The Latex Companion

For anyone coming to LaTeX from a background in mathematics many sources of help are available, but it is more difficult for someone coming to it from a feeling of dissatisfaction with the results obtainable with typical WYSIWYG word processors. When you are surrounded by people who think that Word is wonderful and that its equation editor can handle any equations you need, getting to the point with LaTeX where you can use it to advantage may seem more trouble than it is worth. You will probably start with Leslie Lamport's "LaTeX: a document preparation system", but although that is a good and authoritative start it is not really enough, as there is a great deal more to know than can be found in a short book, and in particular you need to know about all that is now available in the form of packages. Fortunately there are some excellent sources of more detailed information, and two of these stand out: Mittelbach and Goossens's "LaTeX Companion" and Kopka and Daly's "Guide to LaTeX" . I acquired both of these about six months ago, but decided to defer posting reviews until I had discovered by experience which of them I actually used more, and although the winner is Kopka and Daly, mainly because it is much the easier to find one's way around, Mittelbach and Goossens is also a must-have book because of the wealth of authoritative information that it contains. Unlike Kopka and Daly it does not start at such a basic level that you could use it as the only source of information about LaTeX, but if you already have Lamport you can carry on from there.

If you are a beginner in LaTeX, better look for another book. If you have experience on the subject and want something to help you writing your thesis (as my case) or higher level things (or want to know deeply LaTeX), this book is for you.

Lamport's LaTeX book is good, but it really is only a minimal survival guide for using LaTeX. For doing complicated custom headers, TOCs, long tables and so on to make ones thesis, reports or publications more effective and look professional, you must come to this Companion book. Otherwise, you are more or less completely lost.

This book should not be your first on LaTex. You should get Leslie Lamport's guide to LaTex first. This book extends your abilities with general layout, fonts, tables, pictures, charts, bibliography (bibtex) and so much more.

One probably doesn't need to say much about this book. Together with Lamport's book, it is the book that definitely mustn't be absent from your bookshelf! Full of useful information for the intermediate and advanced LaTeX user; it will definitely help you improve your documents!