learn latex for thesis

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Share this post, published september 6, 2023 in general, how to use latex for thesis writing: a comprehensive guide, by scholarly, introduction.

Thesis writing is a crucial part of academic research, and presenting your work in a professional and polished manner is essential. LaTeX, a powerful typesetting system, can greatly enhance the quality and appearance of your thesis. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore how to use LaTeX for thesis writing, covering its history, benefits, best practices, common techniques, and more.

In the past, researchers and students relied on traditional word processors like Microsoft Word for thesis writing. However, these tools often lacked advanced typesetting features and resulted in inconsistent formatting. LaTeX emerged in the 1980s as a solution to these challenges, offering precise control over document layout, mathematical equations, and bibliographies.

Current State

Today, LaTeX remains a popular choice for academic writing, especially in fields such as mathematics, computer science, and physics. Its ability to handle complex equations, generate professional-looking documents, and facilitate collaboration makes it invaluable for thesis writing.

Future State

Looking ahead, LaTeX is expected to continue evolving with the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques. AI-powered tools can enhance LaTeX's functionality by automating certain tasks, such as generating bibliographies or suggesting formatting improvements.

Superior Typesetting : LaTeX provides precise control over document layout, ensuring consistent and professional-looking theses.

Mathematical Equations : LaTeX excels at typesetting complex mathematical equations, making it ideal for scientific research.

Collaboration and Version Control : LaTeX's plain text format allows for easy collaboration and version control using platforms like GitHub.

Cross-Referencing and Citations : LaTeX's built-in features for cross-referencing and citations simplify the process of citing sources and creating bibliographies.

Templates and Customization : LaTeX offers a wide range of templates and allows for customization, enabling you to create a unique thesis.

Significance

The significance of using LaTeX for thesis writing cannot be overstated. It elevates the quality and professionalism of your work, making a positive impression on readers, reviewers, and potential employers. LaTeX's precise typesetting capabilities ensure that your thesis is visually appealing and easy to read, enhancing its overall impact.

Best Practices

To make the most of LaTeX for thesis writing, consider the following best practices:

Learn the Basics : Familiarize yourself with LaTeX's syntax and commands by referring to online tutorials and guides.

Organize Your Project : Divide your thesis into separate files for each chapter or section to improve organization and facilitate collaboration.

Use Version Control : Utilize version control systems like Git to track changes and collaborate with others effectively.

Leverage Templates : Start with a pre-designed LaTeX template that matches your field or university's requirements to save time and ensure consistency.

Proofread and Test : Regularly proofread your document and compile it to ensure proper formatting, especially after making significant changes.

Pros and Cons

Professional Appearance : LaTeX produces documents with a polished and professional appearance.

Mathematical Typesetting : LaTeX excels at typesetting complex mathematical equations.

Cross-Referencing : LaTeX's built-in cross-referencing feature simplifies referencing and citation.

Collaboration : LaTeX's plain text format allows for easy collaboration and version control.

Customization : LaTeX offers extensive customization options, allowing you to create a unique thesis.

Learning Curve : LaTeX has a steeper learning curve compared to traditional word processors.

Limited WYSIWYG Editing : LaTeX's focus on typesetting means that the visual editing experience may be less intuitive.

Compatibility Issues : Some journals or institutions may require submissions in formats other than LaTeX.

Complex Tables and Graphics : Creating complex tables and graphics in LaTeX can be challenging for beginners.

Time-Consuming : Mastering LaTeX and troubleshooting issues may require a significant time investment.

When considering LaTeX for thesis writing, it's important to compare it with other tools available. Here are a few popular alternatives:

Microsoft Word : While Word is widely used, it may struggle with complex mathematical equations and lacks the precise typesetting control of LaTeX.

Google Docs : Google Docs offers collaborative features, but its typesetting capabilities are limited compared to LaTeX.

Overleaf : Overleaf is an online LaTeX editor that simplifies collaboration but requires an internet connection.

Common Techniques

Document Structure : Organize your thesis into chapters, sections, and subsections using LaTeX's hierarchical structure.

Mathematical Equations : Utilize LaTeX's math mode and mathematical environments to typeset equations with clarity.

Citations and Bibliographies : Use LaTeX's built-in citation commands and BibTeX or BibLaTeX for managing references.

Tables and Figures : Create professional-looking tables and figures using LaTeX's table and figure environments.

Cross-Referencing : Take advantage of LaTeX's labels and cross-referencing commands to refer to equations, figures, and sections.

While LaTeX offers numerous benefits, it also presents some challenges:

Learning Curve : LaTeX has a steeper learning curve compared to traditional word processors, requiring time and effort to master.

Debugging and Troubleshooting : Troubleshooting LaTeX errors can be challenging, especially for beginners.

Compatibility Issues : Some journals or institutions may require submissions in formats other than LaTeX, necessitating conversion.

Complex Tables and Graphics : Creating complex tables and graphics in LaTeX can be time-consuming and require advanced knowledge.

Potential Online Apps

If you're interested in exploring LaTeX for thesis writing, consider the following online apps:

Overleaf - An online LaTeX editor that simplifies collaboration and provides templates and tutorials.

ShareLaTeX - A cloud-based LaTeX editor with real-time collaboration features and extensive libraries.

Scholarly - An AI-powered platform for academic writing that offers LaTeX integration and advanced text completion.

Authorea - An online collaborative writing platform that supports LaTeX and provides version control.

Papeeria - A web-based LaTeX editor with features like real-time collaboration and project management.

LaTeX is a powerful tool for thesis writing, offering superior typesetting, mathematical equation support, collaboration capabilities, and customization options. By following best practices and leveraging its features, you can create a professional and visually appealing thesis. While LaTeX has a learning curve and some challenges, its benefits make it an invaluable asset for researchers and students. Consider exploring online apps like Overleaf, ShareLaTeX, Scholarly, Authorea, and Papeeria to enhance your LaTeX experience and streamline your thesis writing process.

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because LaTeX matters

Writing a thesis in latex.

Writing a thesis is a time-intensive endeavor. Fortunately, using LaTeX, you can focus on the content rather than the formatting of your thesis. The following article summarizes the most important aspects of writing a thesis in LaTeX, providing you with a document skeleton (at the end) and lots of additional tips and tricks.

Document class

The first choice in most cases will be the report document class:

See here for a complete list of options. Personally, I use draft a lot. It replaces figures with a box of the size of the figure. It saves you time generating the document. Furthermore, it will highlight justification and hyphenation errors ( Overfull \hbox ).

Check with your college or university. They may have an official or unofficial template/class-file to be used for writing a thesis.

Again, follow the instructions of your institution if there are any. Otherwise, LaTeX provides a few basic command for the creation of a title page.

Use \today as \date argument to automatically generate the current date. Leave it empty in case you don’t want the date to be printed. As shown in the example, the author command can be extended to print several lines.

For a more sophisticated title page, the titlespages package has a nice collection of pre-formatted front pages. For different affiliations use the authblk package, see here for some examples.

Contents (toc/lof/lot)

Nothing special here.

The tocloft package offers great flexibility in formatting contents. See here for a selection of possibilities.

Often, the page numbers are changed to roman for this introductory part of the document and only later, for the actual content, arabic page numbering is used. This can be done by placing the following commands before and after the contents commands respectively.

LaTeX provides the abstract environment which will print “Abstract” centered as a title.

The actual content

The most important and extensive part is the content. I strongly suggest to split up every chapter into an individual file and load them in the main tex-file.

In thesis.tex:

In chapter1.tex:

This way, you can typeset single chapters or parts of the whole thesis only, by commenting out what you want to exclude. Remember, the document can only be generated from the main file (thesis.tex), since the individual chapters are missing a proper LaTeX document structure.

See here for a discussion on whether to use \input or \include .

Bibliography

The most convenient way is to use a bib-tex file that contains all your references. You can download bibtex items for articles, books, etc. from Google scholar or often directly from the journal websites.

Two packages are commonly used to personalize bibliographies, the newer biblatex and the natbib package, which has been around for many years. These packages offer great flexibility in customizing the look of a bibliography, depending on the preference in the field or the author.

Other commonly used packages

graphicx : Indispensable when working with figures/graphs.
subfig : Controlling arrangement of several figures (e.g. 2×2 matrix)
minitoc : Adds mini table of contents to every chapter
nomencl : Generate and format a nomenclature
listings : Source code printer for LaTeX
babel : Multilingual package for standard document classes
fancyhdr : Controlling header and footer
hyperref : Hypertext links for LaTeX
And many more

Minimal example code

I’m aware that this short post on writing a thesis only covers the very basics of a vast topic. However, it will help you getting started and focussing on the content of your thesis rather than the formatting of the document.

Overleaf for Scholarly Writing & Publication: LaTeX Theses and Dissertations

Reference Managers and Overleaf
Adding Graphs, Tables, and Images
Using Templates on Overleaf
LaTeX Theses and Dissertations

LaTeX Theses and Dissertatons

Tips and tools for writing your LaTeX thesis or dissertation in Overleaf, including templates, managing references , and getting started guides.

Managing References

BibTeX is a file format used for lists of references for LaTeX documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate BibTeX files of your library or folders for use in your LaTeX documents.

LaTeX on Wikibooks has a Bibliography Management page.

Find list of BibTeX styles available on Overleaf here

View a video tutorial on how to include a bibliography using BibTeX here

Collaborate with Overleaf

Collaboration tools

Every project you create has a secret link. Just send it to your co-authors, and they can review, comment and edit. Overleaf synchronizes changes from all authors, so everyone always has the latest version. More advanced tools include protected projects and integration with Git.

Collaborate online and offline with Overleaf and Git

Protected projects with Overleaf Pro

Getting Started with Your Thesis or Dissertation

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the Overleaf Gallery .

You can upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

How to Write your Thesis/Dissertation in LaTeX: A Five-Part Guide

Five-Part LaTeX Thesis/Dissertation Writing Guide

Part 1: Basic Structure corresponding video

Part 2: Page Layout corresponding video

Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables corresponding video

Part 4: Bibliographies with Biblatex corresponding video

Part 5: Customizing Your Title Page and Abstract corresponding video

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Learn LaTeX — A Beginner's Step-By-Step Guide

What is latex.

LaTeX, usually pronounced either as “Lay-tech” or “Lah-Tech” is a typesetting software used as a document preparation system, very often used by academicians, researchers, scientists, mathematicians, and other professionals. In contrast to the general word processing software like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and others which function on the principle of WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get), LaTeX functions as a plain text markup language, that leverages optimal typographical rules which later gets compiled into a PDF document. A plain text format is usually used to write the content and then further annotations with subsequent commands are used, to control the display of various elements. As a result, you get documents that bear a more professionally designed appearance and belong to a completely different class to the output from a word processor.

