Template: Joan Licata September 24, 2016
Template: Joan Licata September 24, 2016
Template: Joan Licata September 24, 2016
Joan Licata
September 24, 2016
Introduction
This is a sample document to show you a bit about how TeX works. If youve never used TeX
before, I recommend opening the template.tex file and the template.pdf file at the same time for
comparison.
1.1
Structure
The information at the top of template.tex tells the compiler how to format the finished document.
Commands shown in blue and preceded by a backslash give instructions and are often followed by
supplemental information in curly brackets. The line (backslash) begin { document } introduces
the body of the paper. Any begin command must get paired with an end command; look at
the last line in this template.
1.2
Math Mode
Some formatting can be done in text mode (for example, you can make the font italic or boldface),
but for most mathematical symbols, youll have to use math mode. Math mode is most often
introduced and ended with a $. For example, in math mode I can write the equation x + y = 7 and
the program takes care of spacing. Its also easy to write Greek letters (, ), exponents (2x+y ),
and subscripts (x1 ). Look in any LaTeX guide to find a list of symbols and formatting commands.
References
One of the nice things about using LaTeX is that it makes internal references easy. For example,
if I want to remind you where I discussed math mode, I can mention that it was in Section ??.
If youre looking at the pdf file, you see the correct reference, but in the TeX file I typed a label
that I had attached to that section. (You may need to typeset your document more than once to
make the references show up correctly.) Labels work for definitions, theorems, questions, sections,
diagrams, and equations, among others.