Any user of Kile has two choices when wanting to start a new document. They can either use to wizard to begin a new document, selecting the type of document they would like to create and the options such as font size, paper size, etc. The other option a user has is to write code by hand.
\documentclass[12pt]{article} \begin{document} Here is a bunch of text coded in LaTeX. \end{document}
Every document in LaTeX begins with the command \documentclass{TypeOfDocument}, unless you are using an older version of LaTeX, then the command is \documentstyle{TypeOfDocument}. There are currently two common version of LaTeX you might run into, version 2.09, which uses \documentstyle and version 2e, which uses \documentclass to being a document. This command \documentclass always follows the syntax \documentclass[optional argument]{class}.
Typing in the code example above from the text box gives you the following output:
Here is a bunch of text coded in LaTeX.
The brackets that come after the command \documentclass denotes an option for the command. The option [12pt]sets the size of the font for your article, if you do not set the font size in the beginning, don't worry, you can set it later in the text.
Once you have typed in the code example from the box above, you will need to compile your LaTeX source code. The easiest way for a user to compile LaTeX is to use the build menu or using the quickbuild button.
Alt-2 is the keyboard shortcut to compile your source code.
You will need to save your source code before you can compile, but Kile will warn you of this.
If your document didn't compile, check the log for errors. When using the quickbuild key, the KDVI viewer should launch automatically, if it does not, check the log for errors.
Now, change the text of your document, change the punctuation from a period to an exclamation point, then save and run the LaTeX command again followed by the name of the file.
If you don't save your file, when you try and view it, you will get your previous version of text for your output because your document hasn't been saved or recompiled; this will then update the DVI viewer.