CU ITSS: Introduction to LaTeX

Introduction to LaTeX

Spring 2023 ITSS Mini-Course
Brian C. Keegan, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Department of Information Science
University of Colorado Boulder

Copyright and distributed under an MIT License

Course description

This is a two-class tutorial on using the LaTeX typesetting language. The course is intended for researchers who little or no prior experience working with LaTeX or other programming languages. Classes will meet from 11:30am - 2:00pm MT on April 4 and 11 on Zoom. Each class will be 2.5 hours long and a mixture of lecture and activities. We will be using the Overleaf platform for developing and managing our documents: you do not need to purchase the paid tiers unless you want to.

Learning objectives

Students will:

• Learn the basic syntax of developing documents in LaTeX
• Develop their computational thinking practices around iteration, debugging, and abstraction
• Configuring documents with style classes and packages
• Designing text, lists, figures, tables, and equations
• Modularize and manage complex documents with chapters and bibliographies
• Use LaTeX to develop figures, presentations, and posters

Class outline

• Class 1: Background, syntax, formatting, lists, tables, figures (Slides)
• Class 2: Math, document structure, bibliographies, presentations

Evaluation

There is no formal evaluation in this class.

Acknowledgements

This course will draw on resources from the Wikibooks LaTeX textbook, Overleaf learning resources, Learn LaTeX and Andy Roberts tutorials.

Thank you also to Professor Terra McKinnish for coordinating the ITSS programming.