Re: [MiKTeX] TeX to pdf

[Philip G. R. <phi...@un...>]

>  Can anyone spare a few moments to assist a history professor
> with the direct conversion of a .tex file to .pdf?  I use
> Windows XP, and I have already converted an existing MS Word
> file to TeX using Word2TeX, but getting to the .pdf is
> proving difficult.
> [snip]

What you need is a good front-end to LaTeX - there are many free such
programmes around for Windows and I'm pretty sure the MiKTeX information
pages list some (if my memopry seves me corrctly one such popular shell is
TeXexplorer - many people use WinEdt, which is wonderful but not quite
free).  Essentially, these are editors that "know" about LaTeX - they
automatically search for your installation and set up a few buttons to
launch LaTeX, pdfTeX, or whatever on the file you're editing.

Cheers,  Phil Ratcliffe