Community talk ⇒ LaTeX in person training

[nukespud]

Does anyone know where I can find information on in person LaTeX training. I need to learn LaTeX for work but I learn best in person. Thanks,

[Johannes_B]

Hi and welcome,

that depends highly on where you are located. A first point to look out could be the TUG list Of LaTeX consultants, who can at least help by mail.

You can ask at the local university for other users, ask colleagues. In Europe, lcoal gatherings or regulars tables are common, where LaTeX users come together to discuss stuff or just to have a drink together.

A very very big trap you have to be aware of, you cannot judge if the person helping you has indeed the knowledge to do so. You wouldn't believe me if i tell you, that i have millions of dollars in bar right with me, or that i have a pet dragon that carries me around instead of driving by car. With LaTeX, it's a bit more difficult to judge.

To get you started, i advice you to have a look at LaTeX for complete novices. It is for free, well written, just what a novice needs.


Depending on what experienced stuff you want to do with LaTeX, you need a specialist. For example, drawing diagrams and schemes, isn't my strong suit. But i could tell you something about other stuff.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Welcome to the forum!

It doesn't answer the question regarding personal help, but you can get my LaTeX beginner's book for free at one day in the very near future, you may take it as it's free: click here.

If you don't find somebody, you can ask all your questions here. Just try to get the basics somehow, to not ask a million basic questions which every tutorial answers but a thousand interesting questions which are not trivial.

Stefan

[ubuntu2014]

Does anyone know where I can find information on in person LaTeX training. I need to learn LaTeX for work but I learn best in person. Thanks,

One suggestion : Use Google for all your LaTeX questions. No need to learn LaTeX in person. This way, your LaTeX knowledge will evolve much faster. I did the same and learnt a lot of LaTeX in very less time. I searched Google for every LaTeX question and found answers for 97 percent of them. If not, I asked here and at other places. Google is an insanely fast search engine. But if you have time, only then I would suggest to go through a LaTeX book or an in-person-training.
In-person-training is not recommended since the teacher does not know what are you going to do in future. For example, if you need to insert a multiline formula between long square brackets and the teacher has not covered the topic yet, you will feel lost.
LaTeX touchpoints according to me : (1) Google, (2) Asking on Forums, (3) Books or tutors.

[Johannes_B]

The same trap, to a much greater extend, applies here that i mentioned in my previous post.

An nonexperienced learner cannot judge the quality of information just found. We do get questions here every day were people use obsolete packages, just because that was the first thing google found to be helpful.
Google keeps track of stuff that is there from the start on. You will for example find about 90 percent results for bibtex (which many users think of as obsolete), google wont even suggest the search term biblatex. Biblatex is around for almost 10 years now, it is very very powerful and easy to use for an intermediate user.



OK, word count: google give for the search term bibtex -biblatex around 7*10^7 results.
Search term biblatex gives us about 2*10^5 results.
Seems my estimation was a bit optimistic.