To use LaTeX you will need to:
- Install a TeX typesetting system (they are free).
- Pick an editor. Any would do, but some have nice dedicated features such as syntax highlighting, and shortcuts to automatically typeset your document.
- Familiarize yourself with the syntax a bit. A LaTeX document is just a plain text file with additional commands that encode special symbols (such as mathematical operators) and various formatting options.
Startup guides
- For where to begin and where to find the basic TeX distributions (MikTeX and TeXLive) see CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network)
- Here is another introductory page from TeX Users Group.
- Not so short intro to LaTeX is, indeed, not excessively short, but overall very concise. If you wish to immediately get to basic examples, then start with section 1.3 "Latex Input Files".
Resources
- A sample homework TEMPLATE to start playing with.
- Detexify is a search engine for (La)TeX symbols. Just sketch a symbol on the screen with a mouse, and the site will look up the corresponding LaTeX command for you. Note that some special characters require additional packages to be loaded by your document.
- Comprehensive list of LaTeX symbols
- TeX showcase
