\documentclass{pracjourn}

%%% For use by pracjourn production %%%
\TPJissue{Vol 99 No. 7, 2005/01/15} \TPJrevision{2005/11/01}
%%%

%%% Article metadata %%%
\email{flom@ndri.org}
%\hyperlinkemail
\website{www.peterflom.com}
\website{http://cduhr.ndri.org/}
\address{National Development and Research Institutes, Inc.\\
71 West 23rd St.\\
8th floor\\
New York, NY 10010}
%\noabstract
\title{\LaTeX{} for academics and researchers who (think they) don't need it}
\author{Peter L. Flom}
\abstract{This paper is written for academics and researchers who
don't use \LaTeX{} and wonder why anyone does.  People who \emph{do}
use \LaTeX{} (probably all of the readers of the article in this
journal) may wish to share the article with their colleagues.}
\license{Copyright \copyright\ 2005 Peter L. Flom.\\
  Permission is granted to distribute verbatim or modified\\
  copies of this document provided this notice remains intact.}
%%%

%%% Defining more metadata:
%\addinfo[\color{blue}]{Hobby} \hobby{Sleeping in.}
%%%



\begin{document}
\maketitle

\section{Introduction}

Why should you learn \LaTeX? To the uninitiated, \LaTeX{} code looks
bizarre.  Like this:

\begin{verbatim}
   \item Order each distribution. Let $x_{(1)}\dots x_{(n)}$ be the
   ordered x values, and $y_{(1)} \dots y_{(m)}$ be the ordered y
   values; and let $m \leq n$.
   \item If $m=n$ then $x_i$ and $y_i$ are both $(i-0.5)/m$
   quantiles of their distributions; in this case, simply graph
   $x_i$ against $y_i$ (if m is very large, say, more than 500,
   then fewer quantiles are needed).
   \item If $m < n$ then graph $y_i$ against the $(i-0.5)/m$
   quantile of the x data. (Again, if m is large, a smaller number of
   quantiles is needed).
\end{verbatim}

Why would anyone bother with all that arcane stuff to prepare
documents?  Why not just use Word or some other word processor?


Well, there are lots of good reasons.  For people in some
disciplines, \LaTeX{} is virtually indispensable. You've managed to
get along without it.  But if you give it a try, you may wonder
\emph{how} you got along without it. It takes some getting used to,
and you'll probably have some problems at first, but it's not really
that hard; simple things can be done very quickly, and there are
lots of resources to help.  Once you are used to it, \LaTeX{} is
\emph{easier} to use than word processors; in particular, it makes
certain parts of writing scholarly articles much easier.   Most of
these articles include bibliographies and \LaTeX{} has tools to
manage bibliographies.  Different publishers require different
formats, \LaTeX{} has tools to manage these, and some publishers may
even provide their own formatting templates, so that everything is
set up automatically. Papers may include figures and tables, and,
when they do, they will require cross-referencing, and, yes, you
guessed it, \LaTeX{} has tools to handle this, as well. And many
papers require revisions, both before and after they are submitted.
\LaTeX{} will renumber everything automatically --- references,
cross-references, section numbers --- everything.


When you want to make presentations, \LaTeX{} has add-on packages
which can help create presentations that look good, and can include
many options for overlays and navigating through a presentation.
Finally, if you decide to write a book,  \LaTeX{} can handle books
of any length, and can produce books of real beauty (for one
example, take a look at \cite{mittelbach04}).

This article is organized as follows: In section \ref{S:basics}, I
cover some of the basics of using \LaTeX.  In section
\ref{S:goodstuff} I give a little more detail of the helpful things
\LaTeX{} can do that I listed above.  In section \ref{S:badstuff}, I
show why some of the bad things you may have heard about \LaTeX{}
aren't true.  Finally, in section \ref{S:further} I give some
resources for those who want to learn more.

\section{The very basics}\label{S:basics}

\LaTeX{} is not a word processor.  It's a document preparation
system. Rather than type words and then format them using drop down
menus, in \LaTeX{} the formatting is part of the text, all of which
is written in ASCII characters. At first, this seems bizarre, but
after a while (not too long a while) you begin to appreciate it.

