Introduction to LaTeX

Latex is a favorite in STEM fields due to its unmatched quality in producing professional-looking documents with well-formatted figures, tables, and equations at minimal effort compared to alternatives like Microsoft Office. Technically, LaTeX is an open-source programming language in which documents are written as plain text and, following a set of rules and commands, compiled into pdf outputs. It is a excellent for collaboration due to being free from issues with compatibility or varying software versions – a LaTeX document will produce the exact same output regardless of the specific software or operational system being used.

This is an applied class in which we go through all the steps for producing a conference paper in LaTeX. The first section will introduce the LaTeX syntax, and the most basic aspects of creating a document: document types, compilation, formatting, creating headers, paragraphs, and the usage of packages. For this section, students are expected to have installed TeXstudio, as we will cover the basic aspects of this interface.

The second class will focus on figures and tables: placement, headers and notes, and formatting. We will also see how to export/convert R outputs and Excel tables into LaTeX easily, minimizing disruptions in your work due to copy/pasting. We will also work with in-text links and references to tables and figures. At the end, we will spend the last part of the class getting familiar with the math mode in LaTeX, for writing both in-text and indented equations.

The third class will be devoted to the final aspects of a conference paper: references and creating the bibliography. The bibtex system will be introduced, as well as how to export your bibliography from managing software (such as Mendely and Zotero) quickly into LaTeX. We will also see how to produce longer documents, like dissertations, using LaTeX, for which it has unmatched flexibility and capacities. We will briefly have an example of integration between LaTeX and R through the knitr package, for crafting an entirely reproducible workflow, and discuss venues for further practice.

Due to time constraints, the course will not cover the crafting of presentation slides, drawing and creating graphs within LaTeX, or converting LaTeX documents to other formats, such as HTML or Word. This class is for students who have none (or very little) experience with LaTeX, meaning they have never written a paper using it, and need to start from the basic commands.

Readings should be seen as sources for consultation when looking for specific answers on those topics, not as mandatory pages to go through before classes. No prerequisites are required, but note that basic familiarity with HTML or another markup language will make your life easier.

No prerequisite knowledge is required.