Master LaTeX: A Quick Guide to Getting Started with Overleaf

1 What is LaTeX?

“A craftsman needs a good tool.” The two main tools for writing papers are MS Word and LaTeX (pronounced “La‑TeX”). Although less known than Word, LaTeX excels at typesetting and formula editing, making it popular for mathematical modeling papers. This guide highlights useful tutorials and resources.

LaTeX’s philosophy is to let the document designer focus on content while the system handles formatting. It is based on the TeX typesetting language and works as a markup language (similar to HTML) that describes the document’s structure and appearance for the compiler to generate the final output.

2 Editing Tools

Local compilers such as TeX Live or TeXworks exist but are cumbersome to install, so we recommend the online editor Overleaf.

Step 1: Register. Click the log in button and enter your email and password.

Step 2: Create a new project. In the left sidebar choose New Project → Blank Project .

Step 3: Fill in document information. Inside the braces of \author write the author’s name, after \title write the paper title, and after \date write the date (leaving it empty hides the date).

\begin{document}

The preceding part is the preamble, where you declare the document class ( \documentclass , default is article ) and load required packages (LaTeX has thousands of packages). The \begin{document} … \end{document} block is the main body where you write the content and click recompile to generate the PDF.

3 Common Syntax

If you write plain text in the body, it appears without formatting. To format text you need to learn LaTeX commands.

3.1 Setting Sections

Use \section{} , \subsection{} , \subsubsection{} to create hierarchical headings.

3.2 Adjusting Fonts

\emph{} – emphasis/italic

\textbf{} – bold

\underline{} – underline

3.3 Lists

Unordered list: \begin{itemize} … \end{itemize} with each item introduced by \item .

Ordered list: \begin{enumerate} … \end{enumerate} with \item for each entry.

3.4 Mathematical Formulas

LaTeX shines in rendering beautiful formulas. Inline formulas are wrapped with single dollar signs $...$ , while displayed formulas use double dollars $$...$$ . Common commands include:

\frac{}{} – fraction (numerator, denominator)

\sqrt{} – square root

\int – integral; Greek letters are entered with a backslash followed by the name, e.g., \alpha , \beta .

For more symbols see https://www.latexlive.com/.

Here is a quick reference memo:

3.5 Tables and Images

Insert tables with \begin{table} … \end{table} . A convenient converter from Excel/CSV to LaTeX tables is https://tableconvert.com/. Images are placed inside \begin{figure} … \end{figure} . Remember to load the graphicx package in the preamble with \usepackage{graphicx} , otherwise compilation will fail.

3.6 Inputting Chinese

By default LaTeX handles English. To write Chinese, change the document class to \documentclass{ctexart} and set the compiler to XeLaTeX via the Overleaf Menu .

4 Conclusion

This quick-start guide covers the basic steps to begin writing with LaTeX. While LaTeX offers many more features—such as bibliography management and image scaling—new users can follow this tutorial to get familiar with the workflow and later explore specific topics as needed.

References

https://reformship.github.io/pages/14writing.html