It looks like you're using Internet Explorer 11 or older. This website works best with modern browsers such as the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. If you continue with this browser, you may see unexpected results.

# Getting Started with LaTeX

LaTeX is a typesetting program useful for mathematical and scientific writings or publications. This guide provides an overview of how to get started with LaTeX, as well as resources and exercise to help new users of the program.

## Introduction

The best way to learn LaTeX is by writing your own code and working through different situation.  In this section of the guide there are several samples problems, as well as their solutions.  The problems build off the previous ones and tend to get harder as you move along.  Feel free to reference back to the guide, use the hints. or use Google if you are stuck.  Remember there can be more than one way to answer some of these questions so if your solution doesn't match what is given but the code compiles correctly that is ok.

Good luck!

## Exercise 1: Hello World!

Create a document with the title Hello World!, your name, and todays date.  Include in the document the following text "Hello World!  Today I am learning LaTeX."  The solution should look like this (but with todays date):

• Remember the first part of any document is the preamble and it must begin with \documentclass{} an article is a good document class for this exercise.
• To make the title look nice use the command \maketitle, but make sure you put it in the body of the document
• For \maketitle to work correctly you will want to use \title{}, \author{}, and \date{}, but they don't belong in the document body.
• What happens if you don't include \date{}? What happens if you use \date{} with no argument? What if you use \date{\today}?
• To start the body of your document use the command \begin{document}.  To end your document use the command \end{document}
• Try the command \LaTeX

\documentclass{article}

\title{Hello World!}
\date{January 1, 1831}
\begin{document}
\maketitle

\textbf{Hello World!} Today I am learning \LaTeX.
\end{document}

## Exercise 2: Adding some simple math

Add to the document you created in exercise 1 the following text:

"LaTeX is a great program for writing math.  I can write in line math such as a^2 + b^2 = c^2.   I can also give equations their own space: gamma^2 +theta^2 = omega^2"

Your final document should look like this:

• Is there a problem with the spacing after the second \LaTeX?  Try using \LaTeX{} an empty argument can improve spacing with some commands.
\hline \vspace{3pt}
\textbf{#1}\\
\vspace{10pt}\\
\end{tabular}
}}

\begin{document}

\begin{tabular}{ccccccc}

\mul{5}{8} & \mul{4}{12} &\mul{3}{2}& \mul{10}{7} &\mul{5}{5}& \mul{6}{4}& \mul{8}{9}\\
\mul{12}{12}&  \mul{4}{1}& \mul{9}{6}& \mul{7}{5} &\mul{5}{11}& \mul{8}{8}& \mul{7}{12}\\
\mul{5}{1}&  \mul{3}{4}& \mul{6}{2}& \mul{5}{5}& \mul{9}{3}& \mul{1}{12}& \mul{0}{8}\\

\end{tabular}

\end{document}