# Introduction

org.openoffice.da.writer4latex.oxt/introduction.xhp
Introduction to Writer4LaTeX
The purpose of the Writer4LaTeX extension is to turn Writer into a frontend for LaTeX. By installing Writer4LaTeX you will thus be available to author well-structured LaTeX documents using (almost) the full power of %PRODUCTNAME Writer. The functionality of %PRODUCTNAME Writer with Writer4LaTeX can be compared to the application LyX.
Authoring LaTeX files with Writer4LaTeX
You can use Writer4LaTeX in two different ways
- You can prepare your documents with Writer as you usually do, keeping a few guidelines in mind. You can then invoke Writer4LaTeX to convert your document into LaTeX, process the LaTeX document and display the final result. You are free to create either a LaTeX document that preserves as much of your formatting as possible – or create a clean LaTeX document that will resemble a LaTeX document created by hand.
- You can use some special Writer templates provided with Writer4LaTeX to create your documents. Using the styles supported by these templates, you can easily create standard LaTeX documents using the opportunities of standard LaTeX document classes.
  For this initial version, templates for the standard LaTeX classes article are provided. More templates will be added later (report, book, beamer...), and you can also add your own templates.
Before you start
Before you can use Writer4LaTeX, you need to configure it. This requires that you have installed certain software on your system.
- The LaTeX export filter Writer2LaTeX must be installed in %PRODUCTNAME. You can get this extension at http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/writer2latex.
- Writer4LaTeX needs a working LaTeX distribution. MikTeX is recommended and can be downloaded from http://www.miktex.org.
- Finally you should install viewers for PDF and PostScript files. Gsview is recommended and can be downloaded from http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/. Note that you have to install ghostscript as well (follow the links on the web site).
- The LaTeX export filter Writer2LaTeX must be installed in %PRODUCTNAME. You can get this extension at http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/writer2latex.
- Writer4LaTeX needs a working LaTeX distribution. TeX live is recommended and is available for most UNIX-like systems. The installation depends on your system. If you are using Debian or Ubuntu you can for example install the required packages by typing these commands from a terminal window:
  sudo apt-get install texlive
  sudo apt-get install texlive-latex-extra
  sudo apt-get install texlive-xetex
- Finally you should install viewers for DVI, PDF and PostScript files. The viewers evince and okular can handle all formats and are recommended. You can also use a combination of the viewers xdvi, xpdf and ghostview.
Writer4LaTeX has not been tested on Mac OS X, but it should be possible to configure it manually if you have installed a LaTeX distribution and viewers for DVI, PDF and PostScript documents.
You also need to install the LaTeX export filter Writer2LaTeX in %PRODUCTNAME. You can get this extension at http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/writer2latex.