General ⇒ Help needed...

[Genoano]

Hi everyone,
hope someone can help me?!...It would be really appreciated from me.
I thank you alla in advance for any kind of help.
I should start from the fact that I am a Latex beginner...and soon found a problem...It was working fine till last week, I even wrote 20 pages or so of my latex text...but maybe for some stupid mistake?!...now, when I try to read the file.tex it, TeXnicCentre (what I use), or even WinShell (I have installed both of them...I don`t even know the difference between them?!...), doesn`t allow me to read it anymore...in other words, I think, there is no compiling precedure anymore?!...As I said, it worked perfectly till last week, but now not anymore some in the department told me that it could be that I deleted the .log file?!?!...or maybe something else...In anycase, the strange thing is that everytime I try, another file (the same one!) appears instead of the file.dvi I really want...It appears something yap.[main]?!?!...
Anyway, hope someone can help me, it is important...I am very late on my duty!...
Many many thanks,
sincerely, from a student in need.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Genoano,

welcome to the LaTeX Community board!
The .log file is not important, it will be created with every latex compiler run. Important is that you still have the tex file.
You mentioned yap, that's the viewer for dvi files. Can you see with the explorer that the dvi file is created? Does compiling work or do you get error messages? Give us more information like exact error messages, then we might be able to help.

Stefan

[Genoano]

Hi!
many thanks for the reply! and thanks as well for the very nice welcome
Well, as I said above (someone instelled the programs on my computers, so I don`t even know the difference between TeXnicCenter and WinShell?!...), two strange things happen:
1) with TeXnicCenter: when I try to "build and view current file", it replies "cannot execute the command". Therefore the problem is indeed with the file.dvi view as you rightly got (sorry, I am not good in explaining things well). The file.tex is good, I can save it and eveything, but when it comes to viewing it (file.dvi), it doesn`t allow me anymore...(although, as I said in the previous post, it was used to till last week?!...);
2) with WinShell: no matter which file.tex I am working on (I tried to start a new one just to verify if something would have changed...but nothing), when I click on "dvi view" (there is a little symbol of hand lens) it appears always the same yap.[main] file?!?!...something about "How to LaTex a thesis" (if I am not wrong); moreover, in the last few time I checked, it doesn`t even appear anymore!...but the windows itself gets suddenly frozen, and so I have to close it cause the command doesn`t respond anymore.
---
Do you have any idea of what the problem could be?!
I know it looks strange, but it is all I have been experienced so far.
Many thanks in advance for any kind of help.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Genoano,

perhaps it's a problem with the dvi viewer. You could compile directly to pdf and view the output with the Adobe Reader. In TeXnicCenter choose the output profile LaTeX => PS => PDF or LaTeX => PDF. Does that work?

Stefan

[Genoano]

Hi,
you are very kind, thanks for the help!
Well, all I can see in TeXnicCenter is the option "buil" in which I can read "define output profiles"... There are three options, and the guy who installed it , I guess, chose "BibTex do not us BibTex in this profile" and "do not use makeindex in this profile", leaving unchosen "Run (La)Tex in this profile"...Therefore, following your suggestion, I also chose the option "Run (La)Tex in this profile", and updated it with "path to the (La)Tex compiler "LaTeX => PDF". However, it replies, once I try to "build and view", once again "cannot execute the command", and moreover I can read down in the output box "This is PdfTex versio 3.141592-1.40.4 MikTex 2.6 entering extended mode I cant find file `=>`...1 error(s), 0 warning(s), 0 bad box(es) 0 page(s)". I have no idea what it means though?!...but maybe I have not done what you suggested I guess?!...
I was wondering...Could I save my file.tex on a pen (because I have typed already 20 pages...), and delete all the file(s).tex?! so that, maybe, starting with a new one, without old ones around, it could start working again?!?!...I konw that it could be a silly question, an utopia, but maybe could work?!...

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Genoano,

LaTeX => PDF is just a name for an output profile. Don't delete tex files!
In path to the (La)Tex compiler there should be latex.exe or pdflatex.exe. Too bad I deleted my windows partition, now I have only Linux, I cannot give you screen captures. You may look here too.

Stefan