LATEX: A Beginning

  1. I suggest that you download and install a LaTeX program on your computer. Click this to download LaTeX , but you can also use an online editor. Here is a link to the Overleaf homepage.

  2. Once installed you'll want to download some files to practice with. Click this to get a short video on how to download, save and use these files or simply explore on your own.

    Below are download links to everything you'll need to get started with typesetting definitions, theorems, proofs and reports. In general please use "white bread" LaTeX. This means you should use standard page dimensions, use standard LaTeX commands for titles, author, sectioning etc., and you should remove most all commands not actually used in the document.

    • theorems-proofs.tex

    • definitions.tex

      After saving "theorems-proofs.tex", for example, use the tex application to process it (using LaTeX). This will produce a "theorems-proofs.pdf" and a "theorems-proofs.log" file. The .log file contains a list of how LaTeX processed the original .tex file; the .pdf files is viewable. To see it use your tex application or Acrobat Reader.

    • problemset.tex

    • latexprimer.tex
    • devil.pdf

  3. You'll want to save "template" documents in a separate folder and when needed, copy them and edit the copies. Here is a little ditty on how I do that.

  4. Below is a set of LaTeX web resources to find the commands you'll need to supplement the docs above when writing your own papers. Here is a demo on how these sites can help you.

  5. Here is a ``real paper'' to download. It uses a separate file in which references are kept and read. You'll need to download that references file as well to make things work properly. Here is a final short demo on how to create and use such files.

Best of Luck!!

pdh

Disclaimer

Questions? Click here: humke@stolaf.edu