LaTeX provides an exceedingly simple mechanism for appendixes: the
command \appendix switches the document from generating sections
(in article class) or chapters (in report or
book classes) to producing appendixes. Section or chapter
numbering is restarted and the representation of the counter switches
to alphabetic. So:
\section{My inspiration}
...
\section{Developing the inspiration}
...
\appendix
\section{How I became inspired}
...
would be typeset (in an article document) something like:
1 My inspirationwhich is quite enough for many ordinary purposes. Note that, once you've switched to typesetting appendixes, LaTeX provides you with no way back - once you've had an appendix, you can no longer have an "ordinary"...
2 Developing the inspiration
...
A How I became inspired
...
\section or \chapter.
The appendix provides several ways of elaborating on this simple setup. Straightforward use of the package allows you to have a separate heading, both in the body of the document and the table of contents; this would be achieved by
\usepackage{appendix}
...
\appendix
\appendixpage
\addappheadtotoc
The \appendixpage command adds a separate title "Appendices"
above the first appendix, and \addappheadtotoc adds a similar
title to the table of contents. These simple modifications cover many
people's needs about appendixes.
The package also provides an appendices environment,
which provides for fancier use. The environment is best controlled by
package options; the above example would be achieved by
\usepackage[toc,page]{appendix}
...
\begin{appendices}
...
\end{appendices}
The great thing that the appendices environment gives
you, is that once the environment ends, you can carry on with sections
or chapters as before - numbering isn't affected by the intervening
appendixes.
The package provides another alternative way of setting appendixes, as
inferior divisions in the document. The subappendices
environment allows you to put separate appendixes for a particular
section, coded as \subsections, or for a particular chapter, coded
as \sections. So one might write:
\usepackage{appendix}
...
\section{My inspiration}
...
\begin{subappendices}
\subsection{How I became inspired}
...
\end{subappendices}
\section{Developing the inspiration}
...
Which will produce output something like:
1 My inspiration...
1.A How I became inspired
...
2 Developing the inspiration
...
There are many other merry things one may do with the package; the user is referred to the package documentation for further details.
The memoir class includes the facilities of the
appendix package. The KOMA-script classes offer a
\appendixprefix command for manipulating the appearance of appendixes.
This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=appendix