The LaTeX Companion (Tools and Techniques for Computer Typesetting)

I'm in the throes of writing a large report and decided to use LaTeX to handle the document processing for me. (Yes, I should be working, but I decided to take a respite and write this review!) I use LaTeX all the time to produce the short documents necessary for teaching classes, so I'm literate. But this is the first large writing project I've managed entirely in LaTeX. This review refers to the second edition of "The LaTeX Companion." It's difficult to write a review beyond "This is a great book--buy it!" There is so much contained within The Companion that any review will fall short. So, allow me to take a slightly different tack. I have two books on my desk right next to my workstation. Lamport's "LaTeX: A Document Preparation Guide, 2nd Edition" and Mittelbach, et al.'s "The LaTeX Companion, 2nd Edition." (My discipline-specific texts and papers are scattered all over everywhere--typical professor mode.) I use Lamport's book for quick reference for math symbols and table setup (Lamport is much less hefty...) and The Companion for reference on everything else. The Companion is full of details necessary to get "the details" right. The Companion is well-written, well-indexed, well-organized, and contains a compilation of information not available anywhere else for users of LaTeX. You will not be able to use the packages and extensions necessary to make the writing job easier without The Companion. Trust me--if you are writing using LaTeX, then you need this text for access to instructions for using the packages necessary, and desirable, for production of technical text. I cannot imagine developing another complex document without LaTeX and the two texts I use. A actually have two copies of both texts (LaTeX and The Companion), one at the office and one at home. I can't imagine writing in LaTeX without them both. But, if I had to chose just one book, I'd have to chose The Companion. It's that simple and that necessary.

I am not a LaTeX newbie. I have used various LaTeX implementations for several years over the course of my graduate student career. Nevertheless, most of my LaTeX experience was with simpler more forgiving projects. Those projects\textemdash and my frustrations with Word instability during the development of several grant proposals\textemdash (joke) were what encouraged me to tackle my dissertation using LaTeX. My dissertation challenges were much more complex and the layout requirements were exact. Searching the web for answers was inefficient. I purchased two books to help guide me through my dissertation: The LaTeX Companion (second ed.) and Guide to LaTeX (second ed.). In short, this book is the most useful and is really the only one I need. It has helped me through simple and complex typesetting issues. I have been able to add features to my layout that are more sophisticated that I thought I was capable of accomplishing in LaTeX. It has extended my knowledge of LaTeX and eased a great deal of dissertation pain and anxiety. This text has become a tipping point for me; I now prefer to use LaTeX for almost all document preparation. Many thanks to the authors for their excellent work on a most useful reference!

This book is the single best reference for LaTeX users who are past the beginner stage and need reference on how to do more and to polish their documents. It is a relatively comprehensive reference with more than 1000 pages and chapters on everything from formatting to math, indexes, citations, and graphics. Of particular usefulness to me so far have been the chapters on indexing and bibliographies, such as how to do all kinds of citations such as author/year instead of basic LaTeX numbered citations. It is full of examples that show the exact LaTeX syntax next to the formatted output. As an example, I'm currently looking at pages 704-705 and there are 25 varying citation formats described on those two pages, shown with complete code and output. There are two downsides to the book: it is not designed to be a first text (but the tutorials at CTAN work for that), and it is massive, far too heavy to carry around. But for a single best desk reference, this is it!

First off, this book is great and up-to-date expansion of the 1st edition, but I'll agree with some other posters who maintain that the book is difficult to navigate... unless you already have a pretty good idea of what you are looking for. It contains clear descriptions and short examples for nearly every topic discussed, but very few longer examples. This book is definitely not for those that have never used LaTeX and are trying to learn the basics for the first time and/or want lots of long, complete, and well commented examples. To be fair, that's not what this book is about. It is definitely targeted at those with some LaTeX experience. However, it would be a 5 star book with the simple addition of separate indexes for "commands" and "concepts" (which are combined into one 96 page index) and the addition of a few pages devoted to a basic "getting started" chapter with some longer and complete document examples. That being said; there are a number of very good online "getting started" materials available (and/or linked) from the authors web site as well as from numerous other web sites and user groups. It would just be nice to have some of those materials included in the text for completeness. However, once the basics are learned, I don't think there is anything LaTeX related that I would ever need that's missing from this text (aside from some brief coverage of metafont/metapost perhaps -- just in an appendix or something -- but I know that's probably getting way out scope). UPDATE: I've since purchased: Guide to LaTeX (4th Edition) by Helmut Kopka and Patrick W. Daly which makes the perfect accompaniment to this book. The Guide to LaTeX covers all of the "basics" that are left out of The LaTeX Companion (which covers more advanced topics). Even though they are by different authors, they work very well together. I'm currently writing my doctoral dissertation and -- as a pair -- they're the only LaTeX documentation I really ever use.

Once you've gotten a good handle on LaTeX, it is time to go to the CTAN archives. But that is a massive, massive resource. The LaTeX Companion provides a wonderful entry to this amazing resource center. It does this by describing in depth several of the most useful packages, this many examples of exactly what these packages can do for you. It is NOT a book for new user to an advanced markup language (Start with Lamport) but it is my major source of when I have to do anything new and I include many Companion packages in my "default" article, report, and book documents. (I have a bunch I use so frequently that I set up the UsePackages as a a separate file that I then \include{} in my individual manuscripts. May not work for everyone but, for me, The Companion is essential.

Very complete edition, and so usefull for work, I have in my office and used for consulting every time that I need, until now always has an answer, .. I recomend!!

LaTex remains the most comprehensive method to create manuscripts and online publications. Its ability to handle formulae and graphs is unmatched. With that power comes complexity; unless one is working with the software on a daily basis, maintaining proficiency can be difficult. This book provides the ready reference appropriate to make up for those gaps. It is organized well and is quite readable. While much free information is available online, if you're going to be working with LaTex on a regular basis, get this book.

I own many LaTeX books. I use two of them most of the time. This book and the original book by Lamport answer most of my questions most of the time. I particularly like the inclusion of the explanations of all the packages in this book. Since I started on a recent major project, I have learned that you just have to use packages to accomplish what you want to accomplish. This book does a great job of telling you which packages are there and just enough to tell you whether or not you want to use them. Anyone using LaTeX (and doesn't that include everyone?) should have this book.