[texhax] Naming Files/YAP?

[Philip G. Ratcliffe]

> I recently downloaded TeX and I'm trying to become familiar with the
> program.  Yesterday I created a document using Notepad.  I saved
> it with the
> following extensions: pdftex, tex, pdf, and dvi.  However, YAP
> wouldn't open
> any of the files.  The closest it would come is with the dvi
> extension, but
> then I would get an error message that YAP didn't recognize the file and
> that program as well as my Internet Explorer would shut down.  If
> it makes a
> difference, I'm running a PC, Windows 98 operating system.  Please help!

TeX (or LaTeX) is not a word processor and is certainly no way wysiwyg, but
a type-setter.
You have to run the appropriate TeX executable on your file (which should
have the extension .tex or possibly .ltx).  You really, really should take
30 minutes to look at one of the many manuals on TeX before trying to do
anything.

Cheers,  Philip G. Ratcliffe