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In the Beginning...

A typical file, such as a term paper, will begin like this:

\documentclass{article}

\begin{document}

This tells LATEX the following things:

There are many packages and options which may be included with the \usepackage line or as an option to documentclass . Packages can also take options, which are specified in brackets before the package name. You can include multiple packages with a single \usepackage command. For example, \usepackage[red,blue]{foo,bar} would include the packages foo and bar, giving the red and blue options to both. Some of the common packages and options are:6

doublespace
(package) Causes the document to be doublespaced and defines the \doublespace and the \singlespace commands for changing document spacing.

fullpage
(package) This is the easiest way to set normal margin widths.7

simplemargins ${}^{\dagger}$
(package) Enables commands to simplify modifying the margins. This gives more flexibility than fullpage (see above) but takes a little more effort to use7.

twocolumn
(option) Will print text in two vertical columns, side by side.
epsf
(package) Allows you to include Encapsulated PostScript in your document with the \epsfbox command.
times
(package) To format the whole document in {\demo Times Roman} font.
palatino
(package) To format the whole document in {\demo Palatino} font.
helvetica
(package) To format the whole document in {\demo Helvetica} font.
ncs
(package) To format the whole document in {\demo New Century Schoolbook} font.
avantgarde
(package) To format the whole document in {\demo Avant-Garde} font.
bookman
(package) To format the whole document in {\demo Bookman} font.
quiet
(package) Will tell LATEX to run in ``quiet'' mode, suppressing warning messages.
latexsym
(package) Allows you to use symbols that are no longer defined by default in LATEX2e. See Figure 16 for a list of these symbols.


next up previous contents
Next: Title Page Up: Creating your Document Previous: Creating your Document
Alex Rolfe
1999-10-29