In the Beginning...

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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 L^ATEX 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.⁵ 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 6.3. 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 class with an optional parameter, placed inside square braces immediately after the command name, like this:
```
\documentclass[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,
```
\documentclass[twoside,11pt]{report}
\usepackage{doublespace}
```
sets the document up as an 11-point, double-spaced, double-sided report.
The space between the \documentclass 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}.

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 L^ATEX to run in ``quiet'' mode, suppressing warning messages.
latexsym: (package) Allows you to use symbols that are no longer defined by default in L^ATEX2_e. See Figure 16 for a list of these symbols.

Next: Title Page Up: Creating your Document Previous: Creating your Document

Alex Rolfe
1999-10-29