LaTex: Where to store package, sty, etc files?

[teroenza]

Hello. I am using windows 7, MikTex, and Texmaker to create LaTeX files. I am a novice user, and am confused about where to locate specific files such as packages, .sty files, and .cl files. I use MikTex's package manager to download most, and it puts them somewhere where they are then accessible for any document I create. If it can't find what need (as indicated by an error in Texmaker), then I manually find the file online and stick it in the folder with the .txt file. Is there a place I can put these files so that I don't have to have a copy with every .txt document I have?

Thanks

 

[gsal]

of course there is place to put those files in...to be sure, there are two places: 1) The same place where all the other *.sty files, i.e., the installation directory and 2) somewhere in your home directory...

...I am no expert, either, and have used latex very little; but sometime back and run into this same problem on the Linux side and because I don't have admin rights (this is the office computer) I went the 'home directory' route...I think the directory needed to be named "texmf", in my case, and follow a very specific structure.

if nobody comes along with the exact answer, google it, the answer is somewhere out there...maybe within the documentation.

 

[teroenza]

Thank you. I have seen the name "texmf" all over the place, for example: here. But I can't seem to find it, and started to think it was Linux-spesific.

 

[gsal]

I see.

Maybe texmf is not used by the software itself, when installed or compiled and it is reserved for when installing *.sty OUTSIDE of the installation directory...and since you are yet to install something in this manner, you don't have a texmf folder, yet.

 

[AlephZero]

There are several ways to do this. See http://docs.miktex.org/manual/localadditions.html (you should have this somewhiere in your own MikTeX help system).

The simplest option to use is probably the "set environment variables" method.

If you want to do this on a large scale (i.e. you are using many packages, fonts, etc that are not in the MikTeX standard distribution), take the time out to understand the "register a user managed TEX directory" method.