\newcommand{\School}{Academic Institution}
\newcommand{\Class}{Class Title}
\newcommand{\Assignment}{Assignment Title}
\newcommand{\Name}{Your \textsc{Name}}
\newcommand{\Professor}{Professor's \textsc{Name}}These are the variables you change to manipulate the header.
\newcommand{\School}{Academic Institution}
\newcommand{\Class}{Class Title}
\newcommand{\Assignment}{Assignment Title}
\newcommand{\Name}{Your \textsc{Name}}
\newcommand{\Professor}{Professor's \textsc{Name}}This can be left as \today, which prints today’s date upon compile, or it can be changed to reflect a due-date.
\newcommand{\Duedate}{\today}The document font size and style go here. Options include: article, report, book, letter, and many more. See the Wikibooks.
\documentclass[11pt]{article}Define paper dimensions…
\usepackage{geometry}
\geometry{letterpaper}and begin including essential packages. These give us advanced math typesetting…
\usepackage{amssymb,amsmath,cancel}… some useful utilities for figures…
\usepackage{caption, subcaption}… a nicer header…
\usepackage{setspace}… and reduced margins by default.
\usepackage{fullpage}Additionally, this one lets me use \lipsum to render Lorem Ipsum for this demo.
\usepackage{lipsum}Tikz is a powerful package for graphics rendering, which we cover in a bit.
\usepackage{tikz} % for graphics
\usetikzlibrary{decorations.pathreplacing, calc}
\usetikzlibrary{snakes,shapes,decorations.text}These are custom derivative macros which I was given by Lily Chen (MIT). They are used with two arguments (\d{y}{x}), and print fractions of the form dy/dx. More on that later.
\let\underdot=\d
\renewcommand{\d}[2]{\frac{d #1}{d #2}}
\newcommand{\dd}[2]{\frac{d^2 #1}{d #2^2}}
\newcommand{\pd}[2]{\frac{\partial #1}{\partial #2}}
\newcommand{\pdd}[2]{\frac{\partial^2 #1}{\partial #2^2}}Also, this is pretty useful.
\newcommand{\degrees}{\ensuremath{^\circ}}
\begin{document}This prints the title page, which is informed by the variables from the first section. One might play with spacing and font sizes.
\begin{titlepage}
\newcommand{\HRule}{\rule{\linewidth}{0.5mm}}
\center
\textsc{\LARGE \School}\\[1.5cm]
\textsc{\Large \Class}\\[0.3cm]
\HRule \\[0.4cm]
{ \huge \bfseries \Assignment}\\[0.1cm]
\HRule \\[1.5cm]
\begin{minipage}{0.4\textwidth}
\begin{flushleft} \large
\emph{Author:}\\
\Name
\end{flushleft}
\end{minipage}
~
\begin{minipage}{0.4\textwidth}
\begin{flushright} \large
\emph{Course Instructor:} \\
\Professor \\
\end{flushright}
\end{minipage}
\\[1cm]
{\large \Duedate}\\[3cm]
\vfill
\end{titlepage}
\newpage
\begin{abstract}
\lipsum[1-3]
\end{abstract}
\newpageThis auto-generates based on the \sections and \subsections and \subsubsections in the paper.
\tableofcontentsSimilarly, this auto-generates based on the figures. There is a corresponding one for tables.
\listoffigures
\newpageSections are denoted with \section{arg}, where the arg is the title.
\section{Section}
Cras nibh. Morbi vel justo vitae lacus tincidunt ultrices. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit.Sections can contain nested subsections, down to four-deep. These are called \subsections, etc.
\subsection{Derivation}
Fusce mauris. Vestibulum luctus nibh at lectus. Sed bibendum, nulla a faucibus semper, leo velit ultricies tellus, ac venenatis arcu wisi vel nisl.Math may be written inline, when nested between two $dollar signs$:
Quisque ullamcorper placerat ipsum. $x^2$. Et, $y = 10\degrees$.
Praesent enim elit, rutrum at, molestie non, nonummy vel, nisl. Ut lectus eros, malesuada sit amet, fermentum eu, sodales cursus, magna.Or it can be printed formally, centered on a page.:
$$ x^2 + y^2 = z^2 $$
Donec eu purus. Quisque vehicula, urna sed ultricies auctor, pede lorem egestas dui, et convallis elit erat sed nulla. Donec luctus. Curabitur et nunc.We also use align environments to create continuity. Use the & alignment mark to align the = signs of each equation
\begin{align*}
z^2 &= x^2 + y^2 \\
z &= \sqrt{x^2 + y^2} \\This is a custom macro defined above � \d{x}{y} won’t work everywhere.
\dot z = \d{z}{t} &= \d{\sqrt{x^2+y^2}}{t} = \d{}{t}\sqrt{x^2+y^2}
\end{align*}Figures and tables can be referred to from anywhere. Use a \label below each caption and \refer to that label by name elsewhere.
See Figure~\ref{named_schematic} on pp.~\pageref{named_schematic}.figure environments can be given placement instructions, such as on their own page, or at the top or bottom of a page. Use \begin{figure}[p], or [b], or [t].
\begin{figure}[p]
\begin{center}tikzpicture environments contain TikZ script, which is slightly different. Lines must be terminated with a ; semicolon, and variables may be used. For more on TikZ, see the TikZ primer.
\begin{tikzpicture}
\coordinate(O) at (0,0);
\coordinate(A) at (5,0);
\coordinate(B) at (5,5);coordinates can be defined and then used symbolically. One could also write \draw (0,0)--(5,0)--(5,5)--(0,0); and achieve the same result.
\draw (O)--(A)--(B)--(O);
\draw (O) circle [radius=1];Drawing lines requires points (A)--(B). Arrow shape on both ends can be specified symbolically as a first option.
Here we use the calc library to add coordinates (($(A)+(B)$)). In this case, our second point is defined in polar ((angle:radius)) coordinates, rather than cartesian.
Similarly, we mount a label (node) along the line, with some options. Its text is given by the contents of { }, which can be any valid LaTeX.
\draw [|<->|] ($(O)+(135:0.5)$) -- ($(B)+(135:0.5)$) node[midway, above, sloped] {$d_x$};We can provide other line options, like dashed or red to the line.
This is an arc command, which begins at a point (A) and follows an arc counterclockwise from angle 0 to angle 45 with radius 5. Upon termination, we anchor to this node a text box at its east face.
\draw [->, dashed] (A) arc ( 0 : 45 : 5) node[anchor=east] {$\theta$};
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{center}Captions should go after figures, just before the figure close tag (\end{figure}).
\caption{Schematic with Title}Labels must go after captions.
\label{named_schematic}
\end{figure}
\end{document}