LaTeX provides you with numerous customization options that allow you to introduce diversity in the documents with precise control over the layout and formatting. Moreover, creating templates in LaTeX is simple enough, it does not require a much-advanced level of knowledge for LaTeX to use and configure. All these features allow, even, a novice LaTeX user to create beautiful documents and learn as they go.

Why you should read this beginner's guide to learning LaTeX?

This guide has been extensively curated to provide you with a hands-on introduction to LaTeX. No matter even if you have used word processors like MS- Word or Docx, LaTeX, being simple and easy enough, can be learned in no time.

Built on the assumption that the majority of the readers might not have any prior know-how of the LaTeX typesetting, this guide starts from the basics and then gradually delves into the advanced formatting. One feature at a time will be introduced as you progress through this guide.

Once you have completed this guide, you will be able to create a LaTeX document all by yourself. The introductory features will let you get versed with the basic features of the LaTeX typesetting, empowering you to typeset your research paper or dissertation easily. However, the advanced features will allow you to build fluency with LaTeX, therefore, boosting your productivity.

LaTeX: The Backstage Story

In the late 1960s, Donald Knuth, arguably one of the most prominent and well-respected scientists in the domain of Computer science, was deeply disappointed by the quality of his famous series “The Art of Programming”. In order to eradicate this misery in document typesetting, he started a project to create a new typesetting infrastructure, called TeX (Pronounced “TeK”). The purpose of the project was to develop a typesetting program that can accommodate the texts and mathematical formulae easily.

He observed that the existing digital typesetting system of that era was not matching appropriate typographical standards. A decade later, he froze the system and TeX was born. TeX gave the fine-grained control and huge flexibility over the document layout, as envisioned by Knuth.

However, the enormous amount of flexibility associated with the TeX made it complex, too. So, by the mid-1980s, Leslie Lamport introduced a higher language that used TeX as the base but made it a lot easier to use. Introduction of predefined document styles, sectioning, indexing, automatic cross-references, automatic numbering, and various other useful features, as integrated by Lamport, brought real ease in the usage of TeX. Because of its user-friendliness LaTeX is sometimes referred to as “Lamport-TeX” too.

Difference between TeX and LaTeX

TeX exists as a combination of a program (that performs the typesetting; tex-core) and a format( a set of macros that engines bring into use; plain-tex). However, TeX lends itself with the basic features only. TeX can help you in formatting your document in great detail using its various commands( e.g. kerning, spacing, ligatures, font styles, etc.). Additionally, it provides different algorithms tailored to compute the optimal flow of text in your document( e.g. where to insert page breaks, line breaks, etc.) Therefore, TeX is built over providing users with various algorithms and commands to specify the tiniest detail to maintain the quality standards of the document.

Whereas, LaTeX, being built on the TeX, is a set of macros basically employed for formatting the documents. The idea behind LaTeX is to simplify the formatting so that users stay more focused on the content rather than the format. LaTeX generally provides you with commands that preside over the structure and appearance of your document. (e.g. sections, emphasis, tables, indices, etc.).

Assume you want to insert a section in your document. Now if you are using TeX, the procedure is to select a larger font, choose a different font style and insert spacings before and after the section heading. Whereas, in LaTeX, you just need to insert a command as \section{____} and you will find your section in front of your document with the appropriate font style, size, and spacings.

Moreover, since LaTeX functions over the same stack as TeX, a beautifully curated document is obtained as output, whereas the input also remains well structured, easier to read and write both for humans and machines as well.

Why should I learn LaTeX?

LaTeX is the best choice for creating any scientific and technical documents. Moreover, LaTeX provides easy typesetting of mathematical formulae. If you are a scholar or researcher, then LaTeX is the best tool that you can leverage to write down your thesis or research paper. Besides its top-notch technical features, it can help you produce extremely stable and high-quality output documents, built with the easy handling of the complex sections, no matter how large they are.

Apart from the fact that worldwide, most of the academic and non-academic journals strongly recommend or accept submissions in the LaTeX format, below are the 8 reasons why should you learn LaTeX :

While using LaTeX, there is no need for you to worry about the structure of the document. You can put your entire concentration behind the content. According to your chosen template or the set rules, LaTeX automatically ensures that typography i.e. fonts, text height, spacing, etc. remains consistent within the document.
LaTeX has been built on the parameters of flexibility and transparency. In LaTeX, the document structure remains visible to the user and can be easily replicated i.e. copied to another document.
You can easily generate the references, indexes, footnotes, and citations in LaTeX.
The real trigger for Donald Knuth for developing the Tex typesetting Platform was to insert quality mathematical formulae and expressions in the document. That is why LaTeX provides you with the features through which you can easily SciSpace any mathematical expressions and formulae.
The LaTeX document source exists as a plain text.
Any text editor can easily read and understand the text source.
Equations, expressions, tables, figures, etc. can be easily generated and inserted in the document, using algorithms in any language.
Leveraging the version control software, any modifications or changes can be easily tracked.

Further remarkable features of LaTeX are its cross-referencing capabilities, automatic numbering, and generation of a table of contents, figures, indexes, glossaries, and bibliographies. Moreover, LaTeX provides multilingual benefits, through its language-specific features integrated with PostScript and PDF features.

While using LaTeX you can produce your output document in the format as per your choices. DVI (Device Independent) and PDF are the two formats that LaTeX supports natively, but using other software integrations, you can easily convert that to PostScript, PNG, JPEG, etc.

Getting Started With LaTeX

Installing latex.

To bring the magic of LaTeX to your system, we will be using the platform of LaTeX distribution-TeX Live. TeX Live has the huge benefit of being OS friendly i.e. it stays compatible with Windows, Mac OSX, and other Unix-based operating systems. TeX live is well managed and brings frequent updates. Therefore, a very trusted platform for anybody who wants LaTeX.

To start with, visit the homepage of TeX Live - TeX Users Group (tug.org)

You should explore the homepage in detail to understand the depth of information available there.

The installation can be done in two ways. The first method requires an internet connection whereas the second starts with a download of a file, which can be then installed in offline mode easily.

Installing the TeX Live through Net Installer Wizard for Windows

Follow through the steps described below and you will find LaTeX running on your system within a few clicks:

1. You can click the download link from the homepage of TeX Live - TeX Users Group (tug.org) or directly visit Installing TeX Live over the Internet - TeX Users Group (tug.org) .

2. Download the install-tl-zip . This will provide the installation suite in zip format.

3. Extract the files using any zip extractor. Personally, I prefer WinRar.\

4. After the extraction is complete, open the containing folder and double click the windows batch file install-tl.

5. A window of TexLive will appear

6. Choose the folder where you want the installation to happen and keep the paper size to A4 (recommended), or you can choose any other as per your choice.

7. Click the Install button at the right bottom.

8. A pop-up window showing the installation progress will appear.

Tex Live Installer - Installation Process

9. Click, Finish when the installation window shows the installation progress as complete.

After the installation you can go to your start menu to check if the suite contains a TeX Live 2021 comprising 6 programs:

DVIOUT DVI Viewer: This is a viewer program built to support the classic LaTeX output DVI. Since PDF is the most widely used format today, so probably you won't be in need of that.
PS_View: In case you use the PostScript format for either writing or reading the docs, then you will need this viewer.
TeX Live Documentation: This will be of great use for configuring and managing the LaTeX software.
TeX Live Manager: This will help you in managing different packages and updates for the software.
TeX Doc GUI: Any kind of information that you might need while using the LaTeX software, you can always refer to it. It is built and integrated as a graphical user interface. Rather than searching online for different try this one out, you will find this one lot quicker.
TeX Works Editor: This is the actual platform that we will be used extensively to create different forms of LaTeX documents.

Installing LaTeX for Mac OS, Linux, and other OS

If you are a Mac OS user, you can visit TeX Live. Download the installation file in the .zip provided. Once done with the extraction, double-click the setup file to install it.

For most Linux users, installation is quite easy. You can go to your systems package manager and search for TeX Live. For Ubuntu, you may use Synaptic, on SUSE systems use YaST, with Red Hat an RPM frontend, and on Debian systems use Aptitude.

Pro Tip : For easy and smooth installation, you can choose to use the MikTeX bundle . The platform provides all the options for different OS. It will provide you with regular use packages and comes with an easy & lightweight editor.

Installing Extra-Packages or Add-On features

Add-on features built for introducing various kinds of document styling and formatting for the LaTeX documents are known as packages. A package usually exists as a file or sets of files comprising certain commands and programs that either add new typesetting features or modify the already existing ones. Usually, there are no restrictions on the number of packages that you want to install, however, there exists a configuration limit on the number of packages that can be executed under a single LaTeX document, although that also depends on the package size.

Usually, a large set of pre-installed style packages comes integrated with the LaTeX installations. You can easily configure and manage these packages through the package manager of the respective TeX distribution.

However, in some situations, you do need some extra packages to bring some uniqueness to your LaTeX document. In such situations, you can visit the CTAN website. Use the CTAN search page to find out the packages easily. Once you get the package of your choice, use the indexes on the CTAN server to find out the directory from where it can be downloaded.

Automatic Installation of Packages

You can find various packages in the repositories of the package manager, depending upon the OS you are currently using.

With MikTeX, you can choose the packages individually. MikTeX has an advantage; it asks you to download the missing packages by itself, after the compilation of the document.

In TeXLive, you will find the specific packages bundled with the distribution package. For example, to provide the document in different languages related to internationalization, you need to install a package like TeXLive-Lang. In addition, you can extensively use TeXLive Manager- tlmgr to configure and manage packages separately.

Manual Installation of Packages

Before downloading any package, you need to ensure that it contains two files, one with .dtx and the other one as .ins. The first one is a DOCTex file, which functions to keep the program and its documentation as a single entity. The second one i.e. .ins is an installation file, usually smaller in size.

Besides, always keep the practice of keeping the downloaded packages in a temporary directory.

Now hopping onto the steps to install the package.

I have summarized the entire process into 5 easy steps to install a LaTeX package . Follow along and you will find it easier to run through your system.

1. Extracting the Files

Click on the .ins file and run it on the LaTeX. What I meant to say is that you should open the .ins file in your LaTeX Editor. Another way is to visit the temporary directory, open the command window, and type LaTeX followed by the .ins file name. In this way, you will be able to extract the files required from the .dtx file (Because of this it is required that both the .dtx and .ins file remains in the temporary directory).

2. Preparing the Documentation

Click onto the .dtx file and Run LaTeX editor. To keep the cross-references in the correct sequence, it might happen that you need to run it multiple times. As a result, you will get a .dvi file that will explain the key features and functioning of the package.

