Hi all,

I'm probably going to use Word for my thesis, as no one in my area uses LateX. However, I have friends who do, and I'm intrigued. I looked up how to get it, and I'm unsure of exactly what I need, and where from. Can anyone provide pointers please?

Thanks :)

Matt

Hi, I've recently installed Latex for windows from the link below. It comes with documentation which if you read it through makes it very easy to set up. This link also has downloads available for Mac and Linux users.

http://www.latex-project.org/ftp.html

My sup recommended I use Latex and so far it seems fairly straightforward to use. I'm currently writing my upgrade report in it but up until now had only ever used word and after the hassle I had with it rearranging formatting for my MSc dissertation I though it was time to try Latex.

Great idea using LaTeX, it's definitely worth the effort, in my opinion, and learning it takes less time than you might have thought.

If you're using Windows, I recommend MikTeX with TeXnicCenter as editor (but there's also other editors, it's a matter of taste but I find TeXnicCenter to be the best):

http://miktex.org/
http://www.texniccenter.org/

There's also several reference managers for LaTeX/BibTeX, e.g. JabRef has a nice graphical user interface: http://jabref.sourceforge.net/

For a list of introduction material into using LaTeX, have a look here: http://www.latex-project.org/guides/

Firstly, great that you're interested in LaTeX!

Apple suggests pretty much all I would have suggested - I use miktex with WinEdt. Jabref is great for referencing and is free and platform independent as based on Java.