\LaTeX{} does \emph{exactly} what you tell it.  You can \emph{see}
what you are telling it; if something goes wrong (and it will) you
can try to find the problem yourself, and, if you can't, you can
show it to others.  You can even e-mail it.  Try doing that with
something you did in a word processor; "Well, I was using version 9
and I clicked on this, and then on that, then the pull-down menu
appeared and I clicked on the default \dots then I entered 2".
Sheesh. With \LaTeX{}, you can e-mail your actual code to an expert,
or to one of the help groups listed below.  The \LaTeX{} community
is friendly, there are places to go to get help, probably right on
your campus. In my experience, \LaTeX{} experts welcome \LaTeX{}
novices. (Some suggestions of where to get help are in Section
\ref{S:further}.)

\section{The good stuff}\label{S:goodstuff}
\subsection{Sectioning}\label{SS:section}
So, you're writing a long article.  It has sections.  How to create
them?  Try this
\begin{verbatim}
 \section*{Introduction}
 In this article I prove that the key dependent variable in my field
 is related to the particular independent variables I have available
 to me, and in just the ways I thought it would be.
 \section{Methods}
   \subsection{Subjects}
     A bunch of students who happened to be in my class the day I
     had a bad cold and couldn't give a lecture.
  \subsection Instruments
    Who remembers?
  \subsection Analysis
    I think I tried ANOVA.
 \section Results
   All my null hypotheses were rejected.   Now they feel bad.
 \section Discussion
   If this doesn't get me a big grant, I'm history in this
   department.  Maybe I can find work as a \LaTeX{} compositor?
\end{verbatim}
(Note that you can indent your source however you like).
 \LaTeX{} will handle the numbering, the formatting, the spacing,
and all that, leaving you free to do the writing and the thinking.
And \LaTeX{} won't try to guess what you're thinking, or start
numbering sections whenever you type a number, or start indenting
like crazy.


\subsection{Cross-referencing}\label{ss:crossref}
At some points in your article you want to refer to other parts, or
to figures, or tables. No problem. At the part you want to refer to
you need a \verb|\label| command, and at the point where you make
your reference, you need a corresponding \verb|\ref| command. Like
this:


\begin{verbatim}
In subsection \ref{SS:section} I showed you how to create sections
and subsections.  Below, in section \ref{S:badstuff}, I show you why
some things you hear about \LaTeX{} aren't really true.
\end{verbatim}

\noindent This produces the following:

In subsection \ref{SS:section} I showed you how to create sections
and subsections.  Below, in section \ref{S:badstuff}, I show you why
some things you hear about \LaTeX{} aren't really true.

\subsection{A simple table}
OK, I admit it.  It can be hard to create complicated tables in
\LaTeX.\footnote{Some \LaTeX{} systems automatically put the basics
of an environment in place for you, e.g., xemacs, LyX, \TeX macs and
others.} It's hard to create good complicated tables in \emph{any}
program. But simple tables aren't so bad.  Here's an example:
\begin{verbatim}
\begin{table}
  \centering
  \begin{tabular}{lrr}
    Quantile &  Male &  Female\\\hline
    0\%      &  59   &  44\\
    25\%     &  67   &  62\\
    50\%     &  69   &  64\\
    75\%     &  71   &  66\\
    100\%    &  77   &  71\\
  \end{tabular}
  \caption{Quantiles of male and female heights}
  \label{tab:malefemale}
\end{table}
\end{verbatim}

\noindent which produces Table \ref{tab:malefemale}:

\begin{table}[h]
 \centering
\begin{tabular}{lrr}
Quantile &     Male & Female\\\hline
0\%  &    59  &   44\\
25\%  &  67  &   62\\
50\%  &  69  &   64\\
75\%  &  71  &   66\\
100\% &  77 &    71\\
\end{tabular}
\caption{Quantiles of male and female heights}
\label{tab:malefemale}
\end{table}

What does all this do? Well, there isn't space here to go into
everything even for this table (see Section \ref{S:further}). But
\dots
\begin{itemize}
 \item The \verb|\begin{table} and \end{table}| start a \emph{table}
 which can be placed anywhere in a document, and given a caption and a
 label.  Note that every \verb|\begin| must have a\verb|\end|.
 \item The \verb|\centering| command horizontally centers everything
  following; its scope
 ends at \verb|\end{table}| .
 \item The \verb|\begin{tabular}| sets up a table, and the
 \verb|{lrr}| makes it three columns with the first left aligned and the
 others right aligned.
 \item The ampersands (the \& character) separate columns.
 \item The double backslashes end lines.
 \item The \verb|\hline| adds a horizontal line.
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Graphics}