If you want to create a PDF documentation file, then run the .dtx file on pdfLaTeX instead. In case the package contains an index file within, then you must make a .idx file as well. In some situations the system itself creates a .glo(Glossary) file, then you can run the following command to keep it correct:

3. Files Installation

Files installation means that you need to move or copy the files created in the previous step from the temporary directory to TeX Local Installation Directory Tree. you must ensure that you keep all the manually installed packages in the TeX Local Installation Directory Tree. It is important as it prevents the new packages from overwriting the files in the main directory or from getting overwritten by the main files.

In a TDS (TeX Directory Structure) compatible system, a TeX Local Installation Directory Tree is nothing but a folder containing many subfolders within it. The main folder is usually named texmf-local/ or texmf/. The main folder’s location varies from system to system. You can access it as :

MacTeX: Users/username/Library/texmf/.
Unix-type systems: Usually ~/texmf/. If you use TexMaker on Linux based OS like Ubuntu, access it via: /usr/share/texmf/
MikTeX: you can designate any folder as a local directory provided you need to register it first as a user-managed texmf directory.

Moreover, you must refer to the documentation to understand if there are any prescribed locations or folders where the files should be moved.

4. Index Update

This is the most important step, any mistake can be catastrophic as nothing will work.

After the package installation, it is required that you update your package database. To do this, run the TeX indexer program. The indexer program comes in various names depending upon the original TeX distribution package.

For example:

teTeX, TeX Live, fpTeX: texhash
web2c: mktexlsr
MacTeX: MacTeX appears to do this automatically for you.
MikTeX: initexmf --update-fndb (or use the GUI)

Also, in Win 8 and above, you can do it easily by:

MikTeX>Settings>Refresh FNDB>OK.

5. Updating Font Maps

Font mapping files require an update if, during the index, any files like TrueType or Type1 fonts have been installed by default. A .map file comes attached with the packages. Depending upon the LaTeX distribution, the font map updating program exists on the updmap.

TeX Live and MacTeX

For files stored on a personal tree, use updmap --enable Map=mapfile.map

For files stored in the system directory, use updmap-sys --enable Map=mapfile.map

Run initexmf --edit-config-file updmap, add the line "Map mapfile.map to the file that opens, then run initexmf --mkmaps.

Check any Package Status

To check if a package file is available with the TeX compiler, you can use the command as depicted below:

Additionally, you can use the tool tlmgr in TeXLive to gain further information on packages. The command can be used as depicted below:

Package Documentation Information

You must refer to the documentation files whenever you want to have a detailed idea about the commands and functions a package provides. For every installed package, there exists a corresponding .DVI file in the texmf/doc subdirectory. However, the location of these subdirectories varies for different LaTeX distribution packages.

You can easily access the installed packages’ distribution information using the below command. In the editor, just use the texdoc command followed by the package name and you will find out the details in front.

LaTeX Document Structure

Standard global structure of the document.

The basic structure of a simple LaTeX document will look like the following:

\documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article}

\usepackage{graphicx,geometry}

\begin{document}

\end{document}

Here, the LaTeX document structure contains 2 main parts.

Preamble Part

Preamble part exists between \documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article} and \begin{document} . The Preamble part actually tells the LaTeX program how to SciSpace the document.

In the example above, the code \documentclass[10pt,a4paper]{article} will SciSpace the content of the document using article class (produces article type) in 10pt font size, and its output would be generated in a4paper size. Like an article, one can produce different types of documents, such as books, reports, thesis, etc.

The line \usepackage{graphicx,geometry} tells the LaTeX to load additional style files for supporting more typesetting features. For example, graphicx package is loaded mainly for the support for including Images in the document, the geometry package provides more flexibility in defining page dimensions.

Document Class

Document class defines the standard layout under which LaTeX will create your document. You can access various layout standards within the class files folder. These files generally contain “.cls” extension.

From the above image you can easily notice that the class parameter associated with the command \documentclass , tells LaTeX which “.cls” file to use for the current document. Also, you must put this declaration at the beginning. The option parameter will help you customize the document as desired. In case you use multiple options, you must use commas to separate the options.

For example,

By using options, you can direct the LaTeX engine to create an article with a font size of 11pt and t an output file that is suitable for printing on both sides of A4 paper.

Below is a list of document class that you can easily incorporate while creating documents in LaTeX:

Additionally, LaTeX provides you with various options to customize your document. You can read the below mentioned list of options used quite often for document creation in LaTeX:

The packages generally come into use when you want to insert an image or graphics, colored texts, or a source code from a file into a document. LaTeX engines come with many pre-installed packages. Additionally, you can add some extra packages if the need arises.

The command to use a package is:

Here, inside the curly brackets, you should enter the name of the package that you intend to use. Also, using options with the command that can let you use certain features of the entire package.

For example, in order to add some colors while typesetting a document in LaTeX, you can use the color package as:

Body Part or The Environment

Body part is the place between \begin{document} and \end{document} , where the actual content of the document can be added, which includes Document Title, Author/Address/Date, Headings/Texts, Table/Figures/Equations/Lists/Quotations, Bibliography/Appendix/Glossary etc.

The LaTeX engine defines the document and author information as Top Matter. Although there does not exist any command as such \topmatter , the top matter includes document information like title, date, and author information like name, email, etc.

A standard article will begin with a document title, followed by author names and addresses. The code to obtain these are:

\title{Title of the document}

\author{Donald Knuth and Leslie Lamport \cr

{Address of Authors}

\date{\today}

Here, \cr is used for breaking the line after the names in \author. The document date can be simply changed by writing the date in it, for example, \date{30 August 2021}, or the date can be ignored by leaving its content empty, i.e., \date{}.

The above code will produce the following output

(a) The content of the document should be between \begin{document} and \end{document} environment as in the above example.

(b) The Title part should always end with \maketitle command. This command will produce the formatted output of Title and Authors.

Abstract and Keywords

While writing research papers it is mandatory to include the abstract and the keywords before the main section of the body. The LaTeX engine bears pre-defined commands that inform it what part of content makes up the abstract and keywords respectively. The command to include abstract and keywords in the document exist for document class like article and report, however, not available for book class of document.

Immediately after the Title part, the Abstract and Keywords can be added as follows:

\begin{abstract}

Abstract text goes here ... a

Keywords: keyword; keyword; keyword

\end{abstract}

The above code will produce the following output of Abstract and Keywords:

Note: For line break or new paragraph, leave a blank line space between lines as seen in the code of Abstract text and Keywords.

Different Levels of Heading

You can write different levels of headings using the following codes:

\section{Heading - Level 1}Text goes here ...

\subsection{Heading - Level 2}Text goes here ...

\subsubsection{Heading - Level 3}Text goes here ...

\paragraph{Heading - Level 4}Text goes here ...

\subparagraph{Heading - Level 5}Text goes here ...

Output of Headings produced with the above codes:

Unnumbered Headings

Unnumbered headings can be obtained with the starred option of their respective sectioning commands. For example: \section*{Acknowledgements}

Sectioning Commands

In order to introduce different sections in your document you can use the section commands as provided by LaTeX. Also, certain section commands stand appropriate as per the document class. For example, an article contains sections and paragraphs whereas a book contains chapters. You can view the section commands as provided by the LaTeX below:

Moreover, the LaTeX engine automatically sorts the section numbers for you. Therefore, no need to enter the section numbers separately. Note that you don’t need to use any \begin and \end commands while using section commands.

Additionally, there exist 7 levels of depth for introducing sections in a LaTeX document. In the table below you can see the various levels of sections, which exist as a subsection of its above-mentioned section:

Section Numbering

Sections are numbered automatically in LaTeX. You just need to add the heading for different sections in the curly brackets. Roman numerals like I, II III are attached with parts, for chapters and sections decimal numbering like 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, etc., are attached and for appendices, alphabets are used like A, B, C, and so on.

In case you prefer only the main sections like parts, chapters, and sections to be numbered, not the subsections and subsubsections, then you can use the command setcounter, defining the level of depth as you like.

You can use "*" sign after the section commands if you don’t want certain sections to be numbered. Additionally, using the "*" sign after the section commands will not reflect that particular section in the table of contents, too.

However, if you want certain unnumbered sections to be a part of table of contents you can use the package unnumberedtotoc. This package comes bundled with commands like addchap , addsec , and addpart . You can use these commands as depicted below:

\addsec{Introduction}

Moreover, if your document contains hyperlinks pointing towards different locations in the document, then you must use the hyperref package. The package includes a command, i.e., phantomsec that enables hyperlinks to perform in a proper way. You can refer to the below example to understand how this command works:

Ordinary Paragraphs

Text paragraph follows after the section headings. You can simply switch to new paragraphs by simply leaving a blank line. The blank line tells the SciSpace engine about the commencement of a new paragraph. Note that you will not see any blank line in the output document.

Further details on formatting a paragraph will be separately provided in the Paragraph section.

Table Of Contents (ToC)

The LaTeX engine inserts all the numbered headings automatically in the ToC. You can get the ToC in your document by using the command \tableofcontents . The ToC is generally inserted after the Abstract or the Summary in the document.

If you have used multiple figures and tables in your document, you can insert a list of them as well. Use the commands \listoffigures and listoftables to insert a list of figures and tables respectively.

Moreover, you can use the \addcontentsline command to provide a preface or any un-numbered section headings for your document. For example, if you want to add a Foreword or Preface for the article, you can use the commands as,

To rename the ToC, you can use the following code:

\renewcommand { \contentsname }{<New table of contents title>}

Likewise, you can rename the LoF and LoT using the same above mentioned command by replacing the \contentsname with \listfigurename and \listtablename respectively.

Depth for the ToC

The LaTeX Engine by default only includes section headings with level 3 and above. In case you want to modify the depth for the ToC, you can do so easily by adding the below-mentioned command.

setcounter{tocdepth}{4}

Additionally, it is important that you use this command in the preamble part of the LaTeX document.

Book Structure

In the document class ‘book’, there lies few variations from the article class. The LaTeX engine by default typesets a book document with two columns format. Further, the header contains the information related to the current chapter and section.

Also, it is mandatory to use chapters in the book class. Otherwise, it won’t be technically called a book.

The basic syntax for a book class document appears like this:

In the book, LaTeX uses Roman numerals to number pages in the front-matter chapters. Also, the front matter part will not be included in the numbering. Actually, the front-matter remains devoid of any sections and that’s why it is numbered as`0.n`.

No difference exists in the functioning of the main-matter chapter. It works as usual. However, Arabic numerals are used for page numbering in the main-matter chapters.

Similar to the article class, the \appendix command can be used to tell the SciSpace engine that the following sections or chapters are to be included and numbered as appendices. Moreover, you should use the \appendix command only once, even if you have used multiple appendices in your document. For example, to indicate multiple appendices, you can use the \section command.

The backmatter and frontmatter functionality are same. The section numbering follows the same mechanism as the front matter.

Additionally, the book document class treats special entries like ToC as an unnumbered chapter.

