyperref package to create links, bookmarks, and active buttons

As did the three best-selling editions that preceded it, Guide to LaTeX, Fourth Edition, will prove indispensable to anyone wishing to gain the benefits of LaTeX.

The accompanying CD-ROM is part of the TeX Live set distributed by TeX Users Groups, containing a full LaTeX installation for Windows, MacOSX, and Linux, as well as many extensions, including those discussed in the book.

0321173856B10162003

About the Author

Helmut Kopka was previously a scientific staff member at the Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie in Germany. He was involved in writing one of the first TeX drivers for HP LaserJet and subsequently introduced TeX and LaTeX into his institute, where it has become the standard text-processing system for scientific publications.

Patrick W. Daly is a scientific staff member at the Max-Planck-Institut für Aeronomie in Germany. He has written formatting styles for several scientific journals and is the author of the natbib package for flexible bibliographic citations and of the custom-bib system for customizing bibliographic styles for use with BibTeX.

0321173856AB10162003

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 624 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; 4 edition (December 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321173856
• ISBN-13: 978-0321173850
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,418 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #47 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Word Processing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you use LaTeX every day, this is the book to get, September 2, 2004

By 

Weary Traveller "swampstomper" (Enschede, OV Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) (Paperback)

There are easier introductions to LaTeX (including many on-line from various university courses) but when it comes to doing difficult things this is the book. I have both the German version (3 volumes) and the 3rd English version of this. Typical German thoroughness -- a very extensive index, lists of commands and symbols, clear and concise explanations. As another reviewer says, it's not for the beginner. You can indeed learn LaTeX from this book (first several chapters are simpler) but it is oriented to the person using LaTeX all the time. Especially nice are the detailed explanations of tables, page layout, math mode (both standard LaTeX and AMSLaTeX). There's no disguising that it takes time and effort to get into LaTeX, but the results are well worth it. When you have a difficult usage question, this book will help you find the answer in minimum time.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best guide for everyday use, February 21, 2007

By 

A. J. Cornish Bowden (Marseilles, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) (Paperback)

For anyone coming to LaTeX from a background in mathematics many sources of help are available, but it is more difficult for someone coming to it from a feeling of dissatisfaction with the results obtainable with typical WYSIWYG word processors. When you are surrounded by people who think that Word is wonderful and that its equation editor can handle any equations you need, getting to the point with LaTeX where you can use it to advantage may seem more trouble than it is worth. You will probably start with Leslie Lamport's "LaTeX: a document preparation system", but although that is a good and authoritative start it is not really enough, as there is a great deal more to know than can be found in a short book, and in particular you need to know about all that is now available in the form of packages.

Fortunately there are some excellent sources of more detailed information, and two of these stand out: Kopka and Daly's "Guide to LaTeX" and Mittelbach and Goossens's "LaTeX Companion". I acquired both of these about six months ago, but decided to defer posting reviews until I had discovered by experience which of them I actually used more, and the winner is clearly Kopka and Daly, mainly because it is much the easier to find one's way around. It is quite adequate as a complete guide to LaTeX (i.e. you don't really need to start with Lamport, though it's probably a good idea if you do), as the opening chapter on "basics" really is about basics, and the book progresses from there in a reasonably gentle way..

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to find more reviews, May 24, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) (Paperback)

This is a great book. I found it much easier to read than the other LaTeX books I looked at, most of which, in my opinion, are very poorly written. I came to rely on it very heavily as I wrote my thesis, and am very glad that I bought it. For more reviews on the book, do a search for "kopka daly latex" in the standard amazon search box. There are 23 reviews for the third edition, which should be relevant to this edition.