\LaTeX{} also provides extensive methods to deal with graphics.  For
social scientists, perhaps the most useful are ways to directly
import .pdf and .eps files that are created by other programs, such
as statistical packages.  Although the full use of imported graphics
is complex (see Section {\ref{S:further}) a basic example takes the
following steps:
 \begin{enumerate}
  \item Create an .eps or .pdf file (e.g., diagram1.pdf) and store it
  in the same directory with your \LaTeX{} file for the article you
  are writing.
  \item In the preamble include the following command:
  \verb|\usepackage{graphicx}|.
  \item At the spot where you want your diagram, put
  \verb|\includegraphics{diagram1}|.
\end{enumerate}

If you would like \LaTeX{} to move the figure to the closest
position where it will fit in your document, give it a label and
cross- reference, (just like with the previous table example) the
following example will do this:
\begin{verbatim}
\begin{figure}
  \centering
  \includegraphics{diagram1}
  \caption{This is an example of a figure.}
  \label{fig:example}
\end{figure}
\end{verbatim}


\subsection{Bib\TeX\ }

Although space does not permit a full discussion of bibliography
creation in \LaTeX, you should know that there is a package called
Bib\TeX{} which allows you to create extensive bibliographies, enter
the information for each citation in a natural way, and then never
have to reenter the information again.  There are methods for then
formatting the citations to match a wide variety of styles.

\section{The (supposed) bad stuff}\label{S:badstuff}

\subsection{\LaTeX{} is hard to learn}
OK, this is \emph{partially} true, in that, if you want to or need
to, there is a \emph{lot} you can do with \LaTeX.  You can create
complicated diagrams, write long books with complex and beautiful
formatting, create multiple indexes, and multiple lists, and on and
on.  But the \emph{basics} of \LaTeX{} are \emph{not} so hard; in
fact, you're well on your way!

\subsection{\LaTeX{} can't be annotated}
This one is simply incorrect.  There are several ways to insert
editorial comments into  \LaTeX{} files.  One is to use the
\verb|\textcolor| command to insert comments in a different color.
Another is to use \verb|\marginpar| to insert comments in the
margin.

\subsection{You can't share \LaTeX{} files with people who use Word}

There are some free programs which attempt to convert \LaTeX{} to
Word, for example,   latex2rtf
\url{(http://www.tug.org/utilities/texconv/ latex2rtf.html)}.
 I haven't tried these extensively.  For Windows, I have
found the commercial program TeX2Word to be quite useful, see
\url{http://www.chikrii.com/} for more information on this software.
Also see Dave Walden's articles in this issue and in issue 3 of this
journal
\url{http://www.tug.org/pracjourn/2005-3/walden-travels/walden-travels.pdf}.

\subsection{You can't see the output while you type}

While technically true, on most distribution typesetting a file is a
matter of a single keystroke or mouse click, and typesetting is
extremely fast.

\section{Where to go from here}\label{S:further}
There is a huge variety of materials to help you learn more about
\LaTeX:
\begin{itemize}
    \item CTAN (The Comprehensive
    \TeX{} Archive Network) is a
    repository of \TeX{} macros, packages, formats,  utilities, and other
    goodies, and has lots of material,  some of it for beginners. Two
    that I found useful are
    \begin{itemize}
        \item For more details on imported graphics, see
    \url{www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/epslatex.pdf}
    \item For a more comprehensive introduction to \LaTeX{}, see
     \url{www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/beginlatex}
    \end{itemize}
    but there are numerous other introductory materials there, as
    well --- the above are just my own preferences.
    \item Books, including:
      \begin{enumerate}
        \item \emph{Guide to \LaTeX{}}  \cite{kopka04} which is an excellent introduction
        to \LaTeX{}.
        \item \emph{Math into \LaTeX{}} \cite{gratzer00}, which is particularly
        useful if you have to type a lot of math, and,
        \item \emph{The \LaTeX{} Companion} \cite{mittelbach04}.
         This is a great book, but not
         for beginners; it's a great reference, it's also good for impressing
          people with the power of \LaTeX{}. If you start using
          \LaTeX{} a lot you will probably wind up wanting this one.
      \end{enumerate}
         \item   The mailing group for general questions and discussion
         \url{http://tug.org/mailman/listinfo/texhax}.
   \item   The \TeX{} newsgroup, comp.text.tex, also for general
   questions and discussion.
   \item   There are a number of FAQs and lists of tips and tricks,
    two I've used are
     \begin{enumerate}
       \item \url{http://www.tex.ac.uk/tex}
       \item \url{http://www.texnik.de/}
     \end{enumerate}
\end{itemize}

\bibliographystyle{amsplain}
\bibliography{forothers}

\end{document}
