How do I use formulas and indent in WinEdt and MiKTeX?

[Cyrus]

Hi, I want to get this winedt thing working. I downloaded it but it says I need miktex. I dl miktex also but the instructions suck. I had to click on the small option, becuse the large and total wouldent work! Now I have miktex and it says something like dvi viewer and package manager. Nothing is working. What do I have to do in order to get winedt to work?

 

[dduardo]

Hmm. I don't know what to tell you. I'm looking at the installation guides for these programs and it is pretty self explanatory.

How about trying this program instead: http://www.winshell.de/

 

[Cyrus]

Thanks dduardo. I will download your program you recomended, but can you help me to get it working. Is downloading and installing it enough to make it work, or are there additional things I must do. Do I need miktex working and other various programs before the one you sent me will work?

 

[dduardo]

Why don't you try installing it and find out. These type of things should be easy to install.

 

[hypermorphism]

Thanks dduardo. I will download your program you recomended, but can you help me to get it working. Is downloading and installing it enough to make it work, or are there additional things I must do. Do I need miktex working and other various programs before the one you sent me will work?

You need a working TeX distribution in order to generate TeX documents from text source. The programs you are trying to install (WinEdit and WinShell) are just friendly GUIs that have highlighters, templates, and other such text editing tools along with "generate document" commands that must refer to a working TeX distribution (like MiKTeX). Install MiKTeX and try a simple sample file first to ensure that it works.

 

[Cyrus]

Ok, but how do I do that. I am sorry for being stupid here, but I am. I have never worked any of this before and its all new to me. I tryed typing in some text, like I do on here, i.e "[tex] formula [tex]" but it dident work and it would not show up as the text. I couldent find what to do in order to convert it into the readable formula. How do I find a sample file using MikTex, was one provided? Oh yeah, and how do I view it, do i use dvi viewer, miktex package manager? If I want to write something with these progz, do I need to learn coding syntax to use them, or do you just type as in a regular word document.

 

[Triss]

To learn how to use LaTeX, take a look at http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf it is not as difficult as it might appear. a good source of information for the smaller problems that is bound to show up is http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html

 

[Cyrus]

I downloaded Winshell and I am playing around with it now. I can't seem to make the first line of my thing indent though. After I do a newline, it always seems that it is the next line after using the newline command that becomes indented. i tried \indent to force it to indent, but it did not work. Also, how do i type formulas into this thing, is the syntax the same as on the Physics Forums?

 

[dduardo]

Formula entry varies from package to package. For example, I use Texmacs on Linux to typeset my reports. I use the Shift+4 button to begin a formula. This most likely won't be the same for you. The documenation for your specific package should tell you how to enter a formula.

 

[hypermorphism]

I downloaded Winshell and I am playing around with it now. I can't seem to make the first line of my thing indent though. After I do a newline, it always seems that it is the next line after using the newline command that becomes indented. i tried \indent to force it to indent, but it did not work. Also, how do i type formulas into this thing, is the syntax the same as on the Physics Forums?

Nope. The software for the Physics forums automatically assumes everything typed is part of a math environment. You need to initiate a math environment first in order to properly typeset formulas. There are several math environments available in the standard amstex package. Read the appropriate documents on this page: http://www.ams.org/tex/ .