I am going CRAZY.
I really really am.
A number of people in my department use LaTeX instead of Word for writing theses and articles. Partly because we use logic sometimes - and LaTeX handles logic better than Word. And partly because LaTeX looks PRETTY with its typesetting stuff.
So... I was persuaded to make the move to LaTeX.

FIRST PROBLEM: So, um, what do I need to do to download everything I need onto my computer so that I can get started???

Lots of complications here. You need different components, you see, and there are lots of versions of each component. So I get some kind of package installation, the 'everything you need to get started' kind. But... I forget precisely where I found the damn thing (took a while of googling to figure that out) and I forget precisely what distribution I have and what packages I have and what I said it should do with respect to putting directories here or there - tried to go with the defaults but don't remember anything beyond that.

SECOND PROBLEM: Finding a reasonable template to use to get started on my thesis. People are quite helpful there, I get templates from all over the place and figure enough (via google) to compile my own template THAT ACTUALLY TYPESETS OKAY!!! HURRAH!!! Took a %#@&#! while.

THIRD PROBLEM: Computer modern (the default font) is boring and kinda sorta ugly. So... MinionPro is the way to go. I started with visions of copy pasting the files into my font folder. But Noooooooooo that ain't gonna work. I wake up a little and realize this is going to be complicated... I CAN'T INSTALL THE %#@&#! THING.

Takes me a week before I realize that you need to install MnSymbol before you can install MinionPro. Well okay, so that is clearly stated once you know it. My bad.
Takes me another few days for me to figure out how to use terminal just enough to be able to login (sudo bash) and update the maps with texhash and another command that I forget so it installs the .sty file.

Only: THE %#@&#! THING CAN'T FIND THE .map AND IT TELLS ME TO PUT IT IN THE RIGHT DIRECTORY. OKAY FINE - BUT WHERE MIGHT THAT BE?????

Instructions tell me to install it to .../texmf-local
Well that is all well and good BUT TEXMF-LOCAL IS A FOLDER THAT APPEARS IN A NUMBER OF PLACES AND WHICH ONE IN PARTICULAR IS THE ONE THAT I NEED TO INSTALL IT TO?
Oh. Its the one in usr/local/texmf-local directory you say.
WELL I DON'T HAVE A usr/local/texmf-local DIRECTORY.
I HAVE usr/local/share
And there isn't a texmf-local in there
I HAVE usr/local/texlive/2007 and while there is a texmf and texmf-dist and texmf-config etc etc etc in there there isn't a texmf-local directory
So WHERE SHOULD I PUT THE DAMNED FONT FILES??? SHOULD I CREATE A texmf-local directory myself and put it... WHERE?????

There are many many many many many instruction manuals on installing the fonts but all of them tell me to put in in a place I don't seem to have. THE DOCUMENTATION FILES IN MY %#@&#! DISTRIBUTION TELL ME TO PUT IT IN A DIRECTORY THAT I DO NOT HAVE. The instructions talk about 'putting things in this folder' and they talk about 'creating this folder' but they seem to think I'll have folders / directories that I DON'T HAVE. AND NOBODY WILL GIVE ME A STRAIGHT ANSWER AS TO WHERE THE DAMNED THINGS ARE SUPPOSED TO GO.

So... I tried putting them in one place... And that didn't work. So... I deleted them from there and tried putting them in another place... And that didn't work. So... I deleted them from there and tried putting them in another place... And that didn't work. So I deleted them from there and decided to call it a day.

And so today I thought it might be quite nice if I could get my references sorted out. AND THERE ISN'T A %#@&#! APA STYLE TEMPLATE FOR BIBDESK. But its okay because I found one online. And there are instructions on how to install it. Problem is:

I DON'T HAVE THAT %#@&#! DIRECTORY.

