There are many videos and reams of documentation on how to create documents in LaTeX. This fast track guide will have your thesis mapped out with tables, figures and bibliography swiftly and efficiently.

The huge benefit of using LaTeX is that it typesets text and equations professionally with very little input from the user. LaTeX also automatically re-numbers figures, tables and the contents page whenever the user makes changes. This makes LaTeX an invaluable and powerful tool when creating your thesis.

This course will also teach you how to export your bibliography from your management tool and import it into LaTeX, automatically numbering all your citations in the text. Once you have completed this course you will have the skeleton of your thesis with chapter headings, table of contents, list of figures, appendices and most importantly the bibliography. This course is intended to teach you the basics and some advanced features of LaTeX, it impossible to cover every aspect in one course.

This is a standalone course and does not assume any previous knowledge of LaTeX. It is suitable for a postgraduate at any point of their PhD or Masters. The course is presented as a step-by-step tutorial that can be pursued at the learner’s own pace.


Once you have completed the course you will have the skeleton of your thesis with chapter headings, contents pages and a working bibliography. More importantly you will know how to edit this skeleton to add figures, tables and equations. In short you will able to write a professional thesis using a powerful typesetting language.

The overall content of each chapter can be seen on the syllabus page, along with an estimated time that it will take to complete that chapter. The details of each chapter can be seen on the first slide. Each objective will form one slide within the chapter. So if you are interested in the third objective then the content will be three slides further on than the objectives slide.

Hopefully you will also take advantage of the Useful Resources section which encourages you to begin learning about LaTeX packages on your own.


This course is presented as a step-by-step tutorial that you can work through at your own pace. It includes sections of code, examples and links to further resources. Each chapter follows on from the previous chapter to build up a working document. Throughout the course there are activities denoted by this symbol:

Activity - Details of the activity.



The activities are intended to guide you towards becoming independent and fluent in your use of LaTeX code.

There are also short films at the end of some of the chapters to show you working examples of what you have just learnt. Finally some chapters also have a short quiz at the end to help you ensure that you have understood the content of the chapter.

Altogether, the activities, films and quizzes are intended to help your confidence and encourage you to explore more complex sections of LaTeX code.