Do you want a good-looking thesis, article or dissertation without worrying about formatting too much? Are you fed up with Microsoft Word or other text editors not doing exactly what you want? Are you interested in picking up a new valuable academic skill? If you find yourself nodding ‘yes’ to any of these questions, we invite you to join Xander Vertegaal, developer at the CDH Research Software Lab, for a LaTeX workshop.

Why learning LaTeX?

LaTeX (pronounced [LAH-tek] or [LAY-tek]) is a digital typesetting programme that takes care of much of the necessary nitty-gritty when it comes to typesetting, yet provides full control over all its features if you need it. It creates beautifully typeset documents by default, freeing you to concentrate on the substance of your writing.

Widely embraced by physicists and mathematicians for its handling of mathematical formulae, LaTeX is equally suited for humanities scholars dealing with complex characters, multiple writing systems and glossed sentences, or those who are simply interested in (digital) typesetting and formatting beautiful texts.

With LaTeX, you can:

• maintain consistency across long documents with automatically formatted headings, citations, numbering, and appendices;
• produce professional academic output suitable for journals, publishers and conferences;
• manage references and bibliographies efficiently;
• focus on writing instead of formatting.

Programme

This hands-on workshop will explore LaTeX and walk you through the process of compiling your first document. The teacher will delve into basic typesetting tasks such as changing fonts, inserting pictures, and formatting tables, as well as more advanced topics like bibliography management, defining your own commands and using generative AI (LLMs) to troubleshoot expedite tedious tasks.

By the end of the session, you will be well-equipped to start using LaTeX for your own projects and will know where to find additional information on topics not covered in this tutorial.

Level

No previous knowledge of LaTeX or computer programming is required. The workshop is in English.

Preparation

Participants should bring their own laptops. For this tutorial, we will be using Overleaf, an online LaTeX editor. Please sign up for a free account prior to the workshop.

At the end of this workshop, we will apply our newly acquired skills by converting an existing article from Word into LaTeX. Feel free to bring your own paper, essay or book chapter to work on.

For whom?

Due to our funding, priority is given to UU Humanities scholars and students; a number of seats, however, is reserved for participants from other UU faculties on a first-come, first-serve basis.

If all places are filled, you may email cdh@uu.nl to be placed on the waiting list. Should a place become available, you will be notified.

Registration

To sign up, please complete the registration form below. Register early to secure your place, as spots are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you’re unable to attend after registering, please cancel your registration by emailing cdh@uu.nl, allowing us to offer the spot to another participant. Thank you for your cooperation.