Dammit.

~~~~~END RANT.

I think I'm gonna trash the whole thing and find a new distribution. One that makes some %#@&#! sense. If... Only there is such a thing....

umm....do they have a 1-800-HELP number?



I call every help number available....or then I call the IT guy in my department and beg for fixing my crap.....or then I throw the computer out the window and go drink a beer!

The problem is that the instructions assume that you know what you are doing. But if you knew what you were doing then you wouldn't need the instructions now, would you.

For example:

step 4: type $mktexlsr

Hmm. Where should I type it? Into LaTeX and then typeset the document? Into the Error box that gets generated when LaTeX is trying to typeset?

Noooooooo into Terminal. Oh, I see, WELL WHY DIDN'T YOU %#@&#! SAY THAT THEN.

PROBLEM: I typed mktexlsr into Terminal and it doesn't seem to like it (get some error message about it not being able to write to the directory.

ANSWER: You need to type $sudo bash into terminal and hit enter, and then type your administrator password into terminal BEFORE you type mktexlsr into terminal.

OH YEAH??? THEN WHY DIDN'T YOU %#@&#! SAY SO IN THE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

Sigh.
No, they don't have a help number.
TeX was developed a while ago. That is the basic program. But then you want a (slightly more) user friendly thing to be actually dealing with. So nerdy people create more user friendly programs that plug into TeX (like LaTeX or XeTeX or whatever) and you do your typing into that. The whole thing is freeware so nerdy people volounteer their time to create plug ins and to provide support for the plug in's etc etc etc. And then nerdy people created viewers so you could turn your TeX documents into PDF documents or whatever. So there are lots of different versions of lots of different components (and this is to say nothing of the programs that you plug into TeX to get a bibliography / reference list up off the ground).

It is very messy with different distributions that have different directories and different components and different components in different directories etc etc etc.

There are help forums and I've given that a go... Trouble is that either:
1) I don't understand what they are telling me to do (e.g., type xxx) or
2) They don't seem to be able to give me a straight answer as to where in my directory structure I need to put the files. They seem to assume that I'll have a directory that I don't have. Or they assume that I can do the whole installation via Terminal - and I can't. Because I don't have the directory structure such that the Terminal commands can be executed correctly. Also because I don't understand enough about what the Terminal commands are supposed to be doing (and what output in Terminal would signify successful execution) to do this / to figure out precisely what is going wrong.

There just don't seem to be any straight, comprehensible answers.

Different instruction guides tell you different things, too. E.g., do I need to rename my Type1 files using the Berry naming system or is this unnecessary? Some instructions tell you it is necessary. Other instruction manuals tell you this is unnecessary. Still more instruction manuals tell you that you can do either - but you need to change some file or other so that it is consistent with your naming system (the .map file???) That makes sense to me, but, er, which file am I checking to see which naming system is being used in it?????

I could grovel to some people here... Trouble is that apparently 'if you can install MinionPro then you can install ANYTHING'. It is meant to be a 'significant' thing to be doing. And... People here are telling me that that is probably beyond the scope of the TeX support provided by the university.

> MacTeX installs the full version of TeX Live 2007 from the TeX User Group (TUG)... Following standard TeX Live practice, the bulk of the distribution is installed in /usr/local/texlive/2007, but a skeleton texmf tree for local additions is provided in /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local. Next year's distribution will then go to /usr/local/texlive/2008/ without disturbing the 2007 distribution so users can experiment before committing to it. Additions made to /usr/local/texlive/texmf-local will not be disturbed by the MacTeX installer, so local additions will continue to apply to distributions in future years.

> The TeX Live installed by MacTeX is identical to that obtained by installing using TeX Live's own install script, with the following exceptions:... MacTeX's TeX Live is configured to use $HOME/Library/texmf rather than $HOME/texmf for user additions to the texmf tree. This is the location used by previous versions of TeX on Mac OS X from Gerben Wierda. After adding files to this location, texhash need not be run.

