TeX, LaTeX, whatever... help!

[trumpetgirl]

I need to download a mathematical writing thingy as I am starting my third year project at uni.
Having never done this before I spent ages googling stuff to find out how to do it.
I downloaded something called ProTeXt in the end, as well as MiKTeX, which meant I downloaded GhostWriter and GhostScript (I think that's right)
However, after spending many hours downloading stuff, I can't get it to do anything. ProTeXt simply refuses to open.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

PLEASE!!!!!

You'll be lucky - not many scientific authors here I think.

Personally if I had to write a scientific book I would use a wiki with a LaTeX plug-in - could you get your uni to host one if they don't already (would make an excellent project for Comp Sci)?

ProTeXt is just MiKTeX with a few extensions and bundles (including GostScript etc.) to make it "easier to install". But without sitting next to you it is difficult to know exactly what it is that is causing a problem on your machine.

You could take a look at LyX although I haven't used it myself.

Thanks
I might try downloading LyX. I don't need anything too fancy, it's just that if you don't type stuff properly you can lose loads of marks!
As a last resort, I will go and see someone at uni, but they're all really good at computerish things, and I don't want to look like an idiot!!!