General ⇒ How do I find a package / help on how to use a package?

[zzziop]

Hi all,

I am very new to Latex, and have just seen some references to some packages that I would like to try out. My impression is that adding new packages gives you new commands to use in your document. I hear that CTAN is a website that has all packages. The one I want in particular does have its own webpage on CTAN

(http://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/ ... trib/easy/)

but every link on this page is a dead link. How else can I get a package? If I just want to see what new commands a certain package lets you use, is this what I can expect to find in the documentation for a package?


Thanks very much.

[pandammonium]

You could perhaps email the maintainer of that package. There is an email address in the readme file (at the bottom of the page you linked to).

[phi]

I am very new to Latex, and have just seen some references to some packages that I would like to try out. My impression is that adding new packages gives you new commands to use in your document. I hear that CTAN is a website that has all packages.

CTAN hosts most packages, but you should always prefer getting new packages from your distribution (TeX Live, MikTeX, ...). Perhaps the packages that you are interested in are even already included in your distribution. If not, use the package manager of the distribution to install them. Downloading a package from CTAN should be your last resort if you distribution doesn't include it.

The one I want in particular does have its own webpage on CTAN

(http://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/ ... trib/easy/)

but every link on this page is a dead link.

Not really. CTAN uses several mirrors to host its files. Sometimes a mirror is temporarily unavailable, then you should retry later or select a different mirror.

[zzziop]

Thanks for the reply.

Normally I would use MikTex's own package manager, but that computer can not access the file repository due to my company's firewall, so I can only download the needed .sty file and put it in the needed place.


That CTAN website does now seem to have the correct files, and I have got it working now ... thanks again very much.