LaTeX Resources for USD Math Students

Installing LaTeX installed, and checking that your installation works

Download LaTex onto your computer. Note that having LaTeX on your computer means that you have both LaTeX typesetting engine and an editor.
- For Windows:
  1. First download and install the typesetter MikTeX.
  2. Then download and install an editor: either TEXnicCenter, which has been recommended to me by a former student, OR WinEdt, which I have used in the past.
- For Mac users:
  1. First download and install a typesetter; either a small but still functional version BasicTeX, or the full version MacTeX.
  2. Then download and install the editor TeXShop.
Create a folder for your personal LaTeX files, then download the 3 files below into that folder
1. A basic LaTeX Template (raw file)
2. The typeset version of LaTeX Template
3. PDF (for Mac) Picture for inclusion with LaTeX template or EPS (for Windows) Picture for inclusion with LaTeX template
Open the file latex-template.tex from within your editor, and try to typeset it. Once you succeed in typesetting it, you have successfully installed LaTeX on your machine!

Now to practice for yourself, copy the file latex-template.tex to a new file that you want to edit (called practice.tex or something), then open the file practice.tex from within your editor, and start typesetting your own mathematics!

Further resources and help for using and getting used to LaTeX

LaTex Tutorial for "Absolute Beginners"
The Not So Short Introduction to LATEX2e, a resource recommended to me by a student
Another great sample LaTeX file, with lots of examples, by Harvey Gould: download his intro.tex, as well as these figures (remember, .eps for Windows, .pdf for Mac).
TeX Reference Card, which shows how to code many common math symbols
DeTexify, a web program which allows you to draw a math symbol with your mouse, and suggests LaTeX code to generate that symbol

Resources for the Math Modeling Competition

You will need to write a paper which has sections and subsections, a table of contents, an abstract, and a bibliography. Below I've written a template for you which is written in the format that you will need for the contest (including putting the page numbers and team number at the top of the page). You should download the following files:

LaTeX Template for a longer paper, with sections, table of contents, bibliography (raw file)
LaTeX Template for a longer paper (typeset version)
PDF (for Mac) Picture for inclusion with LaTeX template or EPS (for Windows) Picture for inclusion with LaTeX template
Sample Outstanding Winner's solution to past MCM problem, which will give you an idea of what a successful MCM solution looks like, and which will also give you ideas of things to try to typeset.

Read the file latex-paper-template.pdf that you downloaded in step 3 above. Save the file latex-paper-template.tex to a new file that you can play with (called practice.tex or something). Open the file stunt-solution.pdf, and practice typing bullet lists, tables, equations, and so on from this file into your practice.tex file.