Bibliography

A bibliography contains the list of references that were used for preparing a document. To insert a bibliography in the document, you must create a .bib file first. The syntax to create a .bib file goes as follows:

@BOOK { DUMMY: 1

AUTHOR="John Doe",

TITLE="The Book without Title"

PUBLISHER="Dummy Publisher" ,

YEAR="2100"

The example contains the document class as book and other parameters are self explanatory.

Once done through the creation of the BiBtex file, you need to use commands \bibliography that informs the LaTeX engine the location of your bib file and \bibliographystyle that directs the engine to SciSpace the bibliography in a chosen style. You can use these commands as described below:

\documentclass { article }

\begin { document }

Random citation \cite { DUMMY:1 } embeddeed in text.

\bibliography { lesson7a1 }

\bibliographystyle { ieeetr }

\end { document }

The output document will appear like

Note in the above example that the bibliography document is named “lesson7a1” and the corresponding style is ‘IEEEtr’ which is a common style used widely in the scientific domain.

Most of the LaTeX editors allow you to select and run the bibtex automatically after the compilation. In TeXworks or MiKTeX, this option exists as a default option.

Formatting the LaTeX Document

This section of the guide will introduce you to the commands that can help you towards formatting the body text in different ways. It includes text formatting i.e making texts bold, italic, adding comments, inserting lists( both ordered and unordered), and inserting figures and images into your LaTeX document.

Text Formatting

You can use the command \emph to bring emphasis on some particular texts. This command will bring out the text shape in Italics. Also, the \emph command is the default way by which the LaTeX engine emphasizes any text. You can use this command as:

Similarly, to make some texts appear bold, you can use the command \textbf and \textit for italicized appearance of the text. You can refer to the below image for details:

Note that the emph command is dynamic in its functionality, i.e., if you will use this command in a sentence that is already emphasized, then the second used text will revert back to the original font. For better understanding, refer to the below image:

LaTeX comes equipped with various commands for text formatting. You can find a list of these commands below and use it accordingly.

Adding Comments

Comments are inserted in a LaTeX document to add special notes. The Comments command is often used in templates to inform users about the functionality of a template.

The comments are added in a document using the % percentage sign. While processing an input file, whenever the LaTeX engine discovers a % sign, it ignores the text following the percentage sign. It means the engine won’t display any text, line breaks, and whitespaces written after the percentage sign until a new line begins.

The comment command, i.e., % sign is extensively used to put notes in a document that will not be visible in the output document.

Refer to the below image to understand the command functionality and the generated printable output version:

Adding Floats (Tables And Figures)

Floats are those objects which float in the pages since they will not break the contents on their own. For example, a full-page Table placed at the middle of the page will automatically move to the next page. This is to avoid the possibility of Table content going beyond the bottom margin. By default, LaTeX defines Table and Figure as floats. More floats can be defined with custom LaTeX packages.

Tables and Figures shall be coded within the environment in its name itself. For example, \begin{table} ... \end{table} and \begin{figure} ... \end{figure} . Because of its power of floating nature, LaTeX will intelligently place them in the pages while typesetting documents. The placement of these floats can also be controlled by giving instructions in the optional argument in square brackets. For example:

\begin{figure}[t] or \begin{table}[b]

This means, the figure will be placed at the top of the page and the table will be placed at the bottom of the page if there is enough space within the page.

Following table shows the available options for the placement of floats.

In two-column documents, the starred variants of these float environments can be used for spanning the floats over two columns. For example, \begin{figure*} or \begin{table*}

Caption for the Tables and Figures

Another common feature of the float environment is Caption. The \caption{} command will typeset the caption in the required style and it will automatically produce the label and number. For example, the caption in the Table will be prefixed with Table 1, Table 2, etc. Similarly, the Figure captions will be prefixed with Figure 1, Figure 2, etc.

Adding a Table

The code for a simple Table will look like the following:

\begin{table}[t]

\caption{\label{tab1}Caption text goes here.}

\begin{tabular}{| l | c | r |}

Head 1 & \multicolumn{2}{c|}{Common Head}\\

Col 1 & Col 2 & Col 3 \\

\hlineCol 1 & Col 2 & Col 3 \\

\end{tabular}

\end{table}

Output of Table produced with the above codes:

In the code above, the \caption{} command formats the caption text. It also produces label and numbering automatically. \label{tab1} given inside the caption is for cross-referencing the Table that can be cited with \ref{tab1} . The \centering command is used to center after that.

The tabular environment is an array-like construct of rows and columns. In tabular, the columns are separated by ‘&’ and the rows are separated by ‘\\’.

The code after \begin{tabular} defines the alignment of each column. So, in the example code above ({| l | c | r |}), there are three columns in total and they are defined as l, c, and r; “l” for left alignment, “c” for the center, and “r” for right column alignment. The pipe symbol (|) produces the vertical line between columns.

\hline produces horizontal rules between rows, while \\ multicolumn can be used to merge columns.

Useful packages:

float.sty : Defines new custom floats like Graph, Picture. Provides more formatting styles like boxed, ruled etc.

placeins.sty : Placing floats within the sections.

endfloat.sty : Placing floats at the end of the document.

caption.sty : Formatting caption text.

Adding Images

The images should be loaded as separate files in commonly used formats like .png, .jpg, .pdf, or .eps. You can copy the images in the same directory or in a different path, and these images can be loaded with \includegraphics command in the document. This command requires the graphicx package in the preamble, which may be loaded as \usepackage{graphicx} in the preamble.

The LaTeX code for including a figure as a float is as follows:

\begin{figure}[t]

\centering\includegraphics{<path>/fig1.eps}

\caption{\label{fig1}Caption text goes here.}

\end{figure}

It is also possible to set the default path(s) for loading images, the command is \graphicspath{{dir1}{dir2}...{dir3}} . The \includegraphics command provides many options to format the image, for example, adjusting width, height, scale, rotate, crop etc. For example \includegraphics[width=10cm,height=10cm]{fig1.eps}

Useful packages :

subcaption.sty : Handling of subfloats within a single float.

Adding Lists

In the academic domain, Lists are often used to present the document structure in a more orderly, clear, and concise manner. In LaTeX, Lists structures are a kind of environments that are generally classified as:

itemize refers to a bullet list
enumerate refers to an enumerated list and
The description refers to a descriptive list.

Lists can be either ordered (numbered) or unordered (bulleted/symbols), the number or bullets will be generated automatically.

Code for Ordered Lists

\begin{enumerate}

\item First item

\item Second item\

item Third item

\end{enumerate}

Output of ordered list produced with the above codes:

Code for Unordered Lists

\begin{itemize}

\item Second item

\item Third item

\end{itemize}

Output of unordered list produced with the above codes:

Nested Lists

The nested lists can be used either as ordered/unordered or combination of both. Here is a sample:

\item Fourth item

Output of nested list produced with the above codes:

enumitem , scrextend , tasks , exsheets for better & more formatting options.

Description Lists

Description lists may be used to produce a descriptive list, where there may be a definition term and its description.

\begin{description}

\item[Term 1] This is the definition of the first term.

\item[Term 2] This is the definition of the second term.

\item[Term 3] This is the definition of the third term.

\end{description}

Output of description list produced with the above codes:

Adding FootNotes

The footnote in a document can be created with \footnote command. The command can be used as \footnote{This is a sample footnote} in the document. The footnote number will be generated automatically.

Sample code: This is a sample text for footnote `\footnote{This is a sample footnote}, more text after footnote mark.`

The following image shows the output of the above code:

Footnote Numbering

The format of footnote number can be changed with the following commands:

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\arabic{footnote}}}} - Arabic numerals, e.g., 1, 2, 3 ... \renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\roman{footnote}}}} - Roman numerals (lowercase), e.g., i, ii, iii ...

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\Roman{footnote}}}} - Roman numerals (uppercase), e.g., I, II, III ...

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\alph{footnote}}}} - Alphabetic (lowercase), e.g., a, b, c ...

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\Alph{footnote}}}} - Alphabetic (uppercase), e.g., A, B, C ...

\renewcommand{\thefootnote}{\fnsymbol{footnote}}}} - A sequence of nine symbols, like *, †, ‡, ...

Footnote number can also be given explicitly as: \footnotemark[33]\footnotetext[33]{Footnote text ...} , footnote number will be 33 in this case.

" footmisc " package provides many features for customizing the appearance of footnote.

Paragraph Formatting

Let's learn how to format paragraphs in your LaTeX document using LaTeX commands and environments.

Paragraph Alignment

The LaTeX engine by default incorporates a justified alignment in all the paragraphs, i.e., flush with both the left and right ends. In case you want to change the alignment of the paragraph in your document, you can easily do so by using some LaTeX environments and their equivalent commands:

It is advisable to prefer environments rather than commands as using the environment ensures that all the text between \begin and \end will be justified accordingly.

Paragraph Indent

Indenting a paragraph means moving it either left or right edges towards the center. The LaTeX engine by default does not allow the indentation of the first paragraph after the heading. The indenting space of a paragraph is regulated by the command \parindent . This command tells the engine by how many points the left or the right end of a paragraph should be indented. The commonly used syntax for this command is:

If you wish to indent a paragraph you can do so easily by using the command \indent . Additionally, you must ensure that the \parindent is not set to zero, otherwise, the \indent command will not work. Similarly, you can use the \noindent command to unindent any paragraph.

Moreover, you can indent the subsequent lines of a paragraph using the \hangindent command. By default, this command provides an indent of 0.7cm.

Besides, you can use the \leftskip or the \rightskip commands to provide an extra space to the ends of the document. This command will help you format the paragraphs that you want different from the original document margins.

Paragraph LineBreak

Line Breaks are not advisable while using paragraphs as the LaTeX engine does not bear compatibility to it. However, if the need arises, you can use a hack to insert a line break in a paragraph.

The simplest syntax to follow is; \paragraph{Title} \hspace{0pt} \\

Note, that there lies a space after the closing of the curly bracket. If you will not provide the space, the LaTeX will display the following error message.

There is another shortcut method for bringing in the line breaks inside a paragraph ; \paragraph{Title} ~\\

Line Spacing

You can modify the line spacing within the whole document using the command \linespread . Besides, you can use the packages like "setspace" which includes several commands that regulate the space between lines for different sections and paragraphs till the command ends. The \setspace package provides you with the following commands and environments:

doublespace : lines are double spaced;
onehalfspace : line spacing set to one-and-half spacing;
singlespace: normal line spacing;
spacing : customizable line spacing

Adding Mathematical Expressions and Equations

Typesetting mathematics is one of LaTeX's greatest strengths when compared with other word processors. With many predefined commands and environments, the mathematical equations can be typeset with good-looking and high-quality output, especially the spacing of variables, operators, symbols, parenthesis, etc. LaTeX is one of the most efficient and best available tools to typeset complex mathematical formulas.

