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``Welcome to the grattex wiki!
To begin the overview, we need to jump into some jargon.
| Name | Definition |
|---|---|
| LaTeX | A program to convert a plain text file to a typeset document. |
| pdflatex | A particular program using LaTeX where the output is a pdf. |
| IDE | Integrated Development Environment. A piece of software to assist in the construction of a source file. |
| VCS | Version Control System. A program that manages collaboration between authors |
LaTeX is a program that converts a plain text file, called the tex source file into a pdf.
The integrated development environment for LaTeX is the program you actually use to author a report (as opposed to pdflatex which is a program operated from the command line to turn your .tex source file into a formatted pdf).
There are several IDEs for LaTeX, a complete list of which can be found at http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/339/latex-editors-ides
We recommend:
ShareLaTeX is an online editor, where the compilation is run on a server.
The main features it has are:
- no need for desktop installation (can start using straight away)
- real-time collaboration (multiple users editing the same document simultaneously)
- syncs to Dropbox and GitHub (added security, convenient for uploading charts/images, ability to work offline)
- syncs to Mendeley (for bibliography management)
- user-friendly features (e.g. autocomplete, reference look-up, spell-checker, error assistance)
- track-changes/history feature (colour-coded by user, automatically saved for entire history of document)
- can view PDF output next to source code
To sign up for a ShareLaTeX account, go here. It is free to register, but there are benefits to getting a paid account – talk to AMac to arrange this.
Sublime Text 3 is a local application.
RStudio is another IDE for LaTeX, though more suitable for weaving knitr documents.