At the beginning I learned most of it from the Not-so-short introduction (link in another reply to your comment), but LaTeX is too large an animal to handle it

At the beginning I learned most of it from the Not-so-short introduction (link in another reply to your comment), but LaTeX is too large an animal to handle it with a reference manual. I find most of the answers I need on the web. Also, you probably will have to present your research at seminars/conferences etc.; I'd suggest you take a look at the Beamer document class for LaTeX.