Some Helpful LaTeX Tools to Get You Started or to Up Your Game
By Alexis Newton
LaTeX is the most common language used for writing mathematics. At some point in your career as an undergraduate student, graduate student and beyond, you will likely be required to use it. I have had several professors who wanted all homework assignments typed in LaTeX. While in the beginning this felt like a pain, over time I was able to see the usefulness in honing this skill. Hopefully, before entering graduate school, you have had encounters with this typesetting software. If you haven’t--no worries! The intricacies of writing mathematics in LaTeX are not that intricate, and there are many tools that one can use to help them along with the process.
For a first introduction, many people use Overleaf, a collaborative online LaTeX editor, to write LaTeX code and compile it online. Overleaf has many advantages. My favorite part is that it doesn’t involve downloading any software, so you can jump in and get started right away.
To learn LaTeX, Overleaf has a set of tutorials that cover almost all use cases. Once I have the basics of a document setup, I tend to use the same preamble (the stuff before \begin{document}) time and time again by just copy and pasting it in when starting a new project.
If you are looking to expand your LaTeX prowess, or make your life easier, there are a number of resources to help you. For ease of making tables try this handy latex table generator. I’ve used this for numerous projects since it is so convenient to use. For ease of finding code for symbols try Detexify, which allows you to draw the symbol you are looking for in LaTeX, and provides the code for the closest matches.
Drawing pictures in LaTeX is often done using TikZ. Generally, there are two uses for TikZ: drawing diagrams/graphs or drawing functions. For both I would recommend looking at a very minimal introduction to TikZ by Jacques Creme. This is a 24-page guide that focuses more on drawing basic functions, but sections 2, 3.1-3.6, and 5 give you all the tools you need to make diagrams. For additional ease of creating diagrams try the helpful diagram creation tool that Chris Keyes introduced me to. I used this for virtually every homework assignment I had in algebraic topology!
Frequently you will need to include figures in your mathematical documents. The command for this is \includegraphics{} and is worth learning. Overleaf has a sufficient tutorial on how to do this, which also covers using captions. I personally have an affinity towards the \include{} command for inserting TikZ figures.
To make a slideshow environment, what is typically used is Beamer. Overleaf offers a basic guide to Beamer. Often your institution will have a Beamer template for you to use that contains a university emblem or university color scheme. These are usually not aesthetically pleasing, but they do convey all the information needed. If you want to customize your presentation, there are a wide range of themes and color schemes available. For reference on what these look like you can go to this Beamer theme gallery or Another Beamer Theme Matrix.
Finally, for bibliographies, I recommend investing some time into learning to use BibTex. BibTex is a tool and file format that is used to describe and process references. ArXiv, where most mathematics papers can be found, even has an Export BibTex Citation button on each article to help you reference easily!
In the context of teaching, the most common use of LaTeX is in writing tests, quizzes, exams, or homework. For any form of examination, I would consider getting a template. Asking someone in your department whose worksheets you admire is the easiest solution to getting a good template! Overleaf has a wide database of templates, and you may find one you like amongst those. If you wish to make your own template, I would suggest looking into the enumitem, geometry, multicol, multirow, titlesec and of course tikz packages.
Developing LaTeX skills can feel daunting in the beginning, given the wide range of symbols and styles it involves. However, the more comfortable you become with the language, the more you can get out of it! I have had professors who are able to “Live-Tex,” or write in the language while it continuously compiles, and perform their lectures online. This is a place where I would ultimately like to get to, and I am excited to improve my skills until I reach that point.
Alexis Newton is a fifth-year Ph.D. student at Emory University studying computational number theory. Outside of the math department, Alexis enjoys reading, writing, and playing with her cat Alfie.