Guide to LaTeX, A (4th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Not the best for absolute beginners, but great reference
Review: For starting out in Latex, I recommend one of the many free online tutorials, such as the "not-so-short introduction to Latex". That will get you more than started. This book is a great add-on reference to that, and the level is just right: not too wordy, but easy to follow. It has much deeper coverage of how to do graphics and drawings, how to create a bibliography, how to create postscript and pdf files, etc, in addition to the basics, of course.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference
Review: Having read the third edition, the fourth provides necessary updated information on using features such as pdfTeX, html and removing some of the information on the older versions of LaTeX. There is a learning curve with using LaTex that cannot be avoided, but this book provides a good introduction to beginniners.

Rating:
Summary: Great reference for Latex
Review: I think that this book is a great reference for those that have already some familiarity with Latex. It covers pretty much any aspect that one needs to be effective in Latex. One of the best parts about this book is that there is an appendix which has the syntax of most commands in Latex. I do not own the third edition but I have done a side by side comparison of it with the fourth edition. In general the material all the same minus some formatting differences. I noticed that one chapter did not make it from the third edition to the fourth which was on class writing. Instead a chpater on modifying pre-existing classes was included.
If you already own the third edition, then this may not be as substantial revision to warrant the purchase of this edition, but I do like the new layout of this edition compared to the third.

BEWARE. I do not think that this is best book for those begining Latex. Instead, I recommend "Learning Latex" by D. F. Griffiths and D. J. Higham. This book has the Latex code written right next to how it would appear.

Rating:
Summary: If you use LaTeX every day, this is the book to get
Review: There are easier introductions to LaTeX (including many on-line from various university courses) but when it comes to doing difficult things this is the book. I have both the German version (3 volumes) and the 3rd English version of this. Typical German thoroughness -- a very extensive index, lists of commands and symbols, clear and concise explanations. As another reviewer says, it's not for the beginner. You can indeed learn LaTeX from this book (first several chapters are simpler) but it is oriented to the person using LaTeX all the time. Especially nice are the detailed explanations of tables, page layout, math mode (both standard LaTeX and AMSLaTeX). There's no disguising that it takes time and effort to get into LaTeX, but the results are well worth it. When you have a difficult usage question, this book will help you find the answer in minimum time.

Rating:
Summary: How to find more reviews
Review: This is a great book. I found it much easier to read than the other LaTeX books I looked at, most of which, in my opinion, are very poorly written. I came to rely on it very heavily as I wrote my thesis, and am very glad that I bought it. For more reviews on the book, do a search for "kopka daly latex" in the standard amazon search box. There are 23 reviews for the third edition, which should be relevant to this edition.

Rating:
Summary: Brief, effective introduction to Latex
Review: This is an ideal introduction to the TeX line of text formatting tools. It starts with a high level overview of the toolset. Then dives into document construction, then into tables, lists, mathematical formatting, and into user constructions and extensions for bibliographies, as well as other topics. PDF and Postscript formatting is covered. As well as AMS-TeX which is more extensions or mathematical formatting.

On the downside the substance of the text is only two-thirds of the book. Appendices make up the rest. Which necessarily means that the coverage is a little more terse than you would expect for a book this size.

That being said, this is still an excellent introduction to the TeX set of tools for anyone who is just starting out.