Advanced LaTeX Tutorial/Book

Question

I've been using LaTeX for about 3-4 years now. In that time I've picked up what I've needed as I've needed it, most often by Googling. However, I'd like to learn some more advanced features of LaTeX such as editing or even creating my own class files and bibtex styles. I've worked with some fairly powerful class files before, but I have a tough time understanding the syntax as it's rather obscure.

Does anyone know of a good tutorial (or book) that I can use to learn such advanced features of LaTeX?

Answer 1

Have a look at the LaTeX Companion.

Answer 2

Have a look at the answers in these questions:

• Best practices in LaTeX
• What is the fastest way to learn LaTeX basics? (especially the second answer has some nice references)

Answer 3

For the really advanced stuff, nothing can beat the dtx files describing the LaTeX classes themselves. Your TeX distribution might not have shipped them, so get them from CTAN; the dtx files are usually stripped of comments before being installed, but you can compile them with LaTeX to get the comments and code nicely typeset.

TUGboat has some advanced articles as well.