Introduction to LaTeX
Have you ever got an ulcer because of Microsoft Word, e.g. because the print version was not identical with what you saw on the screen? Or are you a typophile, a lover of beautiful typography? In both cases this is the course for you!
Main content
This is very much a hands-on course, with a lot of time for practical work. Therefore you should bring along an old Bachelor thesis or similar which shall be “translated”.
Course content:
Day 1–3 (the 22th, 23th and 26th of September 9AM-1PM)
- A little bit about the history and philosophy of LaTeX
- "My first LaTeX document"
- Structuring a LaTeX document (chapters, sections, title page, table of contents etc.)
- Lists, graphics and images, tables, footnotes…
- Bibliographies and literature management in LaTeX
- Crossreferences
- LaTeX packages
Day 4 (the 27th of September 9AM-1PM)
Content in the last day of the course can be customized depending on the course participants' interests and subjects (in the case of e.g. linguists one could look at how it's possible to create glosses, feature structures, syntax trees etc.).
Preparation before the course
LaTeX runs on virtually all operating systems:
- If you work on Linux you don`t have to do any installation
- In case of a Mac install MacTeX.
- If you own a Windows machine I recommend MiKTeX.
- Alternatively, you can use Overleaf, which is LaTeX in the Cloud, implying no need for a local installation but Internet acccess all the time you’re working with LaTeX.
Contact the course instructor, Bernhard D. Ruef, if you have a problem with the installation, and he`ll try to arrange an installation party before the course starts.
About the course instructor
Bernhard D. Ruef has a Ph.D. in chemistry (more precisely in mass spectrometry, with lots of programming and statistics) but has never worked as a chemist, however in many IT-related jobs (software development, teaching, management, consulting).
From 1991 to 1994 he lived in Norway where he first worked at a transport company and afterwards as an Associate Professor at the Molde University College.
He has also studied Medieval Literature (Norse and Old/Middle English) and (Computational) Linguistics (1998–2005).
Since 2011 he is at the Swiss Law Sources Foundation, a research institution publishing digital editions of law sources.
He has worked with LaTeX since 2002.
