and Installing Running MiKTeX on a Windows computer.
In order to get MiKTeX up and running on a Windows machine, there are two dierent programs you need and a number of things you need to do. If you are accessing from a computer lab, skip to the Getting Started section. If you need additional help, stop by my oce. (1) What is MiKTeX? MiKTeX is a typesetting program with an inbuilt mathematical word processor used for creating scientic documents. It is used by most scientists and engineers not just because of its library of math symbols but also because the quality of document an experienced user can create. MiKTeX probably works dierently from most word processors you are familiar with. The biggest dierence is that the le you write (called the source le) is a completely dierent le to the le which MiKTeX creates (called the Output File). When writing a MiKTeX document, you will use a text editor (called TeXnicCenter) to write the source code on the source le, and then the compiler (MiKTeX), which uses various packages to translate strings of letters into symbols, will transform the source le into a typeset le. Therefore, the rst thing we need to do is download all the necessary software. There are two major components - the text editor, TeXnicCenter, and the processor, MiKTeX. (2) Getting MiKTeX (a) Visit the webpage http://www.miktex.org/ and below Install/Download on the left hand side of the page, click on MiKTeX 2.4. (b) On the next, in the center of the page, click on small-MiKTeX2.4.1705.exe which is the link to download and install the small version of MiKTeX (suitable for this class). (c) The next webpage you see will give a list of dierent places in the world which have MiKTeX available for download. Click on the closest one (probably Phoenix, Arizona). Make sure you click on the link in the download column, otherwise you will be sent to the advertisement site! If you are given the option to run the installation immediately, then click run and jump to step (e). Otherwise, you need to Save to Disk and move to the next step. Make sure you keep track of where you download it (I usually download to my desktop) (d) Once it is downloaded, go to the folder you have downloaded it to and double click the small-MiKTeX-2.4.1705.exe icon. The install wizard will commence. (e) At this point, you will be asked a bunch of questions about how you want to set up MiKTeX. Hit Next on each screen unless you are an expert user who wants to organize the MiKTeX les yourself. (f) When prompted, Hit Finish - you have now installed MiKTeX. (3) Getting TeXnicCenter (a) Visit the webpage
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http://www.texniccenter.org/front content.php?idcat=26 and click on download on the left hands column of the page. (b) The next page will have a table of the dierent versions available. Click on the rst link of the column on the main portion of the page TeXnicCenter Setup, Version 1 Beta 6.31, (you need to click on the link under the column entitled server). You will be sent to a page with lots of dierent sites where you can download it. Click on the closest (Phoenix, Arizona). Make sure you click on the link under download, otherwise you will be sent to the advertisement site! When prompted, choose save to disk. I putting suggest it on your desktop. If you put it elsewhere, make sure keep track of where it is saved. (c) Once it has downloaded, go to the folder you downloaded it to and click on the TeXnicCenter set up wizard icon. This will start the install wizard. Click next. (d) You will now be asked to agree to the licensing terms. Agree to them and click next. For the remaining steps, the only time you may actually want to make a change to the set up is on the screen which asks if you would like to set up a short cut on your desktop. Unless you would not like such a short cut, select this option, and as with MiKTeX, click next through all other steps of the set up unless you have a particular way of organizing your computer. (e) Once prompted, click Finish. If TeXnicCenter does not automatically start, hit the new icon which has appeared on your desktop to start it. The rst time you start it, you will have to congure it to work with MikTeX. As with the other set up and conguration wizards, just click next on each screen unless you have a particular way of setting things up. (f) You now have TeXnicCenter! (4) Getting Started. (a) I suggest making a folder on the desktop called something like MikTeXFiles so you can store all the les you will be writing in that folder. Download all the les I have sent you through e-mail or you have downloaded from my website, and put them in this folder. (b) A new icon for TeXnicCenter should have been placed on your desktop. If you are not already running it, double click this icon to start TeXnicCenter. (c) If you are using a university computer with MikTex already installed, use the start drag menu to access Courseware, then Math (or mathematics) and then TeXnicCenter. (d) After TeXnicCenter starts, if there is a le already open, you need to close it. Under the File drag down menu, you can close any documents using the command close. For your information, DO NOT click the x button in ...