Obtaining LaTeX
LATEX is available for almost every modern operating system (Windows, Mac OS X, Unix, Linux, Solaris, etc.). The University of Washington maintains a site license for UW students, faculty, and staff, which covers PCTeX (for Windows). Mac users can acquire a free program called aquamacs.
PCTeX (Windows)
- Navigate to https://www.washington.edu/uware/list-software.html
- Scroll down to the "T" section and click on the "TeX" link
- Click on the "download" link in the "Getting the Software" section of the page.
- Fill out the required information in the agreement form (and non-required information if you wish). Then push the send button.
- Log in with your UWNetID to verify that you are a UW student.
- You will now see a page that has a link to download PCTeX and provides you with a serial key. Follow the instructions on this page to finish installing
- PCTeX is an all in one program. It includes an editor, compiler, and viewer. If you prefer another viewer you can use it if you wish.
Aquamacs (Macintosh)
- To download aquamacs go to http://aquamacs.org/download.shtml
- Click on the link to download the latest version.
- Once the download is complete, open the .dmg file and drag the program into your application folder.
Other editors
We will now go through the setup of Alpha text editor. Alpha is not free software, it is shareware, so if you use it and like it you should pay for it. If you wish to use a different editor please see the Read-Me file and Local-Notes for more information about how to set up an editor.
- Navigate to http://alphatcl.sourceforge.net/wikit/
- Click on the link for your version of OS X (10.2, 10.3, or 10.4) to start the download.
- Once the download is complete a disk image should automatically appear on your screen. If not double click on the AlphaX-8.0fc2_xxx.dmg icon on your desktop to mount the image.
- Drag the Alpha folder to the /Applications folder on your hard drive.
The first time you launch Alpha it will take you through some initial setup. You can skip the setup by clicking later at the first screen that pops up, or just run through the onscreen setup.