Guide

Writing and editing

The Write view is a page made of blocks: paragraphs, headings, lists, equations, figures, tables and code. Text blocks are edited directly; the others open a small editor when you click them.

Blocks

Press Enter to start a new paragraph, Backspace at the start of a paragraph to join it to the one above. Move the mouse over a block to see two buttons in the left margin:

• + inserts a block below: section, list, equation, MathLab figure, image, table, code, raw LaTeX or page break. Typing / on an empty line opens the same menu.
• ⋮⋮ turns the block into another kind (paragraph ↔ section ↔ list), adds a label to a section, makes a section unnumbered, moves the block up or down, duplicates or deletes it.

The style menu at the left of the toolbar does the same for the block with the cursor in it.

The page is shown at its real size (A4 or Letter). Fit width, at the right of the toolbar, scales it to the window — that is the default; − and + zoom out and in, and LabTeX remembers your choice.

Formatting text

Select text and use B, I, tt or the link button (or Ctrl/⌘ + B, I, E, K). They become \textbf, \emph, \texttt and \href in the source. Special characters such as % & # _ can simply be typed; LabTeX escapes them.

We \emph{emphasise} a word, set \textbf{one in bold}, write \texttt{code}, and link to \href{https://ronbakker.com/mathlab/}{MathLab}. Costs fell 40\% at R\&D.

Formulas, citations, references and footnotes

These are small atomic pieces in the text. Click one to edit it.

• Math (Ctrl/⌘ + M, or type $…$) — an inline formula with a live preview. Display ↵ in its editor turns it into a numbered equation.
• Cite (Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + C) — tick one or more references; choose \cite, \citep or \citet and add a page note.
• Ref — pick a labelled section, equation, figure or table; choose \ref (2), \eqref ((2)) or \autoref (Figure 2).
• Note — a footnote; it is numbered automatically and placed at the bottom of its page in the compiled paper.

You can also type the LaTeX: \cite{key}, \ref{fig:a}, \footnote{text} or \emph{word} turn into the real thing when you type the closing brace. Pasted text is converted the same way.

Typing shortcuts

All keyboard shortcuts are listed in the command reference.

Title block and authors

Click the title, the abstract or the keywords on the page to type. Click the author line (or open Document in the side panel) to add authors, their affiliation numbers and e-mail addresses, and the affiliations themselves. The Document panel also holds the layout, the date and your macros (\newcommand).

The source view

Source shows the LabTeX file beside the compiled pages. Anything you change there — a whole section pasted from another paper, a BibTeX entry, a new environment — is read back when you return to Write. Paste LaTeX with several paragraphs into the Write view and it is split into blocks too.

\section{Method}\label{sec:method}
We integrate with an adaptive scheme.\footnote{Dormand--Prince, as in MATLAB's \texttt{ode45}.}
\begin{itemize}
  \item tolerance $10^{-8}$;
  \item step size control on the local error.
\end{itemize}

Undo, drafts and files

• Undo / redo (Ctrl/⌘ + Z, Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + Z, or the arrows in the toolbar) work across the whole document, including moved and deleted blocks.
• New at the start of the toolbar starts a new paper: pick a layout (your current one is first) and type the title — it is selected for you. The paper's name in the top bar follows the title until you rename it there.
• Drafts are saved in this browser automatically. The Drafts panel lists them, opens the samples and also starts new papers.
• Save (Ctrl/⌘ + S) saves the paper as a .labtex file on your computer. In Chrome and Edge the draft stays linked to that file: every later change is saved to it as you type (the top bar shows saved · name.labtex), and the link survives closing the browser — after a restart, press Save once to give permission again. If the file is changed by another program, LabTeX offers to load that version. In Firefox and Safari, Save downloads the file.
• Save as… (Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + S) saves to a new file; Open file… (Ctrl/⌘ + O) opens a .labtex, .tex or .bib file — or drop the file onto LabTeX. A .tex file opens as a new draft; a .bib file goes into the References library.
• A .labtex file is LaTeX with LabTeX’s layout, author and figure commands; to get plain LaTeX that any TeX installation compiles, use Export → LaTeX project. Browser storage can be cleared, so keep anything important in a file.