![]() |
Sad! |
The log file is a file that goes along every LaTeX file. It is automatically generated and specific to a file.
It gives information about what the document is and how to process it, like for example the name and version number of the compiler to use.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB_llyRVWeZ8GIhWYz7XBaR7i_yIY79n9pBLK4YOagFUbfvMXmGqOfXEHw__OCIMRGDO5XdmTnbSVr29DpNErRnmmEsBOkmQy5M-QyZyoygTaNdEBBmB-Kzm9__vb3JK0kHhKam31-xG4/s128/latex-logo.png)
-> Either because you just don't have a LaTeX compiler installed
Texmaker is just a (very good) LaTeX editor, it does not come with an engine to create actual pdf... If you didn't install anything else than Texmaker, you are therefore missing a LaTeX distribution.
In that case I recommend MikTeX if you are running Windows (miktex.org/), or Live TeX if you run an UNIX system (www.tug.org/texlive/)
-> Or because you didn't add it's path to your environment variables
This you should do in either case. Just add this path to your environment variables:
[location of your miktex folder]\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin
This step is required to use the builtin functionality of your LaTeX editor to create a new file from an other existing LaTeX file, or to create a new file by copying an other manually. Just because the log file is intimately specific to its LaTeX file ;)
Hope that helps ;)
--
FAQ
LaTeX?
http://latex-project.org/intro.html
What is Texmaker?
My favorite LaTeX editor, check it out at http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/
It is free and easy to use!
Where to get help?
http://tex.stackexchange.com/ is THE place.
--
More information
on the topic:
http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/63999/texmaker-windows-version-first-use-error-log-file-not-found
on the log file:
http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/32213/understanding-the-log-file