A Guide to LATEX: Document Preparation for Beginners and Advanced Users (2nd Edition)

The book explains the LATEX macro package for the TEX text formatting program, presenting a complete description for beginners, going on to more advanced and specialized features. Files for LATEX processing contain the actual text plus markup and programming command, al as ASCII text, something tat makes them portable to every computer system. The LATEX/TEX program processes these files to produce high-quality typeset results, especially for complicated mathematics.

LATEX offers the user all the features of any text processing system: automatic section formatting, numbering of sections, figures, tables and equations, table of contents, lists of figures and tables, cross-referencing to the numbers, bibliography, keyword index, colour, inclusion of illustrations. All of these are demonstrated to the reader via examples and exercises through a structure that takes him or her from the simplest beginnings to the more complicated refinements.

The true nature of this 616 page beast is spelt out in chapter 1, where the reader is advised that the book "is designed for LaTeX users who have little or no experience with computers" and that there exists "considerable repetition in the text". Unless you have a solid week to spare and the memory of a gold fish this book has the potential to be incredibly frustrating. Instead of being immersed in worthwhile examples demonstrating the true power of LaTeX, the reader is forced to trawl through paragraph after paragraph of verbose explanation. Worse still, with minimal imagination employed in presentation, the fact that this book was typeset using LaTeX doesn't inspire confidence - helpful hints supposedly written in a smaller typeface to make them distinct, simply disappear into the sea of sentences.

There are many LaTeX references out there to chose from, but inevitably all books in the market place must be compared with texts by Goossens et al (400 pages, published 1994) and LaTeX developer Lamport (272 pages, published 1994). Other reviewers have correctly pointed out that this book covers more than others combined. The plethora of appendices is dense but in some cases not as useful as would first appear. For instance, one table included contains a complete list of possible PostScript fonts, great you say, until you notice that they're all displayed in the same font! However, combining this unrivalled brevity with the fact that LaTeX is updated on an annual basis and it's not hard to see why you might opt for a book published in 1999, which is larger and relatively priced to both alternative books published in 1994.

With a LaTeX 3 version in the pipeline and with the internet offering a number of compact LaTeX HOWTO's and quick references (most notably "The Not-So-Short Guide to LaTeX"), a wise alternative might be to arm yourself with a downloaded guide and actually learn through trying (inevitably making your fair share of mistakes along the way) and to hold off to see what the next generation of published LaTeX references have to offer.


Can't Ask for Anything More   January 20, 2003
 8 out of 9 found this review helpful

You can't expect anything more from a book on this subject. It is suitable for a beginner that doesn't know a thing about LaTeX, but also includes details on important advanced features like BibTeX and makeindex. Perhaps most importantly in the long run, the excellent index and detailed appendices make this a valuable reference. I use LaTeX all the time and this book is never far from my side!


The best LaTeX book   January 3, 2003
 2 out of 3 found this review helpful

A superb book: everything you really need to know about LaTeX, impeccably organized and clearly expressed. A pleasure to read and to use.