[comp.text] help for a TeX neophyte

cdash@boulder.UUCP (09/18/87)

I have a bunch of previously formatted documents that were formatted
by a long lost document formatter. I want to use TeX to embolden
a few words here and there, italicize a few words here and there, 
and the like. I would also like to specify a specific font for the 
entire document. I do NOT want TeX to rearange line breaks or white space
between lines. Our local TeX users have not been much help, so I am turning to
the net.

Thanks...cdash
-- 

cdash   aka cdash@boulder.colorado.edu    aka ...hao!boulder!cdash
	aka ...nbires!boulder!cdash       aka  (303) 593-3492

mamon@acf4.UUCP (Gary Mamon) (09/18/87)

cdash@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Charles Shub) writes:
> I have a bunch of previously formatted documents that were formatted
> by a long lost document formatter. I want to use TeX to embolden
> a few words here and there, italicize a few words here and there, 
> and the like. I would also like to specify a specific font for the 
> entire document. I do NOT want TeX to rearange line breaks or white space
> between lines. Our local TeX users have not been much help, so I am turning to
> the net.

Although I'm only a TeXnician (instead of a TeXpert) I'll give a try at this
one.

At the beginning of your file type (ignoring the tabs):

	\magnification 1200
	\obeylines %This should break up the lines as they appear on screen.
	\obeyspaces %This should force TeX to use your spaces.

If you want to use a special font by default you have to load it at the begin-
ning. For example if you want the "Caps" font as the default, type:

	\font\caps=amcsc10
	\caps

after the line with the "magnification" statement.
Whenever you want to have a string come out in bold type

	{\bf [string]}

where [string] is the string.

For italics, do the same with "it" instead of "bf".

At the end of your file, type:

	\bye

And you're all set! Let me know if it works.


Gary A. Mamon ---> Astrophysics Group, New York University Physics Department
(212) 998-7721 +++++++ 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
USENET:		{allegra|ihnp4|seismo|princeton|topaz}!cmcl2!acf4!mamon
ARPANET:	mamon@acf4.nyu.edu	or	mamon@nyu-acf4.arpa

chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek) (09/20/87)

>cdash@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Charles Shub) writes:
>>I have a bunch of previously formatted documents that were formatted
>>by a long lost document formatter. I want to use TeX to embolden
>>a few words here and there, italicize a few words here and there, 
>>and the like. I would also like to specify a specific font for the 
>>entire document. I do NOT want TeX to rearange line breaks or white space
>>between lines.

In article <12880007@acf4.UUCP> mamon@acf4.UUCP (Gary Mamon) writes:
>Although I'm only a TeXnician (instead of a TeXpert) I'll give a try at this
>one.
>
>At the beginning of your file type (ignoring the tabs):
>
>	\magnification 1200
>	\obeylines %This should break up the lines as they appear on screen.
>	\obeyspaces %This should force TeX to use your spaces.

Unfortunately, \obeylines does not *really* obey the line breaks in
the input file.  What it does is redefine control-M (^^M in TeXish,
it appears at the end of every input line) to end paragraphs.  You
can get better line obediance by adding

	\everypar={\leavevmode}

TeX will still break overlong lines.  Adding

	\hsize={1000cm}

will prevent that: overlong lines will just disappear off the right
hand side of the page, which is not much better.

I am sure that it is possible to do what cdash asks---after all,
TeX is as much a Turing machine equivalent as is any programming
language---but it may not be easy.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7690)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris