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# Search Results: What is the easiest way to write a research paper with equations, figures, and citations if I don't want to install LaTeX on my computer?
**Found 10 results**
### Result 1
**[Learn LaTeX — A Beginner's Step-By-Step Guide - SciSpace](https://scispace.com/guides/learn-latex-beginners-step-by-step-guide)**
**Published:** 2021-09-16 | **Last Updated:** 2026-10-11
```
LaTeX (say "Lay-tech" or "Lah-tech") is a free tool for writing clean, professional documents, and it is the standard for theses, research papers and anything with heavy math.
...
LaTeX works differently: you write plain text with simple commands, and LaTeX turns it into a polished PDF.
You focus on your content, and LaTeX handles fonts, spacing, numbering and layout.
This beginner's guide walks you through installing LaTeX, building your first document, and adding tables, images, equations and citations.
No prior experience is needed, and each section stands on its own, so you can jump to what you need.
...
Its main benefits:
- Beautiful math.
Equations, symbols and formulas look right with almost no effort.
...
- Automatic everything.
Numbering, cross-references, tables of contents, indexes and bibliographies update themselves.
- Plain-text source.
...
- Stable with big documents.
...
You have two options: install LaTeX on your computer, or use a free online editor and skip installation entirely.
### Option 1: Use an online editor
Online editors such as Overleaf run in your browser, need no setup, and make it easy to share and co-write documents.
This is the fastest way to start.
...
A LaTeX "distribution" bundles the compiler, fonts and thousands of packages.
The most common choices are:
|Your system|Recommended distribution|Notes|
|--|--|--|
|Windows|TeX Live or MiKTeX|TeX Live is the full, official-style install.
MiKTeX is lighter and downloads missing packages on demand.|
|macOS|MacTeX|Based on TeX Live.
Check its page for the macOS versions it supports.|
|Linux|TeX Live|Install through your package manager, or use the official TeX Live installer.|
To install TeX Live on Windows:
1. Go to the TeX Users Group site (tug.org) and download the official TeX Live installer.
2. Run the installer and choose an install location and default paper size (A4 or Letter).
You can change page size per document later.
3. Click Install and wait.
The full install is large, so it can take a while.
4. When it finishes, click Close and open your LaTeX editor (TeXworks comes with the install).
...
Once installed, compile a short test document (see the last section) to confirm everything works.
...
Most popular packages are already included, and you load one in your document with a single line:
latex
```
\usepackage{graphicx}
...
If you need one that is missing, here is how to add it:
- MiKTeX: It offers to download missing packages automatically the first time you compile.
- TeX Live: Use the built-in package manager.
For example, run tlmgr install packagename in a terminal.
- Manual install: Only needed for rare packages.
Download the package from CTAN (the main LaTeX package archive), run the .ins file through LaTeX to extract the files, then copy them into your local texmf folder and refresh the file database (texhash or mktexlsr on TeX Live, initexmf --update-fndb on MiKTeX).
...
Add the amsmath package to your preamble to unlock the best equation tools:
latex
```
\usepackage{amsmath}
...
Wrap short formulas in single dollar signs, or in \( and \):
...
For a numbered equation on its own line, use the equation environment.
...
Step 1: Create a file called references.bib:
...
Compile with LaTeX, then BibTeX, then LaTeX twice more.
```
---
### Result 2
**[hoffman.physics.harvard.edu › Hoffman-ExampleHow To Write a Scientific Paper and Format it Using L ATEX](https://hoffman.physics.harvard.edu/Hoffman-Example-Paper.pdf)**
**Last Updated:** 2026-09-24
```
The goal of this document is to demonstrate how to write a scientific paper.
We walk through the process of outlining, writing, formatting in LATEX, making figures, referencing, and checking style and content.
...
will be immensely more efficient for you than a process in which you collect data and start to organize them only when their collection is ‘complete’ .” Here are some con- crete steps to get started.
1. Read George Whitesides’ “How to Write a Paper” [1].
2. Read through at least one full paper in your target
journal, to get a sense of the content and writing style.
3. To clarify in your own head the purpose of your paper,
start by drafting your abstract [2].
4. Before you tackle the body of the paper, sketch block
outlines of the figures.
Decide what images and plots you will put in the paper, and how the panels will be arranged.
...
5. Outline at the paragraph level before you write.
Look
at how many paragraphs there will be in the style of paper you are trying to write.
...
Figure out how to tell your entire story (not numbers, just story!) in 13 stand-alone sentences.
