LaTeX has a few ways of typing special characters that you need to know before you start.
Key things covered:
- Paragraph separation.
- Commenting with
% - Special symbols that need to be escaped as
\% \$ \& - Different opening and closing quote marks.
- Dashes and non-breaking spaces.
- Italic and bold formatting.
- Chapter and section headings.
- Formatting that begins with
\begin{command}and ends with\end{command}. This includes bulleted and numbered lists, centering, verse, and quotes.
One of the most important things to note is that you must put a blank line between paragraphs. Eg,
First paragraph.
Second paragraph.
If you write this:
First paragraph.
Second paragraph.
the two lines will be joined in the formatted output and will appear like this:
First paragraph. Second paragraph.
Now a list of key commands and special characters:
% Anything after this on a line is a comment and will not be printed.
\% a percentage sign (escaped). Will otherwise comment out text.
\$ a dollar sign (escaped). Will otherwise start math formatting.
\& an ampersand. Will otherwise apply table formatting.
`` an open double quote. The ` symbol is often in the top-left of a keyboard, above the Tab key.
'' a close double quote
` open single quote
' apostrophe or close single quote
--- en dash
-- em dash
... ellipsis (three dots)
~ non-breaking space (used in situations like Mr.~Roberts)
\emph{text} Italic text, with “text” the text shown on the page,
\textbf{text} Bold text, with “text” shown.
\chapter{11} Marks a chapter, with 11 the text shown on the page.
\section{Heading} Marks a subheading, with “Heading” the text shown.
\begin{itemize} Starts a bulleted list
\item Begins an item within a list.
\end{itemize} Ends a bulleted list.
\begin{enumerate} Starts a numbered list.
\begin{center} Starts centering.
\begin{verse} Starts verse formatting for poetry and other things where line breaks are important.
\begin{quote} Starts a block quote.