     [file macros.texi not included]

Introduction to AUCTeX
**********************

This section of the AUCTeX manual gives a brief overview of what AUCTeX is.  It is not an attempt to document AUCTeX.  Real documentation for AUCTeX is available in the rest of the manual.

Installation
============

Read the section Installation, or Installation under MS Windows, respectively for comprehensive information about how to install AUCTeX.

The installation routine tries to make the modes provided by AUCTeX the default for all supported file types.  If this does not happen in your case, add

     (load "auctex.el" nil t t)

to your init file and consult the section Loading the package.

If you want to change the modes for which it is operative instead of the default, use

     M-x customize-variable RET TeX-modes RET

If you want to remove a preinstalled AUCTeX completely before any of its modes have been used,

     (unload-feature 'tex-site)

should accomplish that.

If you are considering upgrading AUCTeX, the recent changes are described in Changes.

Features
========

AUCTeX is a comprehensive customizable integrated environment for writing input files for TeX/LaTeX/ConTeXt/Texinfo using Emacs or XEmacs.

It lets you process your source files by running TeX and related tools (such as output filters, post processors for generating indices and bibliographies, and viewers) from inside Emacs.  AUCTeX lets you browse through the errors TeX reported, while it moves the cursor directly to the reported error, and displays some documentation for that particular error.  This will even work when the document is spread over several files.

One component of AUCTeX that LaTeX users will find attractive is previewlatex, a combination of folding and in-source previewing that provides true ``What You See Is What You Get'' experience in your sourcebuffer, while letting you retain full control.  previewlatex comes with its own manual, see preview-latex (The previewlatex Manual).

AUCTeX automatically indents your `LaTeX-source', not only as you write it --- you can also let it indent and format an entire document. It has a special outline feature, which can greatly help you `getting an overview' of a document.

Apart from these special features, AUCTeX provides a large range of handy Emacs macros, which in several different ways can help you write your documents fast and painlessly.

All features of AUCTeX are documented using the GNU Emacs online documentation system.  That is, documentation for any command is just a key click away!

AUCTeX is written entirely in Emacs-Lisp, and hence you can easily add new features for your own needs.  It has become recently a GNU project.  AUCTeX is distributed under the `GNU General Public License Version 2'.

Availability
============

The most recent version is always available at

http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/auctex/

WWW users may want to check out the AUCTeX page at

http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/

Contacts
========

Various mailing lists exist.

Send a mail with the subject ``subscribe'' to auctex-request@gnu.org in order to join the general discussion list for AUCTeX.  Articles should be sent to auctex@gnu.org. In a similar way, you can subscribe to the info-auctex@gnu.org list for just getting important announcements about AUCTeX.  The list bug-auctex@gnu.org is for bug reports which you should usually file with the M-x TeX-submit-bug-report RET command.

If you want to address the developers of AUCTeX themselves with technical issues, they can be found on the discussion list auctex-devel@gnu.org.