6. Make each of those sentences into the first sentence
of a paragraph, and fill into each paragraph only de- tails that are relevant to that first sentence.
...
7. If you think of references as you go, you can include the
...
The APS author website [8] lists acceptable submission formats as: REVTeX (pre- ferred), LATEX, or MSWord.
It is sensible to draft your paper in LATEX/REVTeX from the beginning.
You will need a reference manager, a text editor, and a LATEX com- piler.
...
[Overleaf] Here we recommend the online LATEX
compiler Overleaf (http://www.overleaf.com/) for text editing and compiling.
...
ShareLATEX) is an online platform that is great for col- laborative writing: it tracks changes and even has a real- time chat function.
1. Choose & install a reference management software,
such as:
• Mendeley: http://www.mendeley.com/
(For Mendeley usage tips, see appendix B.)
• Papers: http://www.papersapp.com/
• Endnote: http://www.endnote.com/
2. Make an account on Overleaf:
http://www.overleaf.com/
3. Download the source files for this example paper [9].
4. Copy the tex and bib files into a new overleaf
...
[Formatting checklist] Whether you are using a
compiler on your computer or online, please use the latest version of REVTeX, and check your formatting carefully.
□Check math & symbolic formatting, as in Table I.
...
□Use \label{tab:name} and \ref{tab:name} to refer
to tables.
Ref. [10] is an automatic table generator.
...
□Number all equations.
But do not separately number
each line of a single multi-line equation.
□Use \label{eqn:name} and \ref{eqn:name} to refer
to equations.
□If the equation is mid-paragraph, use \noindent at
the beginning of the first line following the equation.
...
□Use the active voice.
...
□Remove redundancy, including redundancy between
main text and figure captions.
...
□Check that all equations are dimensionally correct.
□For each equation, define all symbols in a previous
equation or in the surrounding text.
□Report each quantity consistently throughout the text
...
□Check that all numbers have units.
□Use reasonable significant figures, report errors where
...
[Use vector format] Figures should typically be
made in Python, Adobe Illustrator, or other program that allows vector format export, so that all fonts, ar- rows, etc.
will scale cleanly when a reader zooms into the final PDF on their screen.
...
□Use consistent font type, ideally Arial.
□Use consistent font size, at least size 6.
□Label all axes, with units.
□Each plot should have a legend that describes all sym-
...
□Appropriately cite all copied figures or data, in the
caption of the figure.
□Use \label{fig:name} within the caption, and use
\ref{fig:name} in the paper to refer to it.
...
Please use BibTeX.
You can use this code:
...
□Spend 5 minutes to use find-replace with regular ex-
pressions to delete the abstracts, keywords, and other useless information from your bib file, to make it easier to read.
□Alphabetize the bib entries by author last name, so
that it will be easy to notice if there are duplicates.
...
□The
...
should
be
generated
...
the
...
so make sure every bib entry has a valid
...
□Make sure that all authors are listed in your bib
entry.
...
□Use longbibliography in the documentclass at the
top of the tex file, so that the title of each paper ap- pears in the references.
...
□In the compiled PDF, check all the references carefully
to make sure they have correctly formatted authors, titles, and hyperlinks.
```
---
### Result 3
**[Installing and Using LaTeX - Cornell Math Department](https://pi.math.cornell.edu/~noonan/tex.html)**
**Last Updated:** 2026-10-08
```
## Installing the Typesetter
The typesetter is the program which actually does the hard work of laying out your document and turning it into a nice PDF file.
On Windows, you should download and install MiKTeX.
When you install MiKTeX, be sure to choose "Letter" instead of "A4" for your default paper size.
On a Mac, there are several options for LaTeX installations.
The easiest to use is MacTeX.
This is an absurdly large installation, but it contains every possible thing that you would ever want to do with LaTeX.
If you don't want to install 750 megabytes of stuff, you can go with the much more reasonable BasicTeX package.
On Linux, you probably already have LaTeX installed or can easily install it through whatever package system you use.
...
## Installing an Editor
You can write .tex files using any text editor like Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on a Mac.
But it is easier to get a LaTeX editor which already knows how to do all the typesetting for you.
These editors will also color your LaTeX file to make the structure and any errors easy to see, and add support for spell-checking and other amenities.
On Windows, most people use WinEdt.
On Macs, TeXShop is the most popular.
...
## Writing a LaTeX File
The easiest way to learn TeX is to just mess around with a sample file like this one.
This is a sample showing how to use graphics in a TeX file.
To compile the file, you also need to download this graphic and put it in the same folder as the TeX file.
