Using LaTeX isn't THAT bad

LaTeX! There is a lot of annoying crap to get out of the way before you can get started, but it's not really that bad. Here's the steps I went through before I could hobble through typing up an entire assignment.

So... Download LaTeX. The entire mac download is > 700 MB (for mac), so watch out.

Open TeXShop and start a new document. There's a ton of boring stuff about environments, modes, packages and whatnot that you can learn.... but who really cares. This is your document. Save it. LaTeX will generate your PDF in the same place. Nice!

\documentclass[english]{article}
\usepackage{fullpage}
\usepackage{babel}
\begin{document}
YOUR STUFF GOES HERE
\end{document}

Entering mathematical symbols. There are two equivalent ways to enter symbols:

$f(x) = x^{2x + 4}$

and

\( f_{\epsilon}(x) = e^{\epsilon} \log x \). 

When you type $$ or \( \), the stuff in the middle is in math mode, everything else is interpreted as plain text. Use the second one to avoid ambiguity. Anyways, escape the symbol you want with a "\", like

\epsilon

or

 \frac{4 \pi r^3} {3}.

Chances are if you want a symbol "something", just type \something. There are "\rightarrow"s, "\subsets"s and even weird stuff like "\pitchfork"s, and they're all nicely formatted mathematical symbols.

There is an excellent LaTeX math reference PDF here written by these guys.