Research Guides: LaTeX: The Basics

The LaTeX Process

Unlike word processing, typesetting with LaTeX is a two step process:

Compose a plain text document containing your content and markup tags using a text editor.
Use a LaTeX compiler to translate the text file, producing a nicely typeset document.

The LaTeX process

Anatomy of a LaTeX document

This is a sample .tex document:

% Lines that start with the percent symbol

% are ignored by the compiler. In this way,

% you can write notes for yourself in your

% LaTeX code.

% The following section of the document is

% called the preamble. It contains the

% formatting information for your document.

% If you use a template, this part will be

% filled out for you.

\documentclass[...]{...}
\usepackage[...]{...}
\usepackage[...]{...}
\usepackage[...]{...}

% You should also include your contact information

% so that your professor knows who turned in

% such neatly typeset homework. This is called

% the top matter.

\title{...}
\author{...}
\email{...}
\date{...}

% Your content goes between the \begin{document}

% and \end{document} commands.

%
% The \maketitle command uses the top matter to

% create a formatted title for your document.

\begin{document}
\maketitle
.

.
\end{document}

% Thats all there is to it!