Writing LaTeX file

4.1 Structure of LaTeX file

Preamble	\documentclass[option]{style} definitions \begin{document}
Body	... \end{document}

4.2 Commands and Environment

LaTeX Commands are compose of characters preceding with '\'
Many environment other than document can be used, such as list, table, center, etc... They can be set using
```
         \begin{environment-name} 
         ....
         \end{environment-name}
```

4.3 Special Characters

There are 10 special characters in LaTeX, common special characters are

          #  $ ~ _ ^ % { }

If they are to be printed as text, type

       \#   \$   \~   \_   \^   \{   \}

Work Example

Word file, LaTeX file, Modified LaTeX file done on 1/12/2012, Inserted graphics on 1/12/2012

Paragraphing and sectioning

           \section{title}
           \subsection{title}

Basic formatting of word: making bold, italic, underline, etc.

       {\bf Bold Text} and {\it Italic Text}
       {\em Emphasis} and {\rm Roman}

adding lists such as item and enumerated list

       \begin{itemize} ... \end{itemize}
       \begin{enumerate} ... \end{enumerate}
       \begin{description} ... \end{description}
       \begin{verbatim} ... \end{verbatim}

Individual list begins with \item.

adding tables
Examples :

       \begin{tabular}{|c|l|c|r|}
       Item & Description &  Quantity & Costs \\
       1    & toothbrush  &  1 & HKD5.00 \\
       2    & towel       &  2 & HKD20.00 \\
       \end{tabular}

inserting mathematical formula
inline formula embraced with a pair of $ s or $ and $.
long equation are displayed using a pair of $$ or \[, \].
inserting postscript file
postscript figure can be inserted into the document using the package graphicx.
use the package 'graphicx' in Preamble and insert the figure file in any graphics format with \includegraphics.
```
       \documentclass{article}
       \usepackage{graphicx}
       \begin{document}
         ...
         ...
       \includegraphics[scale=0.5,angle=90]{sample.jpg}
         ...

       \end{document}
```

adding title, author and abstract

      \title{This is my title}
      \author{Mr. Morris Law}
      \date{\today}
      \begin{document}
      \maketitle
      \tableofcontents

reference

  \label{labelname}  
  \ref{labelname}
  \pageref{labelname} to refer to the page where your reference resided.

bibliography

   \begin{thebibliography}{99}
   \bibitem{lamport} Leslie Lamport. 
   ...
   \bibitem{knuth}Donald E Knuth.
   \end{thebibliography}

The citation in the text can be made by

   \cite{key}

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