LaTeX

There are plenty of very good sources for information about LaTeX out on the web.

In terms of understanding what LaTeX is and why it is so often used to write mathematics on the web and elsewhere, I suggest reading.
 * [|TeXbook]by Donald E. Knuth.
 * This book will probably tell you more than you ever want to know about how TeX was created and how to use it to produce well typeset material of any length. It also provides some interesting insights into how word processing has changed since the early days of personal computers.
 * [|Writing Math on the Web]
 * This article in American Scientist started me on the path to better understanding how to typeset mathematics well on the web. Quite a bit has already changed since this was written, but it gives a good overview to TeX's role in displaying mathematics on the web.
 * As always the wikipedia entries on Donald E. Knuth or TeX or LaTeX can also provide additional information on the subject.

Because LaTeX or TeX is a computer programming language and not a WYSIWYG editor, one of the traditional drawbacks of LaTeX was the extremely sharp learning curve. When I started writing papers in LaTeX as a senior in college, I was always missing a { or a $ or a who knows what. All of a sudden, my whole senior thesis would stop compiling and I would be left tearing out my hair and trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Modern text editors such as [|TeXnicCenter] use colors to help you keep track of all these things so the learning curve is shorter now.

Additionally, once I left college and started teaching high school I no longer had computer support for TeX and I quickly forgot everything that I had learned. When I started looking at how to typeset mathematics on the web, I was starting from scratch with LaTeX. Now there are LOTS of resources on the web to help you learn just enough LaTeX to get by. I recommend looking at
 * [[image:codecogs_logo.gif link="http://codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php"]]
 * Codecogs is a button/menu driven LaTeX code generator. When you click on one of the buttons, it will return the appropriate TeX code. You can then add what you need to the code in their editing window.
 * Below the editing window a live view of the displayed mathematics is generated so that you can double check that your TeX code is correct.
 * =[|Art of Problem Solving LaTeX Guide]=
 * This site has a lot of very good information. The link above takes you to their main about page and then you can use the menu at the top to move through the different pages about LaTeX.
 * [|TeXeR] is the Art of Problem Solving TeX code helper. It is not quite as intuitive as that of Codecogs. However, the extensive guide and list of commands that are also at the site help a great deal.
 * If you want to start writing ALL of your work in LaTeX[| this page] provides all the information you need to download the free software to start producing complete documents in TeX.