...
## More LaTeX Information
Try working with the sample file and modifying things bit by bit to get an idea of how it all works.
```
---
### Result 4
**[A Template (with Tips for Managing MS Word)](https://www.dickinson.edu/download/downloads/id/68/managingmsword)**
**Last Updated:** 2025-10-16
```
This document is intended as an outline for writing scientific papers.
It contains all of the important sections that should be included in a scientific paper, as well as descriptions of what should be included in each of these sections.
It also contains some useful tips on
how to use Microsoft Word to write scientific papers.
The easiest way to use this document is as a template, inserting your text and
figures as described below.
...
This paper contains a general outline of the information
that should be included in a scientific paper.
It provides a
good template from which you can easily structure a paper.
...
A clear description of how
any data was collected should be included, as well as some presentation of the raw data, generally in graphical format.
Any analysis performed on the data should be outlined clearly.
Analysis and conclusions drawn from the analysis
...
Finally, every paper should end with a references section.
A scientific paper without any references indicates that the author believes that every thought conveyed in the paper is original.
Any information that you obtain from another source should be cited.
The only exception is for facts, relationships or concepts that are considered common
knowledge.
...
When in doubt, make a reference.
...
This document will also serve as a template for producing professional looking papers in MS Word.
...
If you start with a non-trivial expression that you
had to look up somewhere, either in a book, a paper, or your notes, you should include a citation and reference.
All equations should be incorporated into the text using a program designed to properly format equations.
LaTex,
MathType, and MS Equation Editor are common programs.
You can insert equations easily into a document using MS
Equation Editor.
It is not the best, or the prettiest, but it works.
Putting in equation numbers is not natural for Word, so this template contains a simple macro to do this.
If you have MathType, it works better, so use it.
...
Your paper should contain a section describing/presenting
your raw results.
Often you will be able to do this by
...
Remember that whenever you
use an equation, graph or table, it should be referred to in the
text.
...
You must include a references section in any scientific
paper.
To omit the references section is to almost certainly
commit plagiarism.
As mentioned before, you should include references whenever you have used information
from another source.
...
To avoid this, always put figures and captions inline, rather than as overlays.
```
---
### Result 5
**[The Scientific Paper: A Template (with Tips for Managing MS](https://www.dickinson.edu/download/downloads/id/69/managingmsword2009)**
**Last Updated:** 2025-10-19
```
This document is intended as an outline for
writing scientific papers.
It contains all of the important sections that should be included in a scientific paper, as well as descriptions of what should be included in each of these sec- tions.
It also contains some useful tips on how to use Microsoft Word to write scientific pa-
pers.
The easiest way to use this document is
as a template, inserting your text and figures as described below.
...
It
provides a good template from which you can easily
structure a paper.
...
lected should be included, as well as some presentation of the raw data, generally in graphical format.
Any analysis performed on the data should be outlined clearly.
...
Finally, every paper should end with a references
section.
...
Any information that you obtain from another source should be cited.
...
This document will also serve as a template for produc- ing professional looking papers in MS Word.
...
If you start with a non-trivial expression
that you had to look up somewhere, either in a book, a paper, or your notes, you should include a citation and reference.
All equations should be incorporated into the text us- ing a program designed to properly format equations.
LaTex, MathType, and MS Equation Editor are com- mon programs.
You can insert equations easily into a document using MS Equation Editor.
It is not the best, or the prettiest, but it works.
Putting in equation num- bers is not natural for Word, so this template contains a simple macro to do this.
If you have MathType, it works better, so use it.
...
Your paper should contain a section describing/
presenting your raw results.
Often you will be able to do
this by including graphs and/or tables of data.
...
Remember that when-
ever you use an equation, graph or table, it should be
referred to in the text.
...
You must include a references section in any scientific
paper.
To omit the references section is to almost certainly
commit plagiarism.
```
---
### Result 6
**[LaTeX Tutorial - Cornell: Computer Science](https://www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs4820/2011sp/handouts/tutorial2.html)**
**Last Updated:** 2026-10-09
```
basics include the general Section, subsection model, how to enter equations,
and how to turn your tex file into a pdf.
...
pdflatex is the command you will use to convert your .tex files to .pdf
files and it's all you'll need for most documents.
...
Installing everything you need to get started in a Linux based OS is extremely
simple.
The preferred package is texlive.
...
Download the packages/installer here: http://www.miktex.org/2.9/setup (I'll assume you got the full packages, and be warned it will take a while to download.)
