Hi,

I'ma n00b to Lisp and org-mode so please forgive me if the answer is  
obvious. I'm using version 7.01h of org-mode.

I'm trying to set up a custom Latex class to use for preparing a document.  
Some Google searching showed that I need to add this class to the  
org-export-latex-classes symbol. I tried to do this in my .emacs file, for  
example following what is listed at  
http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-latex-export.php by adding the  
following to my .emacs file:

(add-to-list 'org-export-latex-classes
'("article"
"\\documentclass{article}"
("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")))


I know that org-export-latex-default-class is already set to "article" but  
this example already shows that something is wrong. When I load emacs the  
debugger complains that org-export-latex-classes is an empty list:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-variable org-export-latex-classes)
add-to-list(org-export-latex-classes ("article" "\\documentclass{article}"  
("$
eval-buffer(#<buffer *load*> nil "/home/cmalone/.emacs" nil t) ; Reading at$
load-with-code-conversion("/home/cmalone/.emacs" "/home/cmalone/.emacs" tt)
load("~/.emacs" tt)
#[nil "^H\205\276^@ \306=\203^Q^@\307^H\310Q\202A^@ \311=\2033^@\312\307\31$
command-line()
normal-top-level()

As far as I can tell, org-export-latex-classes is set to nil in  
org-latex.el, but this isn't loaded until the export dispatcher calls  
org-export-as-latex. Is this correct? Coincidentally, if I export to latex,  
the appropriate .tex file is created without issue.

My original goal was to setup a custom Latex class - I have tried in the  
same manner as that used above for the "article" class and the debugger  
produces the same result. However, when I attempt to export to latex I get  
the error that my custom class isn't in the org-export-latex-classes list,  
presumably because of the failure in loading the .emacs file.

Any advice?

Chris