In the Beginning...

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

\documentstyle{article}

\begin{document}

This tells LaTeX the following things:

• This example is an article. The article style may be used for any kind of standard paper. An article is shorter than a report. The book style also exists. It is meant for real books. These options control section headings and tables of contents and other things.
• The main text is printed in a 10 point font by default. There are several text sizes available: 10, 11, and 12 point. This document is printed in 11 point. The various type sizes within a document are relative to this base size, as described in subsection . If no base size is specified, 10 point is assumed. To change to a base size of 11 point or 12 point, change the document style with an optional parameter, placed inside square braces immediately after the command name, like this:

  \documentstyle[11pt]{article}

• There are many other optional parameters which can be used, some of which will be mentioned later. They are all entered inside the square brackets, and are separated by commas, with no spaces in between. For example,

  \documentstyle[twoside,doublespace,11pt]{report}

  sets the document up as an 11-point, double-spaced, double-sided report. Most of these options cause corresponding LaTeX style files to be loaded (twoside.sty, doublespace.sty, etc.), but some of them are built in to the document type (the 11pt option is done this way). You generally won't care about this unless you mistype one of the options or some optional package isn't available with the current configuration (described later).

• The space between the \documentstyle and the \begin{document} commands is called the header area or preamble. Various control parameters, such as the layout of the title page (if you want one) go here. The actual text of your document begins after the \begin{document}.

 
• Optional Parameters