LabTeX help

Introduction

LabTeX is a visual paper writer that stores LaTeX. You write on a page that looks like the finished paper — formulas, citations, numbered figures and all — while LabTeX keeps clean LaTeX source underneath that you can read, edit and export.

What LabTeX is

• Visual editing of sections, paragraphs, lists, emphasis, footnotes, tables and figures, with automatic numbering and cross-references.
• Formulas typeset by KaTeX with TeX’s own fonts and rules, edited with a live preview.
• Citations from BibTeX: paste entries, look them up by DOI, cite with a picker. Reference lists follow the layout’s style.
• Live figures: a figure can hold MathLab code that draws a plot, redrawn as you edit.
• Five layouts — article, two-column IEEE-like, Nature-like journal, arXiv preprint and letter/report — on real A4 or Letter pages.
• A compiler in your browser that typesets the pages (columns, floating figures, footnotes, running heads) and saves a vector PDF. Nothing is sent to a server.
• Export to a LaTeX project that compiles with pdflatex (main.tex, refs.bib, figures), to LabTeX source, HTML or a share link.

Your first paper

Open LabTeX. The first time, it opens a sample paper; start your own from Drafts → + New paper. Click the title and type. Press Enter for a new paragraph, type # and a space for a section, and put a formula between dollar signs: $x^2$ becomes x² as soon as you type the second $. This is the source of a small paper, typeset underneath exactly as LabTeX does it:

\title{My First Paper}
\author{Your Name}
\begin{abstract}
A paper in three lines, with a formula $e^{i\pi} + 1 = 0$.
\end{abstract}

\section{Introduction}
Everything you type is stored as \LaTeX. A numbered equation:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:euler}
  e^{i\theta} = \cos\theta + i\sin\theta
\end{equation}
and a reference to it: \eqref{eq:euler}.

The three views

• Write (Ctrl/⌘ + 1) — edit visually on the page. The toolbar formats text and inserts formulas, citations, references, footnotes, figures and tables. The side panel holds the outline, the document settings (layout, authors, macros), your references and your drafts.
• Pages (Ctrl/⌘ + 2) — the compiled paper on real pages, as it will print.
• Source (Ctrl/⌘ + 3) — the LabTeX/LaTeX source beside the pages. Edit it and the pages follow; switch back to Write and your edits are there.

Drafts are saved in your browser as you type. Use Export to keep a copy elsewhere, or Copy share link to send the whole paper in a link.

Where to go next

• Writing and editingBlocks, the toolbar, shortcuts, undo, drafts and the source view.Guide
• FormulasInline and display math, numbering, multi-line equations and macros.Guide
• Figures and tablesLive MathLab figures, images, captions and tables.Guide
• Citations and BibTeXThe reference library, DOI lookup, citation commands and styles.Guide
• Layouts, PDF and exportThe five layouts, compiling to PDF and getting a LaTeX project out.Guide
• Command referenceEvery command, environment and shortcut, with typeset examples.88 entries

LabTeX and LaTeX

A LabTeX file is LaTeX with two additions: \documentclass[layout]{labtex} chooses one of the layouts, and a mathlab environment inside a figure holds figure code. Authors are written \author[1,2]{Name} with numbered \affiliations. Everything else — sections, equation, \cite, \ref, tabular, BibTeX — is standard, and the LaTeX project export turns it into a file any LaTeX installation or Overleaf compiles.

Credits

Formulas are typeset with KaTeX and edited with MathLive, both open source under the MIT licence and bundled with this site; see their licence texts.