auctex: Loading the package
1.2.4 Loading the package
-------------------------
You can detect the successful activation of AUCTeX and preview-latex in
the menus after loading a LaTeX file like 'preview/circ.tex': AUCTeX
then gives you a 'Command' menu, and preview-latex gives you a 'Preview'
menu.
With Emacs (or if you explicitly disabled use of the package system),
the startup files 'auctex.el' and 'preview-latex.el' may already be in a
directory of the 'site-start.d/' variety if your Emacs installation
provides it. In that case they should be automatically loaded on
startup and nothing else needs to be done. If not, they should at least
have been placed somewhere in your 'load-path'. You can then load them
by placing the lines
(load "auctex.el" nil t t)
(load "preview-latex.el" nil t t)
into your init file.
If you explicitly used '--with-lispdir', you may need to add the
specified directory into Emacs' 'load-path' variable by adding something
like
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/elisp")
before the above lines into your Emacs startup file.
For site-wide activation in GNU Emacs, see 
Advice for package
providers.
Once activated, the modes provided by AUCTeX are used per default for
all supported file types. If you want to change the modes for which it
is operative instead of the default, use
M-x customize-variable <RET> TeX-modes <RET>
If you want to remove a preinstalled AUCTeX completely before any of
its modes have been used,
(unload-feature 'tex-site)
should accomplish that.
Info Catalog
auctex: Build/install and uninstall
auctex: Installation
auctex: Advice for package providers