A Guide to Latex: Document Preparation for Beginners and Advanced Users

I use LaTeX on a daily basis and wrote a textbook (Numerical Methods for Physics) using it. With a bookshelf full of LaTeX books, this is always the first one I look at and 98% of the time, the only one I need. Excellent. (Note: Review for Second Edition)

Back when I started using LaTeX, I bought this book expecting it to be a good guide along the way.That was two years ago, and now I have to say that it is not only the best tutorial/reference on LaTeX, it is also the most well-worn book in my vast collection of computer literature. Only recently did I stop finding the answers I was looking for in this book, and that is because I have (I believe) matured to an advanced LaTeX user.This book covers everything you need to know as you're starting out: basic usage of everything, basic font changing, basic graphics, tables, letters, bibliographies, mathematics, and basic programming. If you're starting out and you have a question, the answer is in this book. I've flipped through Leslie Lamport's book, and I found it to be too sparse of an introduction. This book is for the hardcore user, the one who wants to do all his English papers in something more powerful and at the same time faster.This book showed me that text processing really can replace word processing. After you see the output, you'll be in love. What sets this book apart is that it really is what the title says: for beginning AND advanced users. No one is left out. Definitely pick it over the other introductions, because it will be with you for the long haul.

This book is the best LaTeX book I know of. Its breadth and depth of information is superior to any other book I know of and the book is easy to understand.I first reach for _A Guide to LaTeX_, my second choice is _The LaTeX Companion_, my last choice is _LaTeX: A Document Preparation System_.My advice: buy this book, if it doesn't answer all your questions buy _The LaTeX Companion_.

I've been using LaTeX for over five years (cut my eyeteeth on TeX, though, thank you very much). I've just signed on to help typeset a calculus textbook, and knew that it was time to get serious about programming. I had a 3 inch stack of documentation from various corners of the internet in my office, but no book that I had paid for--my old LaTeX book from circa 1994 had been stolen.I was all set to buy two books--Lamport's original and The LaTeX Ccmpanion. After all, you wouldn't read another TeX book but Knuth's, would you? Then I saw this book. Though certainly not for the advanced programmer (like, on the .cls level), this book is great for the beginning programmer (creating .sty files) and intermediate user (hacking .sty files). The reference bits are very useful--"What's the syntax of that command again?" But the examples in the earlier part of the book are even better for programming-by-plaigiarism. There's even a bit on docstrip so you can be a real LaTeX programmer.I don't think I'll buy another book on LaTeX for another five years.

I had to write an extremely formula intensive paper with loads of archane mathematical symbols, and I had no previous knowledge of TeX or LaTeX. Without this book, I'd still be formatting that paper. Almost everything I needed to know about LaTeX, I learned in about an afternoon and a half from this well organized treatment of LaTeX. "A Guide..." is filled with usefull examples, explains the important concepts and features clearly and concisely, and provides an extensive appendix covering most of the features of LaTeX. I chose Kopka's "Guide" over the Lamport book because Kopka seems to provide a more comprehensive coverage of the language and the organization better fit my needs. However, I don't think you can go wrong with either book.