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In the LaTeX input file, a command name starts with a backslash
character, \
. The name itself then consists of either
(a) a string of letters or (b) a single non-letter.
LaTeX commands names are case sensitive so that \pagebreak
differs from \Pagebreak
(the latter is not a standard command).
Most commands are lowercase, but in any event you must enter all
commands in the same case as they are defined.
A command may be followed by zero, one, or more arguments. These
arguments may be either required or optional. Required arguments are
contained in curly braces, {...}
. Optional arguments are
contained in square brackets, [...]
. Generally, but not
universally, if the command accepts an optional argument, it comes
first, before any required arguments.
Inside of an optional argument, to use the character close square
bracket (]
) hide it inside curly braces, as
in \item[closing bracket {]}]
. Similarly, if an optional
argument comes last, with no required argument after it, then to make
the first character of the following text be an open square bracket,
hide it inside curly braces.
Some of LaTeX’s commands are a declaration. Such a command
changes the value the meaning of some other command or parameter. For
instance, the \mainmatter
declaration changes the typesetting of
page numbers from roman numerals to arabic (see \frontmatter & \mainmatter & \backmatter).
LaTeX has the convention that some commands have a *
form that
is related to the form without a *
, such as \chapter
and
\chapter*
. The exact difference in behavior varies from command
to command.
This manual describes all accepted options and *
-forms for the
commands it covers (barring unintentional omissions, a.k.a. bugs).