Introduction

Overview

Teaching: 0 min
Exercises: 0 min

Questions

• Key question: What is LaTeX used for?

• Key question: How can I create a new typeset document?

Objectives

• First learning objective. How to create a new LaTeX project in Overleaf.

• Second learning objective. Become familiar with the Overleaf ecosystem.

• Third learning objective. Learn what the minimum requirements for a LaTeX document are.

• Fourth learning objective. Be able to identify an element’s role in a LaTeX document.

What is LaTeX

LaTeX is a typesetting language, useful for combining text with mathematical equations, figures, tables, and citations, among other things.

LaTeX is written like a mark-up language, meaning that formatting (including bold text, bullet points, and changes in font size) is indicated by the use of commands, special characters, or environments.

In order to produce the actual document, this mark-up text must be compiled. Errors in the mark-up can either be non-fatal, meaning the document will compile with some warnings; or fatal, meaning the document will fail to compile.

Our first LaTeX document

We’ll start by creating a new, ‘blank’, file in Overleaf. You’ll notice that its idea of a blank file is not actually an empty one.

Overleaf fills in a lot of things by default, which is one of the benefits to using it; it makes it very easy to get up-and-running in LaTeX.

There are three parts to the Overleaf window: the file navigator, the text editor, and the preview pane.

In the text editor for our ‘blank’ document, we can see all of the elements necessary to create a minimally-compilable document in LaTeX (and then some).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\title{Irish Fairy Tales}
\author{James Stephens}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}

\end{document}

Commands in LaTeX are distinguished from regular text through use of a backslash \. Some commands take options andor arguments. Arguments are placed inside curly braces {}. Options go in square brackets [].

The \begin{} and \end{} commands delineate an environment. We’ll see more about environments in later episodes; for now, I’ll say that environments each have their own set of formatting rules and purpose.

Looking at our document

If we look at the different parts of this document, starting at the top, we see:

1. the document class declaration (this document is an article)
2. the preamble
   • a package import statement (this package is used in almost everything; it specifies the unicode character set to use)
   • some metadata — this includes the title and author
3. the document body
   • the document environment \begin{} statement
   • the \maketitle command
   • a section heading
   • the document environment \end{} statement

Some of these are absolutely necessary:

• the document class declaration (this document is an article)
• the document environment begin{} statement
• the document environment end{} statement

Without these, the document will not compile.

Let’s make this document a bit more interesting

Now we’re going to add in some dummy text to get a sense of what a more-complete document would look like.

We’ll do this using the lipsum package, which provides sample text blocks. We’ll need to add a new \usepackage{} command to the document preamble and the \lipsum command underneath our section title.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{lipsum}

\title{Irish Fairy Tales}
\author{James Stephens}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}
\lipsum

\section{Early Life}
\lipsum

\end{document}

Challenge 1

Look at the following LaTeX code and decide if it will compile as written. If you say no, decide why not.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}

\title{The Playboy of the Western World}
\author{JM Synge}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}

Answer

This code will not compile as written (or, if it does, it will throw some warnings). It is missing the \end{document} statement.

Challenge 2

In the above code, which of these describes the text ‘JM Synge’:

1. it is a command
2. it is an argument
3. it is an option

Answer

It is an argument; \author is a command; an option would be in square brackets.

Challenge 3

Which of these lines should not go in the document preamble?

1. \maketitle
2. \title{R.U.R.}
3. \usepackage{graphicx}

Answer

\maketitle does not belong in the preamble. \title{R.U.R.} does, because this command stores metadata about the file.

Challenge 4

Which of these lines is optional?

1. \begin{document}
2. \maketitle
3. \documentclass{book}

Answer

\maketitle is optional.

Key Points

• First key point. Typesetting is used in many domains to convey information in a more readable format.

• Second key point. Creating a new, minimal document requires a document declaration, a preamble, and a document body.

• Third key point. LaTeX documents consist of commands, environments, and regular text. Commands may take arguments and/or options.