Appendix A Getting Help
Here we collect a number of useful resources to help you when you are stuck. The official PreTeXt site has lots of resources, but we understand it can be overwhelming.
1
pretextbook.org/Official documentation.
Note that the official PreTeXt Guide can be hard to use because there is so much stuff in it. Additionally, some of the documentation is out of date. Still, if you know where to look, it is a great resource.
2
pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/guide-toc.htmlHere are some sections that we find especially helpful:
- Basics Reference: A listing of the main elements of PreTeXt including snippets of the code that create them. This is one of the few places in the guide that has examples of the markup.
3
pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/part-basics.html - Publication File Reference: When you are ready to start changing how your output looks, you can use the publication file, which is described in this part of the guide.
4
pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/publication-file-reference.html - PreTeXt Schema: The official list of elements and where they can go is given in the PreTeXt Schema, which is described here. Also you can check out the schema browser
5
pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/schema.htmlto actually view the schema.6
pretextbook.org/doc/schema/ - Getting PreTeXt: If you want to install PreTeXt on your own computer, this early part of the guide gives you directions. It should be updated with information on CodeSpaces soon as well, if you need a refresher.
7
pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/quickstart-getting-pretext.html
Finally, note that the search in PreTeXt now works really well, and searching for a feature will usually get you pointed in the right spot.
Examples.
The Examples page on the PreTeXt site contains a number of useful live examples. Links are provided to web, pdf, and source (on GitHub). For some of the examples, there is also an annotated version available. We find these especially helpful since you can “view source” to see exactly how each bit of the example was marked up in code.
8
pretextbook.org/examples.htmlHere are some of the most useful such examples:
- Sample Book: This annotated sample book contains a section on interactive exercises
9
pretextbook.org/examples/sample-book/annotated/. The PreTeXt developers use this book for testing, so you can see the latest (sometimes experimental) features available.10
pretextbook.org/examples/sample-book/annotated/interactive-exercises.html - Sample Article: Not particularly well organized (it is also a proving ground for developers) but this contains almost every variation of every feature of PreTeXt. Using the search and “view source” makes this an invaluable resource.
11
pretextbook.org/examples/sample-article/annotated
Community Support.
There is a very active google group for support: pretext-support. You should also subscribe to the low-traffic pretext-announce to get updates.
12
groups.google.com/g/pretext-support13
groups.google.com/g/pretext-announceThe PreTeXt/Runestone community hosts regular drop-in zoom hours throughout the year (usually multiples ones each week). The calendar of these (and other) events is available on the PROSE website.
14
prose.runestone.academy/#upcoming-events