> When the TeX Live install script finishes, it prints a message suggesting that users modify their PATH variable appropriately. MacTeX modifies both PATH and MAN entries automatically. This modification is done using scripts from Gerben Wierda and is consistent with his TeX distributions.

Okay that last paragraph lost me. And the second to last paragraph lost me, too.

First paragraph: There should be a skeleton texmf-local structure in:
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local
There isn't a texmf-local file (with a skeleton structure) there. But... I do know what the skeleton structure is so I could create a texmf-local folder in there and install everything into that no probs.

Second paragraph introduces the notion of $HOME wtf is that?
/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local (in first paragraph) is now magically referred to as $HOME/texmf
and so $HOME/Library/texmf is otherwise known as where precisely?????

HOW THE %#@&#! ARE THESE INSTRUCTIONS MEANT TO BE COMPREHENSIBLE

> TeX distributions are installed in locations which are usually not displayed in the Finder.

NO %#@&#!!!!

I really could cry. I don't think I'm particularly stupid but I just can't do this. Every set of instructions I've found has at least one step that I simply don't understand and many more steps where I'm not sure whether I've done what they are telling me to do or not. And then different instructions seem to be really very different so it isn't even that you can compile them into a coherant set where one description clarifies what was vague in another.

And forget about MinionPro I can't even %#@&#! well install MnSymbol. I really am tearing my hair out. Time to go home or something. I could punch something.

[sabby]

You certainly have a lot more patience than I would with all that garbage Alex.....what a crock of you know what!

Maybe it's time to get back to basics and simplify!

So sorry you had such difficulties with it all.....I can sure empathize with what you were feeling and going through.


sabby

[pachyderm]

> A number of people in my department use LaTeX instead of Word for writing theses and articles.

What did all those other smarties do when they ran into similar problems?

Well... They post on technical forums (as I've been doing). Or they grovel to their friends (as I've been doing). Or they RTFM (as I've being doing). I dunno... I guess I really need to get one of my friends in particular to take a look (hard asking him though because he used to be a programmer and for him computer advice is worth money and you shouldn't loan money to friends). I popped an email off to technical support on Campus today so we will see what they have to say. I'm pretty sure that mathematics and physics and engineering etc have pretty good TeX support but I'm not sure if they would be happy to help out an ignorant student from the social sciences ;-)

We shall see. I'll have to be verrrrrry impressed with their efforts.

Thanks for the support guys. Means a lot.

[pachyderm]

> he used to be a programmer and for him computer advice is worth money

and he cannot understand why not everybody sees how easy it is like he does...

I think it is more the time taken. There could be a number of reasons why I'm getting the errors I'm getting and it will take time to alter things and then see how it effects the error before finding the fix that fixes things. If he spends a couple hours on it and he used to make a couple hundred bucks an hour for doing that... Well... Lets just say that we aren't *that good* friends. And then there is also the issue that he gave up his high powered job in order to do a PhD in philosophy and he said that he really hates computer programming...

[splitimage]

All I can say is that you have my sympathies. I'm largely useless with computer stuff beyond basic Windows and Microsoft Office.

I really hope that you're able to get some good help from someone to get you sorted out. Writing a thesis is big enough on its own, without having to deal with computer problems too.

splitimage

Thanks. I'm really not sure how much moving to TeX is really just a form of procrastination.

But the thing is that it actually has inspired me to get into my writing.

One of my supervisors gave me this lovely image that really has (in conjunction with TeX) INSPIRED me.

He said... That writing a thesis can be a lot like looking at google earth. You start on the weakest zoom. The title. And you look at it a bit and after a bit you get a little curious... Then you zoom in a little to take a look. And there the Chapter headings emerge. And you sit with that a bit and start to get curious... So you zoom in again and there are the subsections... And after a time... A particular subsection grabs you and so you zoom in on that. And before you know it you are trying to figure out 4 or maybe 5 paragraphs. And if it starts to get to you... Zoom out a little and see what grabs you.