By default, LaTeX provides all necessary commands and environments for typesetting math content. However, amsmath package provides more features like different kinds of alignment, the numbering of equations, etc. It is highly recommended to use the amsmath package if your document contains complex formulas. The syntax to use this package follows: \usepackage{amsmath}) .

Alternatively, another package that you can use is mathtools package. Moreover, you should try using this package with amsmath package to take advantage of the extra features and make the modifications as per your choice. The usual syntax to use this package follows: (\usepackage{mathtools}) .

Inline math

Inline math can be coded either as $ ... $ or \ (... \ ). It is also possible to use the math environment as \begin{math} ... \end{math} .

This is an inline math $f(x) = x^2$.

This is another inline math $f(x) = x^2$.

The syntax for using Inline math using math environment follows:

\begin{math}f(x) = x^2\end{math} .

Displayed Equations

Displayed equations are independent from the surrounding text and are displayed in their own lines. Displayed equations can be either numbered or unnumbered.

Numbered Equations

Single line numbered equations can be created with the equation environment.

\begin{equation}1+1=2

\end{equation}

Multiple line numbered equations can be created with `eqnarray` environment.

\begin{eqnarray}

a, b &=& c \\

a, b &=& cccc \\

a, b &=& cccccc \

end{eqnarray}

eqnarray environment is an array-like construct of 3 columns. The columns are separated with & character and rows are separated with \\ (double backslash). The \\ also produces equation numbers at the right side of the equation within parenthesis.

amsmath package ( \usepackage{amsmath} ) provides many environments like align, gather, multline, alignat, etc., for different kinds of equation formatting.

Un-numbered Equations

Single line unnumbered equations can be created with any of the following codes:

\begin{displaymath} ... \begin{displaymath}

The starred version of eqnarray, align, gather (for example: \begin{eqnarray*} .... \end{eqnarrray*} ) and other environments mentioned above can be used to produce unnumbered equations. With these environments, equations can be aligned in different ways.

Inserting Fractions

LaTeX carries the in-built capacity of inserting various forms of mathematical expressions including integrals, fractions, and more in the document. There are different syntaxes to use for various mathematical notions. For example, to insert a fraction mathematical notion in the document you can use the below-mentioned syntax:

\usepackage { amsmath }

\begin { align* }

f(x) &= x^2\\

g(x) &= \frac { 1 }{ x } \\

F(x) &= \int^a_b \frac { 1 }{ 3 } x^3

\end { align* }

The output generated through this appears like:

Additionally, LaTeX provides flexibility in combining more commands and creating complex mathematical expressions like as described below: \frac { 1 }{ \sqrt { x }}

The output :

Inserting Matrices

You can insert the matrix expression in your document by using the `amsmath environment. There exists a command `matrix that can be used for this purpose.

Follow the below syntax to add matrices in your document:

\begin { matrix }

1 & 0\\

\end { matrix }

The output displayed will be like:

Inserting Brackets and Scaling

You can use the [ ] to insert brackets outside any mathematical expression. To insert brackets i.e. [ ] , you can use the following syntax:

\left(\frac { 1 }{ \sqrt { x }} \right)

But using the same [ ] command for the matrices will result in output error. You can see the below example of what happens when we simply use [ ] command for matrices.

While using matrices and brackets, it is required that you use scaling of parenthesis as described in the first example. See the below example for further clarity:

Download Your Finished Document

Since this is the last section of this guide, I will tell you how to download the formatted document through an example. Just follow through. As an application of all that you have learned by now, you can create a new document with the following codes in the TeX editor (I personally use MikteX).

After entering the code, click on the option File>Save in the Top menu. You will find a pop-up menu to save the file.

Rename the file as per your choice and finally click the Save button to save it in your preferred location. Now to typeset and view the output document, click the green arrow button on the top left side (highlighted in the image below).

The output document will open in a new window.

In the output window, again go on the File>Print PDF option in the top menu at the top left corner. You can, also, use the keyboard shortcut, i.e., Ctrl + P to print the PDF document.

On clicking Print PDF, the document will open in a PDF viewer (like Adobe PDF, Google Chrome, etc.), from where you can download the document.

I certainly hope that you will enjoy creating documents in LaTeX. To get fluent with the LaTeX commands, you must execute the commands simultaneously while referring to this guide. Moreover, this guide has been divided into various sections so that any user, facing difficulties while typesetting documents in LaTeX can refer to particular sections of the LaTeX guide and easily format the document. There do exist online editors and freelancers that can work for you, but there is no loss, only advantages associated with learning LaTeX by yourself so that you can present the document in the best possible way.

Feel free to drop your queries regarding LaTeX in the comments section. Also, tell us what points did I miss that I should add later, to make this LaTeX guide more comprehensive.

Since you made it to the end you should definitely check out SciSpace LaTeX . It brings together the best of LaTeX and word processors into one simple tool. It was specifically designed to serve the research writing industry. It allows authors to collaborate and write their thesis/research papers in just a few clicks.

We also have the best-in-class academic repository called SciSpace discover where we cater to millions of peer-reviewed papers across domains in one place. This is a suite of products that covers everything, from literature searching and discovery to profile management and research writing and formatting.

General FAQs about LaTeX:

1. what are the special characters in latex.

“#, $, %, &, ~, _, ^, \, { }” these characters are often called as special printing characters or special characters in LaTeX. Each of these characters bears a specific meaning which are:

~ (tilde)- unbreakable space, use it whenever you want to leave a space that is unbreakable, and cannot expand or shrink, as e.q. in names: A.~U.~Leslie.

$ (dollar sign)- to start and finish math mode.
_ (underscore)-for subscripts in math mode.
^ (hat)- for superscripts in math mode.
\ (backslash) starting commands, which extend until the first non-alphanumeric character.

Additionally, if you want the character to be displayed as it is, just introduce a “\” (backslash) in front of it. For example, a “\$” will produce the output as “$”, itself.

2. How do I change text color in LaTeX?

Using the “xcolor’ package, you can change the color of some text blocks in LaTeX. It comes with a command like \textcolor{<color>}{<text>} . Refer to the below sample LaTeX code that shows how you can change the color of the text:

\usepackage{xcolor}

This is a sample text in black.

\textcolor{blue}{This is a sample text in blue.}

Play with different colors and see how the LaTeX document appears.

3. How do you hyperlink i.e. make a clickable link in LaTeX?

You can use the “hyperref” package in your preamble to make clickable links in your LaTeX document. You can add a link with the description using the syntax: \href{URL}{DESCRIPTION} . Moreover, you can use the same “\href” command to provide clickable email links using the syntax: \href{ mailto:[email protected] }{[email protected]}

4. How to highlight texts in LaTeX?

You have to use the package “xcolor.” Declaring the package in the environment you can use the command \hl{highlighted text} .This command will provide a yellow color highlight to your texts. Additionally, you can change the highlight color using \sethlcolor{color name} command.

5. How to write two equations in LaTeX?

In order to split lengthy equations in a LaTeX document, you can use the package amsmath or mathtools . After that, you can simply use the “\\” i.e. the double backslash to split the equation at a point you wish. Additionally, you can use the \boldmath environment to write equations in bold format. However, if you want to make a single equation appear bold, you can use the command \mathbf{equation inside} .

6. Which class file to make presentations in LaTeX?

LaTeX provides you with a document class by the name “beamer” through which you can easily create presentations. Additionally, you can use various slide templates and slideshow features integrated with it, to make your presentation more appealing. Moreover, it shows compatibility with pdfLaTeX, LaTeX + dvips, etc.

7. What is TikZ in LaTeX?

TikZ is a powerful package that is used to introduce various graphics in a LaTeX document. Basically, TikZ is a part of PGF(portable graphics format). By using the TikZ package, you can easily create lines, dots, curves, circles, graphs, etc., in a LaTeX document.

8. Is LaTeX better than word?

LaTeX, indeed, is better than Word or Docs. It is so because you can easily create footnotes, bibliography, table of contents, indexes, appendices, references, images, captions, cross-references, mathematical equations, etc. Even though Word or Docs provide some (not all like mathematical equations, graphs, cross-references, etc.) of these features, it lacks the ease, flexibility, and professional aesthetic appearance.

Related & Good Reads:

If you found the above LaTeX informative, here are some good reads for you:

LaTeX Beginner's Guide - Second Edition by Stefan Kottwitz (For additional information: https://latexguide.org/ )
The Only LaTeX Editor Guide You Will Need
Overleaf Vs. Typeset
5 ways Typeset can help you write your research 3X fast

What is a thesis | A Complete Guide with Examples

Plagiarism in Research — The Complete Guide [eBook]

APA Citation & APA Format — A beginner's guide

Research Guides

Submit and publish your thesis.

The Graduate Thesis: What is it?
Thesis Defences
Deadlines and Fees
Formatting in MS Word

Formatting in LaTeX

Making Thesis Accessible
Thesis Embargo
Review and Release
Your Rights as an Author
Re-using Third Party Materials
Creative Commons Licenses for Theses
Turning Thesis into an Article
Turning Thesis into a Book
Other Venues of Publication

For formatting instructions and requirements see the Formatting section of the School of Graduate Studies website. The thesis style template for LaTeX ( ut-thesis ) implements these requirements. You are not required to use the template, but using it will make most of the formatting requirements easier to meet.

►► Thesis template for LaTeX .

Below are some general formatting tips for drafting your thesis in LaTeX. In addition, there are other supports available:

Regular LaTeX workshops are offered via the library, watch the library workshop calendar at https://libcal.library.utoronto.ca/
With questions about LaTeX formatting, contact Map and Data Library (MDL) using this form
There are also great resources for learning LaTeX available via Overleaf

Many common problems have been solved on the TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange Q & A Forum

LaTeX Template

To use the LaTeX and ut-thesis , you need two things: a LaTeX distribution (compiles your code), and an editor (where you write your code). Two main approaches are:

Overleaf : is a web-based platform that combines a distribution (TeX Live) and an editor. It is beginner-friendly (minimal set-up) and some people prefer a cloud-based platform. However, manually uploading graphics and managing a bibliographic database can be tedious, especially for large projects like a thesis.
A LaTeX distribution can be installed as described here . ut-thesis can then be installed either: a) initially, with the distribution; b) automatically when you try to compile a document using \usepackage{ut-thesis} ; or manually via graphical or terminal-based package manager for the distribution.
The LaTeX distribution allows you to compile code, but provides no tools for writing (e.g. syntax highlighting, hotkeys, command completion, etc.). There are many editor options that provide these features. TeXstudio is one popular option.

Occasionally, the version of ut-thesis on GitHub may be more up-to-date than the popular distributions (especially yearly TeX Live), including small bug fixes. To use the GitHub version, you can download the file ut-thesis.cls (and maybe the documentation ut-thesis .pdf ) and place it in your working directory. This will take priority over any other versions of ut-thesis on your system while in this directory.

