C. Need More Help?

First, try to find your query in the UK FAQ . TUG also has a list of useful resources at http://tug.org/interest.html. If you're still stuck, you can post your question on a (La)TeX forum, newsgroup or mailing list, such as those listed below. If you do post a question, remember you're asking people who only have an altruistic interest in helping. No one is paying them to help you. Most of the class files and packages were written for free by people who had a need to solve a particular problem and decided to make their work publicly available. So no matter how frustrated you're feeling, stick to being polite. If you can't work out how to use a particular class or package, don't start by heaping offensive, unconstructive criticism on it as there's a chance the author will read the message. There's no sense in alienating the person most qualified to answer your question. In your message, stick to the following guidelines:

Cut to the chase. In other words, be concise about the nature of the problem. Don't write lots of long-winded paragraphs.
Provide a minimal example^C.1 that illustrates the problem.

Example:

I'm trying to use the \foo command in the "bar" package, 
but I'm getting the following error message:
! Undefined control sequence.
l.4 \foo

Here's a minimal example:
\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{bar}
\begin{document}
\foo{Blah}
\end{document}

I'm using bar version 1.0 (2012/06/30).

Another example:

I'm using the \foo command in the "bar" package. According
to the documentation, this command should display its argument
in a bold font, but it's coming out in italic instead. 
Anyone know why?

Here's a minimal example:
\documentclass{scrartcl}
\usepackage{bar}
\begin{document}
\foo{Blah}
\end{document}

I'm using bar version 1.1 (2012/07/30).

There's no guarantee that you will get an answer, but if you follow the above guidelines, you will increase your chances.

Resources

The LaTeX Community (http://www.latex-community.org/).
TeX/LaTeX on StackExchange (http://tex.stackexchange.com/).
comp.text.tex newsgroup (use a newsreader rather than the Google interface if you want to avoid the spam).
texhax archives.

I strongly recommend that you also have a look at the On-Line Catalogue [22]. It's also a good idea to look at the documentation that was installed with your TeX/LaTeX distribution (see §1.1. Class and Package Documentation). If you are using MiKTeX you can access the on-line help via the Start Menu: Start → Programs → MiKTeX → Help

(Please don't send your problems to me, unless you want to hire a consultant. I read both the LaTeX Community Forum and comp.text.tex and answer relevant questions if I have time, but it clogs up my inbox if people keep sending attachments that are in the order of several megabytes in size.) Besides, you'll reach a wide group of experts if you post to a newsgroup, forum or mailing list, rather than a single busy individual.

Footnotes

... example ^C.1: see http://www.dickimaw-books.com/latex/minexample/

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This book is also available as A4 PDF or 12.8cm x 9.6cm PDF or paperback (ISBN 978-1-909440-00-5).