MiKTeX FAQ (July 09, 2009)

MiKTeX is a complete TeX system for Windows.

Yes. The official project page is http://www.miktex.org.

MiKTeX requires one of the following Windows operating systems:

The MiKTeX distribution is a conglomerate of many software packages. To the best of my knowledge, all packages meet the requirements of the Debian Free Software Guidelines. This means that MiKTeX may be freely used, copied, modified, and redistributed.

Please visit this page, for more information

It is recommended that you download the “Basic MiKTeX Installer”. This allows you set up a basic MiKTeX system (see Q: 3).

Download the “MiKTeX Net Installer”, if you want to set up a complete MiKTeX system (see Q: 4).

You use one of the installers to set up a a MiKTeX system:

For more information, read the section Installing MiKTeX in the MiKTeX manual.

The “Basic MiKTeX Installer” sets up a basic MiKTeX system. Additional packages can be installed on-the-fly. This has the advantage of keeping a minimal MiKTeX system.

This installer serves two purposes:

Yes, MiKTeX is available on CD-R/DVD-R (see this page).

The CD-R/DVD-R contains a live MiKTeX system, which makes it possible to run MiKTeX directly from the CD-R/DVD-R. Alternatively, the CD-R/DVD-R allows you to install MiKTeX on your hard-disk.

You can use your favorite download tool to get the contents of the CTAN directory systems/win32/miktex.

Please visit http://www.miktex.org/support, for an overview of available support options.

Yes.

To join the list, direct your browser to the MiKTeX-Users Info Page and fill out the form.

You will receive instructions (via email) on how to use the mailing list.

To see the collection of prior postings to the MiKTeX-Users list, visit the MiKTeX-Users Archives.

Visit the MiKTeX-Users Info Page and enter you subscription email address to change your subscription status.

If you have never used TeX before: we recommend that, first of all, you work through a TeX/LaTeX tutorial. A good starting point is this page.

MiKTeX doesn't differ very much from any other TeX system you might have used before. Typesetting with MiKTeX involves these steps:

The MiKTeX distribution includes TeXworks, a simple environment for editing TeX/LaTeX documents.

You use MiKTeX Update Wizard (Start → MiKTeX → MiKTeX Update Wizard) to update installed packages. For more information, read the section Installing Updates in the MiKTeX manual.

MiKTeX Package Manager takes care of the proper installation of well known LaTeX packages.

If (for some reason) you have to install a package by hand, then you should copy the input files into the directory tex\latex\misc relative to a registered root directory. For example:

For more information, read the section Integrating Local Additions in the MiKTeX manual.

You use MiKTeX Options to add new languages. For more information, read the section Selecting Hyphenation Tables in the MiKTeX manual.

If you have a command-prompt window open:

> initexmf --update-fndb

If you prefer to use the graphical user interface:

If package X is a part of the MiKTeX package repository, then you install it with the help of MiKTeX Package Manager. See the section Working With the Package Manager in the MiKTeX manual.

For the impatient: try it with

mpm --verbose --install X

If the package turns out to be missing in the MiKTeX package repository, then you must install it manually. See also Q: 2.

There are two possible reasons:

The search facility in MiKTeX Package Manager allows you to enter all or part of a file name. For example, enter colortbl.* to find out that colortbl.sty belongs to the package carlisle.

pdfTeX is now the default typesetting engine. The DVI output should be identical to that of TeX.

You can use option --job-name to set the name of the output file.

For example, you would run

pdflatex --job-name=dog cat.tex

to create the PDF file dog.pdf instead of cat.pdf.

You can use the option --output-directory to specify an alternative location for all output files.

For example, you would run

pdflatex --output-directory=C:\temp mydoc.tex

to deposit the output file (mydoc.pdf) in C:\temp\.

You use the --src-specials option to enrich the DVI file with source file information (aka “source specials”).

Source specials enable the DVI previewer to synchronize with the text editor while you are editing the TeX source file.

For example, run the

latex --src mydoc.tex

to enrich DVI file mydoc.dvi with source file information, i.e., mydoc.dvi will contain references to mydoc.tex.

You use the option -Ppdf to produce PostScript optimized for distilling to PDF.

For example, the command

dvips -Ppdf mydoc.dvi

causes Dvips to use

You can type the page number followed by g to jump to a certain page. For example, typing the key sequence 220g will direct Yap to page 220.

MiKTeX programs log their actions into the DebugView window, if you specify suitable trace options.

First of all, you will need the DebugView utility. To download DebugView, visit the DebugView page and follow the download/installation instructions.

Set the environment variable MIKTEX_TRACE. The value must be a comma-separated list of trace stream names. For example,

set MIKTEX_TRACE=error,access

will trace all errors and file accesses. For more information, read the section Trace Streams in the MiKTeX manual.