LaTeX 101 Workshop - UC Davis GradPathways

Contact:

• email: mdelrosa(at)ucdavis.edu
• Slack: #latex101 on the UC Davis Slack server.

Workshop Recordings

Recordings for the first hour of each workshop are available below:

• Day 01 (March 21st)
• Day 02 (March 22nd)
• Day 03 (March 23rd)

Background

Welcome! This is a guided walkthrough of the major concepts from the online tutorial, LearnLaTeX, for the graduate community at UC Davis.

Three sessions last ~2 hours each (~1 hour of content, ~1 hour of typesetting). Each session will be interactive with participants writing and typesetting simple LaTeX files. Experience LaTeX users will be available to answer your questions.

You will not need to download any software to participate. We primarily use Overleaf to edit and typeset TeX files.

On Day 3, I will cover how to use common LaTeX templates, including a CV and a Beamer template.

Course Outline

Day 1. Introduction + Basic LaTeX

• Based on Lessons 1-8 from learnlatex.org
• Prerequisites:
  • Create Overleaf account
  • Join UC Davis Slack channel + #latex101 channel
• Agenda:
  • Go over slides (~1 hour)
  • Work on exercise (~1 hour)
    • Solution (check after you’ve attempted/only if you’re really stuck!)

Day 2. Figures, Tables, Equations, References

• Based on Lessons 9-14 from learnlatex.org
• Agenda:
  • Go over slides (~1 hour)
  • Work on exercise (~1 hour)
    • Solution (check after you’ve attempted/only if you’re really stuck!)

Day 3. Templates (CV, Beamer)

• Prerequisites:
  • Bring either a CV or presentation slides you want to convert to LaTeX
• Agenda:
  • Go over templates (~40 minutes)
    • CV Template
    • Beamer Template (default)
    • Beamer Template (Davis)
    • Zip files for these templates are available at the releases page
  • Work on CVs/Beamer slides (~1 hour)

Resources

• Documentation
  • Overleaf Documentation
  • Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN)
  • Symbols list (check pdfs at bottom of page)
  • Beamer Themese
• Utilities
  • Detexify - Draw a symbol and see the corresponding LaTeX command.
  • Tables Generator - Draw a table with WYSIWYG interface, get the LaTeX code for it.
  • Inkscape - For drawing figures with embedded LaTeX
    • • Castel’s Blog Post on figures for mathematical lecture notes
• LaTeX Forums – places you can go for help
  • #latex101, #latex channels on UC Davis Slack (UC Davis only)
  • r/latex
  • TeX on Stack Exchange
• Local LaTeX Installations
  • TeXStudio: An integrated editor for creating LaTeX documents (Windows, Linux and macOS).
  • MiKTeX: A modern TeX distribution for Windows, Linux and macOS. Does not come with an editor.
  • For Sublime users, LaTeXTools will let you compile .tex files