What's the easiest way to get started with LaTeX?
Just install the texlive package, this will pull in all the essentials. Additionally you can install documentation in your language, eg. texlive-doc-en. If you're writing in a language different from English, you should also add the respective language package, e.g. texlive-lang-french. There are also nice topic oriented packages like texlive-science or texlive-humanities -- but if you want to learn the basics of LaTeX you certainly don't need them.
If you just need basic editing support like syntax highlighting, any text editor will do, including the standard GNOME text editor gedit. More advanced options include:
- texworks
: A LaTeX editor with a quite clean and simple interface, featuring an integrated PDF viewer and synchronisation between the editor and the viewer (i.e. you can jump to the same position in both) - kile
: a powerful editor for KDE (can be installed under GNOME and works fine apart from changing some configuration details to use the GNOME pdf viewer for example) - texmaker
: Similar in scope to KILE, but more "GNOME-like" (e.g. less buttons in the toolbar ;-) ), a bit fewer features than KILE probably - latexila
: Like KILE, but targeted to GNOME. - lyx
: not really a LaTeX editor but more a word processor that uses LaTeX internally -- opinions differ whether this is the best way to learn "real" LaTeX.
Most of these editors don't really have a preview pane but this is not really necessary: Just keep evince open with the document you are working on, evince will automatically refresh its content as soon as you "compile" your latex document
If you just want to install the base stuff you should install texlive-latex-base
sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-base
If you want the whole shebang, including extensive documentation, you go for texlive-full
sudo apt-get install texlive-full
If you want a lightweight editor, you could just install gedit-latex-plugin
sudo apt-get install gedit-latex-plugin
which adds LaTeX functionality to the default text editor.
If you want something with more functionality, you could give texmaker a try
sudo apt-get install texmaker
Not necessarily a tool specifically for Ubuntu but we have a sister TeX Stack Exchange on this network that has great information for those of us still learning LaTeX.