LaTeX for Students - A Simple Quickstart Guide

In this video I plainly explain the basics of LaTeX with a focus on how a student might begin to use it, such that by the end of the video you will feel ready enough to begin creating your own beautiful documents with LaTeX.
I made this video because I wish I had one like it when I began my LaTeX journey, and hope to share what I have learned with others in a simple, easy to follow way.
Resources:
- www.overleaf.com/learn
- www.latex-project.org/get/ - Get TeX for your OS
- ctan.org/ - The Comprehensive TeX Archive Network (packages)
- tug.ctan.org/info/undergradmat... - CTAN's math cheatsheet
- users.dickinson.edu/~richesod... - Two-page cheatsheet
Table of Contents
0:00 - Introduction
1:34 - Overleaf Intro
3:00 - Basic structure
4:05 - Math intro/setup
5:13 - Inline math
6:20 - Equations
7:22 - Detexify/symbols
8:02 - Images
10:56 - Document customization
13:10 - Conclusion

[@interrupted_reverie]

This is extremely well done , you didn't bombard us with useless information and made everything seem quite easy to understand.Thank you

[@kp1498]

LaTeX is the software that taught me not to fear documentation. I think PGF/TikZ has a pdf with like 2K pages and barely anything else, so you either extract what you need from there or don't use it. And it's actually not that hard, one just has to overcome that initial feeling of being overwhelmed.

[@JakeBox0]

Same here. LaTeX and Emacs. On the other hand, some people don't want to deal with that and just want to get to the basics and be done. Thanks for your comment.

[@Blade_of_Tomoe]

Keeping true to the simplicity. Nice video.

[@nelsonberm3910]

Thank you for making this so easy to understand, now my homework looks super neat and cool

[@Noep2404]

Great video ! You explain things really well, while still keeping it quick and simple.

[@JakeBox0]

Thanks for the nice comment, I'm pleased you thought so.

[@sohaibahmedmughal877]

very informative as a beginner thanx a lot for such an easy of delivering useful steps.

[@kickpublishing]

This was a wonderful introduction

[@JakeBox0]

Thank you.

[@romantki]

Thank you, great introduction!

[@JakeBox0]

You are welcome, thanks for the comment.

[@AhmedThahir2002]

This was soooo good. Good job 😍

[@JakeBox0]

Thanks for the nice comment, glad you liked it.

[@yedmavus]

You sound just like ReviewBrah! Great video, and one of the best for a beginner. Thanks and Cheers!

[@JakeBox0]

lol. Thanks for the nice comment!

[@tota_trader]

Very nice. Thanks

[@amirabellali2636]

Thanks bro !

[@sajjaduddin8188]

Thank you my friend. *Hug*

[@user-qy1mx6ox3j]

Which font do you use in the editor pane?

[@eldeivis44]

I wanna know how to have that editor and integration of the first part of the video

[@satyam4565]

Can you please provide the source code in description of 0:02 time

[@davidrogers8516]

Thank You for the beginner video. Do you have one for creating a lab book?

[@JakeBox0]

I do not.

[@AhmedThahir2002]

Could you make a video where you make an actual project report using latex? I'm gonna be doing a research project soon and I'll have to make a report.

[@JakeBox0]

Sure, I suppose I could look into that! It's really a matter of good organization: sections and subsections will form the core. So I might have an introduction section, a data collection section, an analysis section, etc. And in analysis I might have a subsection about "mathematical analysis," or in data collection I might have "uncertainty," or something like that. Good luck!

[@AhmedThahir2002]

Yusss and you could maybe show how to get bibliography working, how to do refer table #, refer eqn # Like you said, all other tutorials are unnecessarily complicated

[@devolinasharma1751]

Hi, how to add the range of a variable index on the right, like i= 1,...n?

[@kaiser94exodus89]

13:30

[@Achy1les]

How did you integrate Emacs inside overleaf? Could you explain? Cool...

[@JakeBox0]

Actually I'm using Vim bindings, it's a setting in Overleaf. You can use Emacs-like binds as well.

[@Achy1les]

@@JakeBox0 Oh. I did not know overleaf had that option. Thx

[@AhmedThahir2002]

And what's the editor in the left at the start of the video?

[@JakeBox0]

That is GNU Emacs.

[@jvarunkumar]

Can you please provide a link to this overleaf project. Thanks :)

[@amosreginaldjr.4200]

THIS IS HOW TEACHERS WRITE EXAMS??? 😮

[@aquss33]

Is there an editor that lets me edit the equations real-time like in word, at least a symbols tab would be appreciated, I cannot stand having to constantly hit "altgr+some key" to get the stupid slashes, carets... and all the stuff required? As it stands right now, I don't see myself ever switching from word, even though LaTeX looks much nicer word is just so much faster.

[@Rokokok64]

There are websites that let you enter equations using calculator-like buttons and will give you the corresponding latex code to copy and paste into your editor. Just Google something like "latex equation editor"

[@user-yn6ii7ys3u]

Not first, but first comment!

[@brajlecz9485]

Great video with everything one needs to get started. Really nice, thank you for this. I really dislike the way you talk tho :(

[@mehedipc5349]

You didn't show how to make tables.😥

[@JakeBox0]

Tables are the worst! Lol. Jokes aside, tables can be annoying, I usually generate them with some website (just Google latex table generator), or use Emacs Org Mode.

[@ahmoin]

It's not pronounced as tex, it's pronounced as tech. Pronounce the χ of TeX as a Greek chi, not as an ‘x’, so that TeX rhymes with the word speck.

[@Srednicki123]

you have dark mode on, how?

[@JakeBox0]

Where, in the beginning? That is a different text editor. But anyway in Overleaf you can press Menu and then scroll down to "Overall theme" and "Editor theme"

[@haraldurkarlsson1147]

Its is not X...

[@JakeBox0]

Sorry?

[@haraldurkarlsson1147]

@@JakeBox0 It is not a big deal but the originators of LaTeX (and TeX) stressed that is was the greek letter not regular X. The greek symbol for this is pronounced the same as "ch" (as in tech) I know it is bit confusing.

[@JakeBox0]

@@haraldurkarlsson1147 0:05

[@axiometricgames]

I just can't with the " lay-tex " 😅

[@user-gj3kz7cm3x]

Latex is awful. Use Typst.

[@drewsarobot.6091]

7:03 Are you typing \pir^2? I can't get that to work for me. Made sure I've got "\usepackage{amsmath,amssymb,amsthm}" in there too. Edit: We're you going for \pi R^2? That would make sense to me if you were but building on my machine fails with "\pir^2" where as "\pi r^2" builds