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.

LaTeX (pronounced [LAH-tek] or [LAY-tek]) is a digital typesetting program 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.

This engaging, hands-on workshop will explore LaTeX and walk you through the process of compiling your first document. We will delve into basic typesetting tasks such as changing fonts, inserting pictures, and formatting tables, as well as more advanced topics like bibliography management and defining your own commands. By the end of this session, you will be well-equipped to start using LaTeX for your own projects and you 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.

Preparation

For this tutorial, we will be using Overleaf, an online LaTeX editor. Please sign up for a free account. In the second part 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.

Target audience

Due to our funding, priority will be given to humanities teachers, researchers, and students for this workshop. If you are affiliated with a different faculty or institution but interested in participating, please register to be placed on a waiting list. Notification of available spaces will be sent two weeks before the workshop.

To secure your spot, we encourage you to register as soon as possible, as registrations will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis. If you find yourself unable to attend, we kindly request that you cancel your registration by sending an email to CDH@uu.nl. This will allow us to offer the spot to another interested participant. Thank you for your cooperation.