Learning LaTeX

Based on LaTeX - Full Tutorial for Beginners

VS Code Set-up

1. Install LaTeX Workshop extension at VS Code
2. Install a LaTex Distribution: MikTeX
3. Install Strawberry Perl
4. Open MikTeX console, and check for any errors. Just hit update in case of errors.

Notes

• Soft Return - \\, not indented
• Hard Return - blank line, indented since it inserts as a new paragraph
• Math Mode - $insert your math equation$. Same with markdown.
• Caret sign only works in Math mode.
• If you want to keep something on a single line, surround it with curly brackets.
• Display Math Mode - double dollar signs
• Inline Math Mode - single dollar signs
• If you do \centering, then everything that comes after that will be centered.
• If you do \large, then everything that comes after that will be large.
• You can manually put in the date \date{December 1, 2023}
• If you don't want your sections to be numbered, add asterisk: \section*{Linear Functions}
• \usepackage{fullpage} will give 1 inch margin on all sides.
• You can also modify the document setting like so: \usepackage[top=1in, bottom=1in, left=0.5in, right=0.5in, paperwidth=8.5in, paperheight=11in]{geometry}.
• American Mathematical Society (AMS)
• Blackboard-bold is a style of writing bold symbols on a blackboard by doubling certain strokes, commonly used in mathematical lectures.
• If you don't specify options at import, then you can import multiple packages in one line: \usepackage{amsfonts, amssymb, amsmath}.
• Macros are used to define your own LaTeX commands.
• \textstyle applies the style used for Mathematics typeset in paragraphs.
• \displaystyle applies the style used for Mathematics typeset on lines by themselves. That's why display style is a little bigger than text style.
• \scriptstyle applies the style used for subscripts or superscripts.
• \clearpage command ends the current page.
• .cls and .sty files are supplementary files that increase the functionality of LaTeX. They are the files loaded with the \documentclass{...} and usepackage{...} commands, respectively. We generally call .cls files classes, and .sty files 'style files' or often just packages.
• The \LoadClass{extarticle} command is used in LaTex to load a document class. The extarticle class is an extension of the standard LaTeX article class. The extsizes package provides additional font size options beyond what the standard document classes (article, report, book) offer. It supports 8pt, 9pt, 10pt, 12pt, etc.