LaTeX Formatting Tips

Here are a few tips & tricks for formatting your thesis in LateX.

Document Structure

Using the ut-thesis document class, a minimal example thesis might look like:

\documentclass{ut-thesis} \author {Your Name} \title {Thesis Title} \degree {Doctor of Philosophy} \department {LaTeX} \gradyear {2020} \begin {document} \frontmatter \maketitle \begin {abstract} % abstract goes here \end {abstract} \tableofcontents \mainmatter % main chapters go here % references go here \appendix % appendices go here \end {document}

►► A larger example is available on GitHub here .

You may want to consider splitting your code into multiple files. The contents of each file can then be added using \input{filename} .

The usual commands for document hierarchy are available like \chapter , \section , \subsection , \subsubsection , and \paragraph . To control which appear in the \tableofcontents , you can use \setcounter{tocdepth}{i} , where i = 2 includes up to \subsection , etc. For unnumbered sections, use \section* , etc. No component should be empty, such as \section{...} immediately followed by \subsection{...} .

Note: In the examples below, we denote the preamble vs body like:

preamble code --- body code

Tables & Figures

In LaTeX, tables and figures are environments called “floats”, and they usually don’t appear exactly where you have them in the code. This is to avoid awkward whitespace. Float environments are used like \begin{env} ... \end{env} , where the entire content ... will move with the float. If you really need a float to appear exactly “here”, you can use:

\usepackage{float} --- \begin{ figure}[H] ... \end {figure}

Most other environments (like equation) do not float.

A LaTeX table as a numbered float is distinct from tabular data. So, a typical table might look like:

\usepackage{booktabs} --- \begin {table} \centering \caption {The table caption} \begin {tabular}{crll} i & Name & A & B \\ 1 & First & 1 & 2 \\ 2 & Second & 3 & 5 \\ 3 & Third & 8 & 13 \end {tabular} \end {table}

The & separates cells and \\ makes a new row. The {crll} specifies four columns: 1 centred, 1 right-aligned, and 2 left-aligned.

Fancy Tables

Some helpful packages for creating more advanced tabular data:

booktabs : provides the commands \toprule , \midrile , and \bottomrule , which add horizontal lines of slightly different weights.
multicol : provides the command \multicolumn{2}{r}{...} to “merge” 2 cells horizontally with the content ... , centred.
multirow : provides the command \multirow{2}{*}{...} , to “merge” 2 cells vertically with the content ... , having width computed automatically (*).

A LaTeX figure is similarly distinct from graphical content. To include graphics, it’s best to use the command \includegraphics from the graphicx package. Then, a typical figure might look like:

\usepackage{graphicx} --- \begin {figure} \centering \includegraphics[width=.6 \textwidth ]{figurename} \end {figure}

Here we use .6\textwidth to make the graphic 60% the width of the main text.

By default, graphicx will look for figurename in the same folder as main.tex ; if you need to add other folders, you can use \graphicspath{{folder1/}{folder2/}...} .

The preferred package for subfigures is subcaption ; you can use it like:

\usepackage{subcaption} --- \begin {figure} % or table, then subtable below \begin {subfigure}{0.5 \textwidth } \includegraphics[width= \textwidth ]{figureA} \caption {First subcaption} \end {subfigure} \begin {subfigure}{0.5 \textwidth } \includegraphics[width= \textwidth ]{figureB} \caption {Second subcaption} \end {subfigure} \caption {Overall figure caption} \end {figure}

This makes two subfigures each 50% of the text width, with respective subcaptions, plus an overall figure caption.

Math can be added inline with body text like $E = m c^2$ , or as a standalone equation like:

\begin {equation} E = m c^2 \end {equation}

A complete guide to math is beyond our scope here; again, Overleaf provides a great set of resources to get started.

Cross References

We recommend using the hyperref package to make clickable links within your thesis, such as the table of contents, and references to equations, tables, figures, and other sections.

A cross-reference label can be added to a section or float environment using \label{key} , and referenced elsewhere using \ref{key} . The key will not appear in the final document (unless there is an error), so we recommend a naming convention like fig:diagram , tab:summary , or intro:back for \section{Background} within \chapter{Intro} , for example. We also recommend using a non-breaking space ~ like Figure~\ref{fig:diagram} , so that a linebreak will not separate “Figure” and the number.

You may need to compile multiple times to resolve cross-references (and citations). However, this occurs by default as needed in most editors.

The LaTeX package tikz provides excellent tools for drawing diagrams and even plotting basic math functions. Here is one small example:

\usepackage{tikz} --- \begin {tikzpicture} \node [red,circle] (a) at (0,0) {A}; \node [blue,square] (b) at (1,0) {B}; \draw [dotted,->] (a) -- node[above]{ $ \alpha $ } (b); \end {tikzpicture}

Don’t forget semicolons after every command, or else you will get stuck while compiling.

There are several options for managing references in LaTeX. We recommend the most modern package: biblatex , with the biber backend. A helpful overview is given here .

Assuming you have a file called references.bib that looks like:

@article{Lastname2020, title = {The article title}, author = {Lastname, First and Last2, First2 and Last3 and First3}, journal = {Journal Name}, year = {2020}, vol = {99}, no = {1} } ...

then you can cite the reference Lastname2020 using biblatex like:

\usepackage[backend=biber]{biblatex} \addbibresource {references.bib} --- \cite {Lastname2020} ... \printbibliography

Depending on what editor you’re using to compile, this may work straight away. If not, you may need to update your compiling command to:

pdflatex main && biber main && pdflatex main && pdflatex main

Assuming your document is called main.tex . This is because biber is a separate tool from pdflatex . So in the command above, we first identify the cited sources using pdflatex , then collect the reference information using biber , then finish compiling the document using pdflatex , and then we compile once more in case anything got missed.

There are many options when loading biblatex to configure the reference formatting; it’s best to search the CTAN documentation for what you want to do.

Windows users may find that biber.exe or bibtex.exe get silently blocked by some antivirus software. Usually, an exception can be added within the antivirus software to allow these programs to run.

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A simple guide to latex – step by step, learn about latex in short lessons with full code examples. a comprehensive guide to basic and advanced features..

These tutorials, provide a hands-on introduction to LaTeX. You will see, the usage is very simple. Even if you have only used word processors (e.g. Word) before, you can learn LaTeX in no time.

In the following lessons you will be introduced to all the basic features of LaTeX, one feature at a time. As a beginner, you should either start with the first lesson or, if you just want a very brief introduction, try the interactive quick start guide . While the beginners course will enable you to typeset your research papers or thesis, the advanced lessons will introduce you to very powerful features, which are a bit harder to grasp, but can boost your productivity.

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Overleaf for LaTeX Theses & Dissertations: Using Templates on Overleaf

Using Templates on Overleaf
Reference Managers and Overleaf
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Start your projects with quality LaTeX templates for journals, theses, dissertations, CVs, resumes, papers, presentations, posters, assignments, letters, project reports, and more.

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Overleaf templates make it easy to get started with all types of projects - from papers and presentations to newsletters, CVs, and much more! It's also a great way to learn LaTeX and produce professional looking projects quickly.

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Find templates on Overleaf

Visit our thesis template gallery

Make your own templates on Overleaf

Upload or create templates for assignments, presentations, theses, posters, and student/faculty journals for your institution. Just create it as a project on Overleaf and use the publish menu.

Begin Your Work Using the Official 'University' Thesis Template on Overleaf

(If your University has an official thesis template published on Overleaf, you can customize this box accordingly with a link to the template)

Write your thesis using the official ' Name of University goes here ' thesis template

Find your University's template on Overleaf here ( insert link to official LaTeX thesis template on Overleaf Gallery or custom Overleaf institutional portal template page ).

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Overleaf for LaTeX Theses & Dissertations: Using Templates on Overleaf

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LaTeX templates for journals, theses, dissertations, CVs, resumes, papers, presentations, assignments, letters, project reports, and more.

Start your projects with quality LaTeX templates for journals, theses, dissertations, CVs, resumes, papers, presentations, posters, assignments, letters, project reports, and more.

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Start with Overleaf templates

Begin Your Work Using the Official 'University' Thesis Template on Overleaf

(If your University has an official thesis template published on Overleaf, you can customize this box accordingly with a link to the template)

Write your thesis using the official ' Name of University goes here ' thesis template

Find your University's template on Overleaf here ( insert link to official LaTeX thesis template on Overleaf Gallery or custom Overleaf institutional portal template page ).

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LaTeX Your Thesis

General thesis tips, about the thesis template, changing headers, using and modifying sections, handling images and tables, landscape orientation, managing paragraph spacing, uploading the thesis template to overleaf, add a collaborator, managing your bibliography, choosing a bibliography style, how to cite a reed thesis, changing the title of your bibliography, fragment your thesis with \include, using labels and references, adding appendices, including full page pdfs.

Additional Resources - LaTeX Cheat Sheet
BACK UP YOUR THESIS. Often you will not realize for days or weeks that important paragraph or page is missing. Make recovery as easy as possible by keeping a dated backup of each writing session. Then copy those backups to at least two locations other than your hard drive: your home server, Gmail account, thumb drive, the options are wide and numerous. There is no excuse for not backing up the most important document of your Reed career.
Start your bibliographic database the day you start reading. Keep it up to date and annotate it, so you know where it came from (library, Summit, ILL, public library, professor), whether you've read it, and where you want to cite it. This will make the writing process less frustrating and creating the bibliography seamless.
Think of thesis formatting as a form of productive procrastination. Please don't put it off until the last week.
BACK UP. No, seriously. It's not "if" your hard drive fails, it's "when." Not to scare you or anything, but it's a good habit, like buckling your seat belt or not leaving your laptop unattended. You really don't want to wish you had taken that small precaution.
Keep the editable original of each graphic you want to include in your thesis in one folder. Later you may need to change a graphic quickly and having the editable original makes it easy. For graphs, keep the original Excel/JMP/Stata document, not a PDF. For photographs, keep a high resolution copy (such as a tiff). For drawings and illustrations, keep the original Illustrator document.
Use the timesaving benefits of LaTeX from the first day. Cross references can refer to tables, graphics, and chapters so you do not have to update references as your thesis changes. Use comments to make notes about what needs to added or changed.
Enjoy the experience! And get some sleep, food and relaxation on occasion. Hundreds of people did this before you; you can do this too.

The thesis template, available for download here , contains two main files of importance: Reedthesis.cls and Thesis.tex . (As you noticed, there are many other files in the folder. For more information about all the files LaTeX creates, see our article on the subject. ) Reedthesis.cls is a document class like article or book, and so must be defined in the preamble (see the section about document classes for more info ). Additionally, since the average installation (even Reed's) does not include Reedthesis.cls, you will have to bring the file wherever you want to work on your thesis.

