There's learning LaTeX, and then there's learning it. I think it's safe to say that most paper authors only need to find the appropriate template/example docume

There's learning LaTeX, and then there's learning it. I think it's safe to say that most paper authors only need to find the appropriate template/example document and fill it out with their content. Once you figure out basic font modifications (bold, emphasis, "typewriter" (monospace)), tables (easy), and images (also easy), you're pretty much set--that's about the limit of my experience with it. Now, I've only had occasion to use it for some math-heavy crypto assignments, a few IEEE-format papers, and a thesis proposal, but in each case I was able to accomplish what I wanted in a short period of time and with minimal hassle. For the most part, you're only typing stuff like this: \section{A Section} A call to {\tt open()} will {\bf return} an integer, which represents a {\emph file descriptor}.\cite{man-open} Easy mode, plus bibtex is a godsend when you have more than a handful of references.