[texhax] new member

Karl Berry karl at tug.org
Sun Jun 9 00:20:30 CEST 2013


Hi Don,

Thanks much for joining TUG.

First, MiKTeX is still current.  Assuming you have a reasonable Internet
connection, I recommend installing it over the net, instead of worrying
about a CD: http://miktex.org/download.  We will be sending you the DVD
shortly, but there's no advantage to waiting and installing from there.

As for WinEdt (http://winedt.com) ... it is just one of many graphical
"front-ends" to LaTeX.  Many people like it, but it costs a bit of
money.  If you'd just as soon skip paying, I suggest trying TeXworks,
http://tug.org/texworks.  (A couple of clicks from there will get you to
the download.  Again, it will be on the DVD you'll be getting, but
again, there's no real advantage to waiting.)

As for the TeX world being self-explanatory ... well, one would hope so,
but if you are used to Word, probably not.  TeX is a completely
different kind of program.  Tex is a typesetting language.  Instead of
visually formatting your text (as you do in Word), you enter your
manuscript text intertwined with TeX commands in a plain text file.  You
then run TeX to produce formatted output, such as a PDF file.  Thus, in
contrast to standard word processors, your document is a separate file
that does not pretend to be a representation of the final typeset
output.

http://tug.org/begin.html has plenty of links for further information.
I hope some of it will be helpful in getting your article done.

As for the specifics of how the J. Geodesy document class works, your
best source for help there will be the journal itself.  Hopefully they
provide some contact information for author questions.  No one else
in the TeX world at large (e.g., me) is likely to know anything about
it, unless by chance someone else reading this has published there.

BTW, this list (support at tug.org aka texhax at tug.org) is just a public
mailing list with hundreds of subscribers, so you may get additional
replies from anyone at any time ...

Thanks again.  Happy first-time TeXing :),
Karl


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