The thesis template folder also contains bonus materials you may find helpful, such as an array of bibliography style files (.bst) that can support an undergraduate thesis citation and files already modified to work with a psychology major's specific needs. So make sure that you have the latest version of the thesis template and read through the thesis.tex file for more complete overview of the template's contents.

Common Queries

While the content of your thesis is certainly much more important than the appearance, a nicely typeset thesis will be more pleasant to look upon ten years from now. We have collected nearly every query for the last few years so you can make the changes you want and get back to revising your latest chapter. That typo on the first page will bug you even more than the headers once the thesis is bound and in the library. Most of these answers are links that lead to other pages in our LaTeX documentation because they fit well elsewhere and this page would be much too long if we decided to be redundant.

If you don't like how your headers appear, you can change them. That is, they are modifiable in LaTeX, but your adviser or the library might not like the change. But people change how they look all the time (usually to have the name of the chapter in small caps and without the title of the current \section), so the advanced LaTeX page has a few ways to go about tweaking the headers .

When using Reedthesis.cls, you will use \chapter{ optional title here } to denote the beginning of a new chapter (obviously) while \section{ title } and \subsection{ title } will subdivide those chapters. You do not need to use \subsection if you don't wish to, but \section will probably prove very useful to break up your chapters.

If you don't like the automatic numbering of \chapter, \section and \subsection, you can easily eliminate the numbering by adding an asterix to the command ( \chapter*{ title }, \section*{ title } , etc.), but then the section won't show up in the Table of Contents. To learn how to make sure these show up in the ToC, and to learn more about sectioning commands in general, check out the advanced LaTeX page .

In order to add an image in LaTeX, you must use the package graphicx and place the image ( \includegraphics{ imagename } ) inside the figure environment. Be sure to give a caption if necessary, but remember that LaTeX will add the "Figure x.x" to your caption on the typeset document. For more information on handling images, including the answers to our most common questions, see our graphics documentation . To make your life easier, I highly suggest that you read the section on using references and labels .

Like figures, tables also need to be in a float environment such as tabular or longtable . For an introduction to tables or to learn how to do more complex table formatting, see our documentation on tables . To learn how to change their position, numbering or presentation, the graphics documentation covers the same material. You may have to replace figure with table wherever appropriate, but the commands are basically the same. Feel free to stop by the CUS desk or try Google if you get lost!

When you have a table or figure that is too wide for your page, you will need to rotate your page to be in landscape rather than portrait orientation. To avoid rotating your headers and footers as well, use the package lscape (for more information on packages, see the advanced LaTeX section ) and enclose whatever needs to be rotated in the landscape environment:

\begin{landscape} \begin{figure}[htbp] \caption{A Really Wide Figure} \includegraphics{panoramicimage} \label{pan} \end{figure} \end{landscape}

This will keep the headers and page numbers in the portrait orientation, but rotate your figure or table as well as the appropriate caption. You do not want to use the package Portland ; this rotates the headers and footers as well, and the registrar will probably not accept such a setup.

The line breaking and spacing algorithms of LaTeX are not always successful. Sometimes the space between paragraphs is inconsistent from page to page, or even within the same page. If this happens to you, try ignoring it for a bit and continue to write your paper. Often the addition of a new subsection or just more words will be reorganized into a more pleasing arrangement.

But don't add unnecessary bulk to your thesis just to make it look good. Try putting this in the preamble: \setlength{\parskip}{0pt} . This sets the inter-paragraph spacing to 0 pts. You could also tell LaTeX that it can be more permissive when placing page breaks by putting \allowdisplaybreaks or \raggedbottom in the preamble. If none of these solutions work and you don't want to add more content to your finished chapter, bring your .tex file to the CUS desk and we shall see what we can do.

Using Overleaf

Overleaf is an online LaTeX editor that allows one to use LaTeX software without downloading or configuring. It has a variety of templates, but can also be used to make changes on our thesis template.

Download the LaTeX template .zip file from the Thesis Templates section at downloads.reed.edu
Go to overleaf.com and create an account. We recommend using personal credentials so you don’t lose any data after graduation. Note: If you have a subscription through Reed you’ll have to use your Reed credentials instead

$Image shows overleaf logo in upper left corner, below is a green button which says "New Project" with a dropdown menu offering "Blank project", "Example project", "Upload Project", and "Import from Github". "Upload Project" is highlighted in green$

Select template .zip file from your computer and click Upload if prompted.
Using the template is the same as with any LaTeX compiler
Thesis edits should be made to thesis.tex, and a live version can be viewed by clicking Recompile . You can also upload your own .bib file to your project instead of using the example prelim.bib .

You can add your adviser as a collaborator so they may leave comments on your work as you go. Without a subscription you can have a single collaborator, with a student subscription you can have up to 6. If you are interested in joining our pilot subscription program, inquire by emailing [email protected] .

Open your project.

$This is a screenshot from the upper right hand corner of a screen. There is a dark bar which has five options with an icon before each one. The options read: "Review", "Share", "Submit", "History", "chat". "Share" is highlighted.$

Bibliographies

Unless you are doing a creative writing thesis, you will read way too much for your thesis. As a result, your bibliography will be ridiculously long. Thankfully, there is this great program called BibTeX that will typeset your bibliography for you. For more general information on using BibTeX to create your bibliography, as well as choosing a bibliography format and using a bibliography manager, see our BibTeX documentation .

While it is possible to create a bibliography manually , and there are reasons to do so, your senior year will be made a bit easier if you take advantage of BibTeX's automation . We strongly suggest that you use an application such as JabRef or BibDesk , both of which have documentation on the BibTex page.

The BibTeX page has the following advice for creating your bibliography in BibTeX, but I thought it was worth repeating here:

Like with thesis formatting, the sooner you start compiling your bibliography for something as large as thesis, the better. Typing in source after source is mind-numbing enough; do you really want to do it for hours on end in late April? Think of it as procrastination.
When you have more than one author or editor, you need to separate each author's name by the word and .
The cite key (a citation's label) needs to be unique from the other entries.
Bibliographies made using BibTeX (whether manually or using a manager) accept LaTeX markup, so you can italicize and add symbols as necessary.
To force capitalization in an article title or where all lowercase is generally used, bracket the capital letter in curly braces.
You can add a Reed Thesis citation option. In fact, your bibliography style (.bst) may already have the option. See the thesis template for more details.

If you know what bibliography style you need to be using (Chicago or MLA, for example), then you should check out the available bibliography styles on the page about BibTeX styles . If your discipline varies with regard to preferred bibliography style, ask your adviser which format or journal you should use, then check out the BibTeX style page for a Reed edition, or CTAN.org for most other styles.

A normal bibliography style (.bst) has formats for a PhD thesis and a Master's thesis, but no preset format for an undergraduate thesis. In your .bib file, use the Phd. thesis entry type, and in the optional type field, enter "Reed thesis" or "Undergraduate thesis" and that will be displayed instead of "Phd.thesis".

The default bibliography title is just "Bibliography," but if you want to change this, LaTeX gives you an easy way to do so. Here is an example of a bibliography renamed to "Works Cited." Note the placement after the command \backmatter and before the commands that make the bibliography ( \bibliographystyle and \bibliography ).

\backmatter \renewcommand{\bibname}{ Works Cited } \bibliographystyle{plain} \bibliography{thesis}

Special Topics In Thesis: Tricks to Make Life Easier

Thesis may be scary, but putting it together doesn't have to be. A number of recent alumni answered a call for recommendations to the next crop of seniors; here are the computer related gems.

Your thesis is big, or at least it will be soon enough. Instead of typing everything into the thesis template, you can have separate files for each chapter and then include them in the thesis template. To learn more about using the commands \include and \input , see the appropriate section in the advanced LaTeX documentation.

If you've made a table or figure, you have probably noticed the command \label{default} . If you want to refer to that table or figure elsewhere in your document, you need only to write \ref{default} and your typeset document will replace that ref with the number of the item. But you can refer to more than just tables and figures with ease:

For figures and tables, the label command should be inserted right after the \caption .
For equations or lists, the label command should be within the environment as a whole.
For chapters or sections, it will refer to the first preceding section title, whether it is a subsection, section, or chapter.
If you want the page number of the reference, use the \pageref{ marker } command. If you want just the reference, use the \ref{ marker } command. For correct spacing, you may wish to precede the reference commands with a tilde (~) if you are using the reference in a sentence or text.
You will need to typeset your document at least twice to see cross-references reflect any changes. You will know that you need to typeset again if you see question marks where there should be references.

To add an appendix to your thesis, find \appendix towards the end of your thesis template. Right after the \appendix , it should have another \chapter command, in which you can specify the name of your appendix. This is what the template has:

\appendix \chapter{The First Appendix} \chapter{The Second Appendix, For Fun}

You can either write directly in the template as if the appendix is just another chapter, or stick an external document in using \input (for .tex documents only, see the documentation on this ) or \includegraphics (for PDFs and other formats, see below). Your appendices will appear in the Table of Contents as Appendix A: Appendix Name (the second appendix will be Appendix B, and so on). The appendix itself will have both Appendix A and the appendix title on separate lines.

If you want to remove the "appendix" part of your appendix title or otherwise modify how that part of the title is displayed, remove \appendix from your thesis, thus making your appendices into normal chapters. You then need to keep the appendix from being numbered as "Chapter # ", so make the following modifications to your document:

Original: \appendix \chapter{The First Appendix} To make the appendix named Appendix: The First Appendix, change the above to: \chapter*{Appendix: The First Appendix} \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Appendix: The First Appendix} \chaptermark{Appendix} \markboth{Appendix}{Appendix}

The \chapter* creates an unnumbered chapter and \addcontentsline adds the chapter to the Table of Contents with the title you specify. The commands \chaptermark and \markboth handle the headers. For more on modifying chapter names, look at the documentation on sectioning . To learn more about changing headers, read the Headers In a Thesis section.

Music Majors: There are two LaTeX related routes to typesetting music, MusicTeX and LilyPond. However, past music seniors have struggled to incorporate the files from both programs into their theses. The official CUS recommendation is to use Finale to typeset your music, then export the sheet music to PDF. (See this page to learn how to create pdfs in a program such as Finale.) Using \includepdf (with the package PDFPages ) is a great way to add them. PDFPages is a powerful and flexible way to include multi-page PDF files in your LaTeX document. Example: \includepdf[pages=1-8 offset=15 -15,scale=.80, frame=true,pagecommand={\thispagestyle{plain}}]{Orlando.pdf}

Additional Resources

For a quick LaTeX Cheat Sheet, please visit https://www.stdout.org/~winston/latex/ .

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How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it—nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced PDF, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Here we provide a guide to getting started on writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard template which is pre-loaded into Overleaf.

