Introduction to LaTeX

LaTeX separates content from presentation. You focus on writing; LaTeX focuses on making it look professional.

The document structure

Every document starts with a \documentclass declaration, followed by the metadata preamble, and then the content inside the document environment.

\documentclass{article}
\title{My First Paper}
\author{Jane Doe}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Abstract}
This is a summary of my brilliant work.

\section{Introduction}
LaTeX is superior to Word because...

\end{document}

This gives a centred title, author and date, followed by numbered sections.