anyone have advice for xetex newbie?

[MetapostAddict]

Hi all,

I'd like to learn more about XeTeX, but I'm having trouble getting started, and I'm wondering if anyone has any advice.

I have the full version of texlive installed, and it supposedly has xetex in it, but...

I downloaded some sample tex files for xetex, but I wasn't able to compile them. I got all sorts of error messages.

Any advice on how to get going with XeTeX?

many thanks.

[bryncoles]

never heard of XeTeX myself, but im just starting trying to learn LaTeX. i guess its the same.

i would google for 'a not so short introduction to latex' -p its a free pdf guide to get you started.

also, i am spending time using TeXmaker, as its as WYSIWYG as you will find with latex. i recommend it while you're getting started.

can you post the error messages you get (not that ill be able to help)?

[hugmenot]

what are the errors?

[Garzo]

I use XeLaTeX regularly for multilingual document preparation. Without knowing what you're doing and what the errors are, this could be any number of things. The process should have spawned a .log file that you could quote. A couple of frequent errors are:

Trying to compile a XeTeX or XeLaTeX file without using the commands xetex or xelatex, but using non-XeTeX engines; this is especially common if you're using a graphical IDE: use the correct command
Compiling a source that someone has written that declares fonts that aren't on your machine: change the script for a system font you know you have, and get its name right


The main forum for XeTeX help is the mailing list (http://www.tug.org/mailman/listinfo/xetex), which is always busy and helpful.

Gareth.