Chapter 3. Using MiKTeX

Table of Contents

Getting Started
Specialities
Automatic Package Installation
Finding out Package Usages
Suppressing Screen Output
Setting the Name of the Output File
Auto-insertion of Source Specials
Quoted File Names
Specifying Additional Input Directories
Specifying the Output Directory
Specifying the Directory for Auxiliary Files
Running Programs From Within TeX
TCX Files: Character Translations
texify: The MiKTeX Compiler Driver
Printing
Using a Viewer to Print DVI/PDF Files
Using mtprint to Print DVI Files

Getting Started

If you have never used TeX before, then it is recommendable to work through one of the TeX/LaTeX tutorials. A good starting point is this entry in the UK TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=tutorials*.

MiKTeX doesn't differ very much from any other TeX system you might have used before. Typesetting with MiKTeX involves these steps:

  1. Edit the LaTeX source with your favourite text document editor.

  2. Compile the LaTeX source into a DVI file, i.e., say something like latex MyMastersThesis.

  3. Open the result by double-clicking the DVI file (e.g., MyMastersThesis.dvi) in Windows Explorer.

You usually use a LaTeX editor to carry out these steps. The most prominent ones are listed here: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=editors.