Editing LaTeX (section)

==Typesetting system==
LaTeX attempts to follow the design philosophy of [[Separation of presentation and content|separating presentation from content]], so that authors can focus on the content of what they are writing without attending simultaneously to its visual appearance. In preparing a LaTeX document, the author specifies the logical structure using simple, familiar concepts such as ''chapter'', ''section'', ''table'', ''figure'', etc., and lets the LaTeX system handle the formatting and layout of these structures. As a result, it encourages the separation of the layout from the content — while still allowing manual typesetting adjustments whenever needed. This concept is similar to the mechanism by which many [[word processor]]s allow styles to be defined globally for an entire document, or the use of [[Cascading Style Sheets]] in styling HyperText Markup Language ([[HTML]]) documents.

The LaTeX system is a [[markup language]] that handles typesetting and rendering,<ref>The design of LaTeX owes something to earlier markup systems such as [[Scribe (markup language)|Scribe]].</ref> and can be arbitrarily extended by using the underlying [[macro language]] to develop custom macros such as new environments and commands. Such macros are often collected into ''packages,'' which could then be made available to address some specific typesetting needs such as the formatting of complex mathematical expressions or graphics (e.g., the use of the <code>align</code> environment provided by the <code>amsmath</code> package to produce aligned equations).

To create a document in LaTeX, a user first creates a file, such as <code>document.tex</code>, typically using a [[text editor]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Van Dyke |first1=Jackson |title=Getting started with LaTeX and Vim |url=https://web.ma.utexas.edu/users/vandyke/notes/getting_started_latex_vim/getting_started.pdf |access-date=21 February 2024}}</ref> The user then gives their <code>document.tex</code> file as input to the TeX program (with the LaTeX macros loaded), which prompts TeX to write out a file suitable for onscreen viewing or printing.<ref>PDF output is common, but TeX can output other formats such as DVI ("Device independent" format).</ref> This write-format-preview cycle is one of the chief ways in which working with LaTeX differs from the [[WYSIWYG|What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get]] (WYSIWYG) style of document editing. It is similar to the code-compile-execute cycle known to computer programmers. Today, many LaTeX-aware editing programs make this cycle a simple matter through the pressing of a single key while showing the output preview on the screen beside the input window. Some online LaTeX editors even automatically refresh the preview,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Overleaf |url=//www.overleaf.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Seeveeze |url=//www.seeveeze.com/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=LaTeX Base |url=//latexbase.com}}</ref> while other online tools provide incremental editing in-place, mixed in with the preview in a single window.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Authorea |url=//www.authorea.com/}}</ref>