Getting Started with LaTex

LaTeX, written by L. B. Lamport, is one of a number of `dialects' of TeX. It is particularly suited to the production of long articles and books, since it has facilities for the automatic numbering of chapters, sections, theorems, equations etc., and also has facilities for cross-referencing. It is probably one of the most suitable version of TeX for beginners to use.

The easiest way to get started with LaTex is to download a LaTex Template and try to compile it, modify it, compile it again...
Then you will have a rough idea how it works before you can write your own paper in a "perfect" style. 
Now I will give you a brief introduction how to do that.

(1) Download ACM SIG Proceedings Templates first (Option 1: LaTeX2e - Strict Adherence to SIGS style - (Sheridan Printing)).
Or you can download them directly from below:  

• 1.ACM LaTeX2e Sample File (OCTOBER 2002 PDF)
• 2.ACM LaTeX2e Style File V2.6SP (OCTOBER 2002 CLS)
• 3.ACM LaTeX2e Sample File (OCTOBER 2002 LaTeX)
• 4.ACM LaTeX2e Sample BIB File
• 5.Graphic #1 (EPS)
• 6.Graphic #2 (EPS)
• 7.Graphic #3 (PS)
• 8.ACM Author Guidelines (LaTeX2e) Microsoft Word Document V2.1
• 9.ACM Author Guidelines (LaTeX2e) HTML Document V2.1

Document 1 is the pdf file resulting from the latex source file, you may want to take a look at it first to see how this template described.
Document 2 is the latex style file, it defines the style of the paper, like page size and layout, the font, the margin, etc.
Document 3 is the latex source file with extension .tex. This is the most important file, you are supposed to edit this file during the whole life 
circle of your paper.
Document 4 is the Bibtex Bibliographic file for cross reference.
Document 5,6,7 are the figures that are included in the sample paper.
Document 8,9 are user guidelines in different format. They have the same contents.

(2) Put Document 2 3 4 5 6 7 in the same directory. Then,
latex sigproc-sp
bibtex sigproc-sp
latex sigproc-sp
latex sigproc-sp
dvips -P cmz -t letter -o sigproc.ps sigproc.dvi
(Note that, usually you have to use Latex twice after Bibtex.)

Now, you get the postscript file-- sigproc.ps. Use ghostview to take a look at it bah.
If you have ps2pdf on your machine, you can convert this ps file to pdf file by:
ps2pdf sigproc.ps sigproc.pdf , this is the same file as Document 1.

(3) You may want to take a look at the Author Guidelines from ACM Author Guidelines (LaTeX2e) HTML Document V2.1 and
the FAQ to get some basic idea how this template works. Then, you can try to modify sigproc.tex file a little by yourself, and redo
these operations to see what's happened:
latex sigproc-sp
latex sigproc-sp
dvips -P cmz -t letter -o sigproc.ps sigproc.dvi
gv sigproc.ps
OR
ps2pdf sigproc.ps sigproc.pdf
xpdf sigproc.pdf

Done!! You are almost an expert now!! Don't you know??

(4) These are some good references I use often. When I get problems, I can always find the answer from there.
A. Getting started with LaTex--- A short primer on LaTeX.
B. The Bibtex Bibliographic Format ---This document contains information describing: The form of a Bibtex reference; The fields used by Bibtex; Examples of Bibtex References.
C. Drawing and Including Pictures with LaTeX
D. Google LaTex Directory
E. Latex Tips
F.UK List of TeX Frequently Asked Questions
G. How to control Latex figure (an absolutely excellent tutorial)
H. From Latex to Html and Back
I.  Documentation: IEEE Style
J. Bibliography style files define the style of a bibliography source list.
K Complete Latex Symbol List
L. Algorithm Style and postscript example

(5) Important templates:
LaTex Macros for SIAM
AAAI Macros and Templates
ACM SIG Proceedings Templates
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS) series by Springer-Verlag
My Latex Template

(6) When you are using LaTex, usually, you need to include eps figures in your paper. That is, 
you either need to generate an eps figure directly, or to convert the current bmp, jpg or gif figure to eps file.
The following are some tips about eps files:

A. Use Visio or Smartdraw (for Windows user) to draw anything you like, save the file as eps. 
B. Use xfig (for Linux user) to draw the figure, and export the figure to eps.
C. If you prefer MSWord, print the file to pdf format, and cropped the unnecessary white area in Acrobat, then export
pdf to eps format. However, I found the quality of the picture is not very good.

D. Use Matlab to convert bmp, jpg or gif figures to eps.
-- Open the bmp, jpg or gif figures in Matlab. You will get a matrix with the same name as the figure in your workspace.
-- Use the following command  to display the image.
    image(figurename); axis image; axis off
-- Export the image to eps file through the image editor.

E. Use gimp on Linux to convert the picture.

(7) For those who really don't like using Latex, you may want to try Word2Tex.
 Word2TeX is a converter designed in order to use with Microsoft Word and enables Microsoft
Word to save documents in LaTeX format.

(8) I am so surprised and excited when I found MikTex + WinEdt. They are so amazing, so powerful, and so user-friendly.
Now you can forget the boring command line-based latex, try something new on your Windows!!