9

I'm very new to LaTeX and its distributions so this might be a very newbie question.

I was following this tutorial and I'm not being able to compile the document. The code so far is very simple i don't think there are any typos and also I did not find a similar question in the forum.

can someone point me in the right direction ?

I'm using windows XP and I've installed TexMaker 4.4.1 found here

The code I have so far is simply:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}

\begin{document}

This is my first LaTeX document.

\end{document}

the error I'm getting is:

Could not start the command. pdflatex -synctex=1 -interaction=nonstopmode %.tex

Cheers !

Pedro Braz
  • 2,261
  • 3
  • 25
  • 48

4 Answers4

13

If you meet the error:

Error : could not start the command

while executing TexMakerX commands in Windows 7 x64, it is probably due to environment path of LaTex compiler.

The following steps may help you solve this error:

  1. Make sure that you did install a LaTex compiler like MiKTeX. You know, TexMakerX is just an editor of latex input, not a compiler.

  2. Locate the bin directory in the installation directory of the LaTex compiler.

  3. Add the directory of bin like d:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin to the environment paths of Windows.

  4. Right click computer in start menu, choose properties.

  5. Find the "Advanced system settings" in upper left corner.

  6. Click the button "Environment Variables".

  7. Find the row of variable path in the group of "System Variables" and add bin path like ;d:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.9\miktex\bin to the tail.

  8. Remember to add a semicolon to separate different path.

Then, try it again...

double-beep
  • 5,031
  • 17
  • 33
  • 41
parth sevak
  • 131
  • 1
  • 2
4

I found this question on another forum and it says that you should install MiKTex for windows too. Worked like a charm !

Community
  • 1
  • 1
Pedro Braz
  • 2,261
  • 3
  • 25
  • 48
-3

I came across a page which mentions that MiKTeX has two major bugs due to which users haven't been able to compile at all.

Use TeX Live compiler instead

Source https://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/TeXLive

Dhruv Haldar
  • 1
  • 2
  • 4
    If that link goes dead, you answer will lose much of the content. I would suggest you edit it and add the quote from the source, leaving the link as further info. – Cleptus Jul 27 '20 at 10:57
-4

Most of the time errors occur due to space in the file names. while saving the Latex file one should always remember don't put spaces in between the file name.

Kisan Sharma
  • 1
  • 1