LaTeX Tips and Tricks

Below is a list of helpful LaTeX tactics when writing a paper. Feel free to add your own insight!

• Use abstraction (macros) for symbols

  • try to avoid using it for words and phrases

• Don't try to reinvent the wheel, use packages to solve problems

  • verbatim, mathtools, etc.

• When using macros, don't rely on $$, use ensuremath instead

• Learn to use BibTex effectively to cite various types of sources

• Leave yourself notes - it will get you into the flow of writing the paper

• Useful Packages

  • I [Jeff] like using the standalone package which allows each sublatex file to have its own preamble. You can find a good tutorial here. What is nice about this is that if I have sub-chapters in my paper say for Introduction, Background etc. then I create a Introduction.tex file and that file has a preamble which contains only the packages and dependencies it needs. This increases the reusability and modularity of the paper as a whole. Another nice benefit of this is that depending on your what latex you are using you can compile just that sub-chapter and know that it is good; which makes debugging in latex much easier.