The PreTeXt Guide is the very best place to learn about the PreTeXt vocabulary and the associated project and community. It contains a basic introduction and parts for authors, publishers and developers, in addition to a reference section of common constructions.

• The PreTeXt Guide, Online

  • Introduction
  • For Authors
  • Basics Reference
  • For Publishers
  • For Developers
  • Appendices

• The PreTeXt Guide, PDF

• The PreTeXt Guide, Source

Getting Started

Begin with the Introduction to The PreTeXt Guide.

Sample Article

While the PreTeXt Guide is evolving, the sample article tries to contain one example of everything, along with some commentary about use. So it can be used for testing and as a substitute for real documentation. But it is kept up-to-date so is always an accurate reflection of current behavior. So while it can look like a real mess, you can still learn from it.

Look for the regularly updated sample article in the middle of the Examples page next door. You will see both HTML and PDF output there, along with a link to the source. And look for a special version of the online output that is annotated with pieces of the PreTeXt source. Of course, there is a copy of the source in the PreTeXt distribution in the examples/sample-article directory.

RELAX-NG Schema

A RELAX-NG Schema is a formal specification of the tags and attributes of an XML vocabulary, and the relationships among them. So this is the very heart of PreTeXt, as everything else begins here. You can read the documented version, find various versions in the schema directory, or use the convenient online browsing interface developed by Jason Siefken and other contributors. (Visit the "All Tags" section for a comprehenive list of elements.)

• PreTeXt Schema Documentation (HTML)
• PreTeXt Schema Documentation (PDF)
• Online PreTeXt Schema Browser
• RELAX-NG, Compact Syntax
• W3C XSD Syntax

Git for Authors, by Rob Beezer and David Farmer

Writing a book without revision control is like driving a car without a seatbelt. When something bad happens, the damage will be lessened. And more importantly and positively, git allows anyone to easily contribute suggestions or corrections to your writing, subject to your control, if you host your source on GitHub.

The power of git comes with a steep learning curve. We hope this book helps, and especially since it is illustrated with examples that will make sense to authors, and stays away from the aspects of git designed specifically for writing software. Of course, PreTeXt source works well within git, by design.

Hosted on GitHub, naturally. Send us a pull request.

• Git for Authors, Online
• Git for Authors, PDF
• Git for Authors, GitHub Site