Edward R. Scheinerman

Professor, Department of Applied Mathematics & Statistics
Vice Dean for Education, Whiting School of Engineering
Johns Hopkins University

Learn LaTeX

All mathematics students need to know LaTeX. It takes some effort to learn how to use LaTeX. To assist you in this process, I have created A Sample Mathematics Paper that demonstrates the basics of LaTeX. You can use this as a template for simple documents (such as a one-page homework assignment) or moderately complicated documents (such as a journal article).

To get started, you need to download the following files (right click on each to get the individual file):

  • paper.pdf (the typeset version of the paper ready to read)
  • paper.tex (the main LaTeX source file)
  • paper.bib (bibliography data for the paper)
  • hello-world.tex (a very short sample LaTeX source file)
  • doodle.eps (EPS version of a graphic embedded in the paper)
  • doodle.pdf (PDF version of a graphic embedded in the paper)
  • Makefile (this is optional and included for Unix experts)

Save all these files to a folder on your hard drive, open paper.pdf, and enjoy.

Alternatively, you can get all of these files in a single TAR archive by right-clicking on this link:

Save this file in a directory of your choosing and extract the files with the following shell command:
tar xf learn.tar
The American Mathematical Society's tools for LaTeX are excellent. For your convenience, I provide copies here of some of their reference material:
Beamer

If you plan to give a presentation, I highly recommend that you learn how to use beamer. Here is a bare bones example of an incredibly simple presentation.

Other Resources