And in theory you can do this in Word too (but I wouldn't know how). But I've got this lovely titlepage generated and it is all hyperlinked so its easy for me to go directly to particular sections. And I can easily create layers of headings - in as much detail as I want. So I really can get the grain down to about four paragraphs (about two double spaced pages). And that... Feels manageable.

And instead of going: Am I going to work on my thesis today?
The question has become: What part of my thesis am I going to work on today?

And that is great. And all would be well in my world if only it wasn't for Computer Modern Fonts and the %#@&#! APA.

[Perna]

It does look complicated as hell. Did you play with CTAN and see what their whole system/"packages" are? Says you can "get the entire subdirectory" and good words like that.

http://www.tug.org/

Hey. Yeah, I downloaded Minion Symbol (and all the documentation and installation instructions) from there. Its their installation instructions (partly at least) that I'm complaining about. I THINK I've got the location problem sorted out. I THINK.

So... I think I'm narrowing down the problem to this (name changed for privacy):

) (./mnsymbol-test.aux)
(/usr/local/texlive/2007/texmf-dist/tex/latex/base/ts1cmr.fd) [1{/Users/alexandra_k/.
texlive2007/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}] (./mnsymbol-test.aux
)kpathsea: Running mktexpk --mfmode / --bdpi 600 --mag 1+0/600 --dpi 600 MnSymbolC10
mkdir: ././Users/alexandra_k/.texlive2007/texmf-var/fonts/pk: Permission denied
mktexpk: mktexdir /Users/alexandra_k/.texlive2007/texmf-var/fonts/pk/ljfour/public/MnSymbol failed.
kpathsea: Appending font creation commands to missfont.log.
)

So.. It seems to be finding finding things okay (I'm not getting a 'can't find' error anymore) but now the problem is: Permission denied. I googled that... Doesn't look good (in the sense of comprehensibly fixable). I'll try repairing the permissions on my mac but I don't know that it has anything to do with that... But aside from that I'm at a loss really.

Wait... mkdir... It is trying to make a directory. And it doesn't have permission. Let me guess... I need to login to terminal and tell it to make a directory once I'm logged on with system administrator access? Then... It will be all made and it just has to find it?

What does it want to put in the directory? Maybe I need to put it there manually with administrator access...

I really shouldn't speculate (it just leads me on another 4 hour goose chase). Sigh.

[Doh2007]

Sounds like the technical writer on the manual was a dum dum.

[wisewoman]

I would go to a Mac pro at this point. I am reading this and I am getting anxiety just reading. I am very sorry for your troubles with this. I like Microsoft educational package. Good luck.

[sarahlilianne]

Oh wow Alex... I'm sending good vibes your way. This is all Chinese to me !!!

Thanks. I don't think it is a problem with my Mac, it is more a problem with the TeXLive software I installed on my Mac (where TeXLive has both PC and Mac versions).

That being said... There is this thing on my Mac called 'repair permissions'. If the permissions are all good then you don't get the option to do that, though. But... I am getting the option to do that so I'll do it and see how far I get.

Uni has actually been quite promising with their response. I got told to ask my local support people (to make sure I wasn't stepping on toes in going around them) and if they were unable to help then to let these other people know.

Fingers crossed :-)

Word is okay for some purposes, but it tends to crash long documents (such as theses or books) and if you split it up into a number of different files then you have difficulties with generating consistent headings / page numbers / tables of contents etc. I had significant difficulty with my Masters Thesis (a mere 30,000 words) because it wanted to move text box diagrams onto a new page where it was JUST OBVIOUS that there was room for it on the bottom of the previous page, and where it either repeated lines from the bottom of one page at the top of the next or left a couple of lines out altogether. IF ONLY what you saw on the screen was what you got in the PDF or from the printer.

But even if what you saw on the screen was what you got in the PDF or from the printer there are still a number of advanced typographical features that aren't available in Word. For example:

http://nitens.org/taraborelli/latex

The differences might not seem particularly apparent if you aren't used to noticing them, but they do become rather more apparent when looking at a whole page of text that has been generated. Professional typesetters would never dream of using Word to typeset a book. They would use a professional typesetting program to get ligatures and kerning and small caps and spacing just right. TeX isn't really a professional typesetting program, but it provides the best typesetting output of any freeware for non-professionals.