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 dr. 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. 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.

You are also very welcome to visit the Digital Humanities walk-in hour taking place in the same location (the Digital Humanities Workspace) after this workshop, from 14:00 to 15:00 hrs. No sign-up or preparation is necessary for this walk-in hour, we encourage you to just come by!

For whom?

Due to our funding, priority will be given to students, researchers and teachers of the Faculty of Humanities at Utrecht University 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.

Registration

Please complete the registration form below if you wish to sign up for this workshop. Register early to secure your place, as spots are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you find yourself unable to attend after completing registration, we kindly request that you cancel your registration by sending an email to cdh@uu.nl, allowing us to offer the spot to another participant. Thank you for your cooperation.