L^ATEX basics

• the percentage sign (%) preceeds comments
• L^ATEXcommands start with a backslash (\)
• everything before \begin{document} is document wide
• first L^ATEXcommand in file \documentclass determines the overall style, e.g. letter, article, report, book, prosper (style for elaborate presentation slides, like these), etc.
• \usepackage for loading extensions, e.g. for German language, umlauts, graphics, colors, etc.
• text goes between \begin{document} and \end{document}