We have a large number of thesis templates in our online library , and you can upload your own if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files.

We'll assume you've used LaTeX before and so are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos if not), and focus on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

Documentation Home
Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes

Overleaf guides

Creating a document in Overleaf
Uploading a project
Copying a project
Creating a project from a template
Using the Overleaf project menu
Including images in Overleaf
Exporting your work from Overleaf
Working offline in Overleaf
Using Track Changes in Overleaf
Using bibliographies in Overleaf
Sharing your work with others
Using the History feature
Debugging Compilation timeout errors
How-to guides
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Using the Symbol Palette in Overleaf

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Inserting Images
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Lists of Tables and Figures
Drawing Diagrams Directly in LaTeX
TikZ package

References and Citations

Bibliography management with bibtex
Bibliography management with natbib
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Bibtex bibliography styles
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Natbib citation styles
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Biblatex citation styles
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Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec
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b Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China E-mail: [email protected]

c Yangtze Delta Region Academy of Beijing Institute of Technology, Jiaxing 314000, China

Graphene has attracted tremendous attention as a potential building block of modern high performance coating systems. Herein, we demonstrate a green method for making reduced oxide graphene (rGO) using the natural product rutin as the reducing agent. The rGO, with residual rutin on the surface to provide surface affinity, is used in the one-step fabrication of a nanocomposite of rGO and silica nanoparticles (SN) with a corrosion inhibitor, benzotriazole (BTA), loaded in situ . The ternary nanocomposite, BTA@SN-rGO, can be easily dispersed in water. It not only has a high inhibitor loading capacity (85.1 μg mg −1 ) but also can release the inhibitor in a controlled manner triggered by pH. Combining both the extraordinarily good barrier properties and smart nanocontainer features, BTA@SN-rGO was further incorporated into an epoxy latex to assemble an intelligent anticorrosion coating. The effective duration of the coating protection for steel was remarkably prolonged in different media, especially in acidic media. In addition to the barrier capability, smart self-healing of artificial damage to the modified coating films is also shown. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) was applied to monitor the failure process of different kinds of coatings. All the results confirm the synergy of the passive and active functions of the BTA@SN-rGO coating.

Graphical abstract: A direct one-step synthesis of a smart graphene/silica nanocomposite and its application for improving the acid resistance and corrosion resistance properties of waterborne epoxy coatings

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A direct one-step synthesis of a smart graphene/silica nanocomposite and its application for improving the acid resistance and corrosion resistance properties of waterborne epoxy coatings

Y. Jia and K. Zhang, RSC Adv. , 2024, 14 , 11758 DOI: 10.1039/D4RA00522H

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Template for a Masters or Doctoral Thesis

This LaTeX template is used by many universities as the basis for thesis and dissertation submissions, and is a great way to get started if you haven't been provided with a specific version from your department.

This version of the template is provided by Vel at LaTeXTemplates.com , and is already loaded in Overleaf so you can start writing immediately.

Checkout this short video to see how to easily create and edit new chapters as your thesis develops.

Please read the unofficial quick guide to the template; it contains some tips and suggestions on how to modify certain things.

(Updated 27/08/17)

Template for a Masters or Doctoral Thesis

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How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX (Part 1): Basic Structure
The preamble. In this example, the main.tex file is the root document and is the .tex file that will draw the whole document together. The first thing we need to choose is a document class. The article class isn't designed for writing long documents (such as a thesis) so we'll choose the report class, but we could also choose the book class.. We can also change the font size by adding square ...
How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX
Here we provide a guide to getting started on writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard template which is pre-loaded into Overleaf. We have a large number of thesis templates in our online library, and you can upload your own if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files. We'll assume you've used LaTeX before and so are ...
How to write a thesis using LaTeX **full tutorial**
Get started with LaTeX using Overleaf: https://www.overleaf.com/?utm_source=yt&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=im22tb. My thanks to Overleaf for sponsoring t...
How to Use LaTeX for Thesis Writing: A Comprehensive Guide
LaTeX is a powerful tool for thesis writing, offering superior typesetting, mathematical equation support, collaboration capabilities, and customization options. By following best practices and leveraging its features, you can create a professional and visually appealing thesis. While LaTeX has a learning curve and some challenges, its benefits ...
Writing a thesis in LaTeX
Writing a thesis is a time-intensive endeavor. Fortunately, using LaTeX, you can focus on the content rather than the formatting of your thesis. The following article summarizes the most important aspects of writing a thesis in LaTeX, providing you with a document skeleton (at the end) and lots of additional tips and tricks. Document class.
Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes
Overleaf supports three ways to insert images: Use the Insert Figure button ( ), located on the editor toolbar, to insert an image into Visual Editor or Code Editor. Copy and paste an image into Visual Editor or Code Editor. Use Code Editor to write LaTeX code that inserts a graphic.
LibGuides: Overleaf for LaTeX Theses & Dissertations: Home
Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a ...
LaTeX Theses and Dissertations
Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a ...
Learn LaTeX
A comprehensive LaTeX guide to learn basic & advanced features to write a paper or thesis, explained via full code examples, in videos, of LaTeX. LaTeX is a typesetting software used as a document preparation system, very often used by academicians, researchers, scientists, mathematicians, and other professionals.
Formatting in LaTeX
To use the LaTeX and ut-thesis, you need two things: a LaTeX distribution (compiles your code), and an editor (where you write your code). Two main approaches are: Overleaf: is a web-based platform that combines a distribution (TeX Live) and an editor. It is beginner-friendly (minimal set-up) and some people prefer a cloud-based platform.
LaTeX for thesis writing
So here comes LaTeX for thesis writing - a few more arguments in favour of starting to learn LaTeX now. Just to sum up what has already been said in the last post: The main points speaking in favour of you typesetting your thesis in LaTeX are the citation management, tables, maths and images which can be more of a hastle in MS Word.
A simple guide to LaTeX
A simple guide to LaTeX - Step by Step. Learn about LaTeX in short lessons with full code examples. A comprehensive guide to basic and advanced features. These tutorials, provide a hands-on introduction to LaTeX. You will see, the usage is very simple. Even if you have only used word processors (e.g. Word) before, you can learn LaTeX in no time.
How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX (Part 5): Customising Your ...
In the previous post we looked at adding a bibliography to our thesis using the biblatex package.In this, the final post of the series, we're going to look at customising some of the opening pages. In the first video we made a rather makeshift title page using the \maketitle command and by using an \includegraphics command in the \title command. Although this works, it doesn't give us as much ...
Writing your MSc/PhD thesis with Latex using Overleaf
Here Thifhe Bucher explains how simple is moving from Word to Latex to write your MSc and PhD theses using the Overleaf platform. The good thing with Overlea...
9 Best Free LaTeX Courses to Take in 2024
Best free short course for engineers. 7. LaTeX course (University of Amsterdam) N/A. Best free course with many practical exercises. 8. Getting to Grips with LaTeX (Andrew Roberts) N/A. Best free alternative to 1, covers more content with almost the same amount of depth.
Using Templates on Overleaf
(If your University has an official thesis template published on Overleaf, you can customize this box accordingly with a link to the template) Write your thesis using the official 'Name of University goes here' thesis template Find your University's template on Overleaf here (insert link to official LaTeX thesis template on Overleaf Gallery or custom Overleaf institutional portal template page).
Using Templates on Overleaf
It's also a great way to learn LaTeX and produce professional looking projects quickly. Begin Your Work Using the Official 'University' Thesis Template on Overleaf (If your University has an official thesis template published on Overleaf, you can customize this box accordingly with a link to the template)
LaTeX Your Thesis
Your thesis is big, or at least it will be soon enough. Instead of typing everything into the thesis template, you can have separate files for each chapter and then include them in the thesis template. To learn more about using the commands \include and \input, see the appropriate section in the advanced LaTeX documentation. Using Labels and ...
How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX (Part 2): Page Layout
In the first line we've entered a blank \fancyhead command which clears all the header fields. In the second line we've told LaTeX that we want the text "Thesis title" on the right-hand side of the header for the odd pages and the left for even pages. The third line clears the footer fields using a blank \fancyfoot command.
LaTeX Thesis
Illinois Tech welcomes you to join our community of people who discover, create, and solve. Apply today, visit us in Chicago, and contact us for more information. LaTeX is a powerful tool for document creation, especially for documents including extensive mathematical notation. LaTeX Downloads Sample thesis Table Help.
How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX
Here we provide a guide to getting started on writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard template which is pre-loaded into Overleaf. We have a large number of thesis templates in our online library, and you can upload your own if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files. We'll assume you've used LaTeX before and so are ...
Advanced LaTeX Workshop
Details. This workshop provides a hands-on introduction to more advanced topics in LaTeX, including using beamer and BibTeX. Beamer provides an elegant way to create presentations and posters while taking advantage of the potential of LaTeX. BibTeX is a powerful, integrated citation system that is easy to use with LaTeX.
Basic thesis template
This Thesis LaTeX template is an ideal starting point for writing your PhD thesis, masters dissertation or final year project. The style is appropriate for most universities, and can be easily customised. This LaTeX template includes a title page, a declaration, an abstract, acknowledgements, table of contents, list of figures/tables, a ...
A direct one-step synthesis of a smart graphene/silica nanocomposite
Combining both the extraordinarily good barrier properties and smart nanocontainer features, BTA@SN-rGO was further incorporated into an epoxy latex to assemble an intelligent anticorrosion coating. The effective duration of the coating protection for steel was remarkably prolonged in different media, especially in acidic media.
Template for a Masters or Doctoral Thesis
This LaTeX template is used by many universities as the basis for thesis and dissertation submissions, and is a great way to get started if you haven't been provided with a specific version from your department. This version of the template is provided by Vel at LaTeXTemplates.com, and is already loaded in Overleaf so you can start writing ...

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Overleaf for Scholarly Writing & Publication: LaTeX Theses and Dissertations

LaTeX Theses and Dissertatons

Managing References

Collaborate with Overleaf

Getting Started with Your Thesis or Dissertation

How to Write your Thesis/Dissertation in LaTeX: A Five-Part Guide

Link Your ORCID

Open Knowledge Librarian

Learn LaTeX — A Beginner's Step-By-Step Guide

Table of Contents

Why you should read this beginner's guide to learning LaTeX?

LaTeX: The Backstage Story

Difference between TeX and LaTeX

Why should I learn LaTeX?

Getting Started With LaTeX

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Installing LaTeX for Mac OS, Linux, and other OS

Installing Extra-Packages or Add-On features

Automatic Installation of Packages

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2. Preparing the Documentation

3. Files Installation

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Package Documentation Information

LaTeX Document Structure

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Adding a Table

Adding Images

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Adding FootNotes

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Adding Mathematical Expressions and Equations

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