The PreTeXt Guide

There is a documentation area at the project website. Presumably, that is where you found this PreTeXt Guide. This is what another software project might call the User’s Manual. So start here. Re-read Section 1.1 on the project philosophy and the principles in List 1.1.0.1 at regular intervals. Chapter 3 is meant to inform you of the features of PreTeXt, without getting into all the details. It will frequently refer you to Chapter 4 for all those details.

PreTeXt is fundamentally a specification of a set of elements and attributes, a topic discussed in Chapter 6. This chapter also discusses validation. Once comfortable, but before authoring lots of material, take the time to get validation working, and use it regularly. Do not save it for last.

There are many examples available in an area on the website. Compare PreTeXt source to the resulting output (in both directions). The “sample article” is not always pretty, since it is used for testing, but it does try to have one of everything.

When the above is not sufficient, the pretext-support Google Group is the right place to ask questions. If you are trying to determine which elements to use to accomplish something, provide some context. Do not ask, “How do I print a line of text upside-down?” Instead say, “I am writing a monograph on mammalian vision, and I’d like the reader to use a mirror to view a line of text written upside down. What is the best way to do that?” (I think the answer would be: make an image and include that, rather than trying to get reflected text.) Sometimes a quick search of the Goggle Group may yield insights. Overall, do your best not to be a Help Vampire¹.