- ****(ii)****
From here run the installer.
...
Installing latex on Mac the easy way:
- ****(i)****
Download the MacTex Package here: http://mirror.ctan.org/systems/mac/mactex/MacTeX.mpkg.zip
- ****(ii)****
Unzip the downloaded file and run the .mpkg file to install latex.
...
First create a new tex file.
This simply means opening your favorite text editor
(vim, emacs, notepad++, notepad, nano, gedit, etc) and save a file with a .tex
extension.
...
The text of a document begins with
```
\begin{document}
```
and ends with
```
\end{document}
```
...
There are two main ways
of inserting equations in LaTex: by enclosing things with dollar signs for
in-line equations and by enclosing equations with the equation environment
(\begin{equation} ... \end{equation}) for
equations broken out from the text.
You get exponents with a caret (^) and subscripts with an underscore (_) for
arguments to the exponent or subscript, be sure to enclose them in { and }!
You insert special symbols with \SYMBOLNAME for example
\epsilon (), \gamma (), \geq (), and \in ().
...
We need to include a package called graphicx which should come bundled with your installation of LaTeX.
Once that is included, all we needs to do to include a picture into our document is to use the line:
...
The simplest way to do this is to use the `thebibliography` environment.
```
---
### Result 7
**[LaTeX Installation and Editors - Library Guides - Penn State](https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/latex)**
**Published:** 2016-03-31 | **Last Updated:** 2026-10-03
```
# LaTeX : LaTeX Installation and Editors
## Getting Started With LaTeX
### About LaTeX
LaTeX is a document typesetting system that can produce attractive articles, books, and slides.
It is especially useful when writing documents that have a lot of mathematical notation.
...
## Obtaining LaTeX
### Accessing LaTeX
There are a few online LaTeX editors out there, as listed in the next box, if you want to try out some of the code examples in your browser.
...
The other option is to install LaTeX on your computer.
The easiest way to get LaTeX on your computer is to install a distribution, which is sort of like a package of LaTeX along with things like font support and a lot of other stuff.
It is possible to just install a bare bones LaTeX compiler, but that's a bit harder to do.
...
### LaTeX distributions
You want to download either proTeXt for Windows or MacTeX for Macs.
These can be downloaded as executable files from the LaTeX project website.
- ProText (for Windows) ** This link opens in a new window
- MiKTeX (for Windows) ** This link opens in a new window
MiKTeX distribution is more appropriate if you wish to download a more portable version, such as one you may use on a flash drive.
...
Once the executable is downloaded, you can run it to install on your computer.
...
As it states in that guide, you have to install MiKTeX but TeXstudio is optional.
For now, we recommend forgoing TeXstudio and use TeXworks as your editor instead (which is included in the MiKTeX package already).
You’ll want to be sure to install the MiKTeX in the directory where you plan to create and save your LaTeX documents, such as in the ‘My Documents’ folder or subfolder (we recommend a subfolder such as LaTeX files because you don’t want to overload your My Documents folder with a lot of LaTeX files).
...
### LaTeX Editors
Unlike a word processor, entering LaTeX code and working with it requires an editor.
There are a few editors designed to work specifically with LaTeX, and some of the distributions include editors.
There are also plenty of text editors with LaTeX support.
In this guide we will be focusing on TeXworks.
...
## Using the LaTeX Editor
The LaTeX editor is the window that pops up when you open TeXworks via the icon or start-menu prompt.
...
**Note:** When you first compile the document, use the basic pdfLaTeX compiler first as this will create the scaffolding necessary for the document.
After you do this, you can change back to the combined compilers.
The pdfLaTeX, MakeIndex, and BibTex compilers will work best for most uses.
```
---
### Result 8
**[Managing Your Research∗](https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/stanton/pdf/manage.pdf)**
**Last Updated:** 2026-09-28
```
This document describes some useful tools and methods for making your research more efficient and organized.
...
There are several public hosting services that make it extremely simple to host your central repository. The most widely used is GitHub, and I recommend you start by setting up an account there. The repositories you host there can be either public (open to everyone) or private (accessible only to those you explicitly designate).
...
LATEX
While you could write your research papers using MS Word, don’t! Use LATEX, a document typesetting system based on Knuth’s program TEX (Knuth, 1984a). LATEX makes it rela- tively simple to produce papers with high-quality equations and error-free cross-references to equations, tables, and figures, and to handle creation and formatting of bibliographies and citations.4
...
# Desktop Mac
Get installed
1. If you do not already have one, set up an account on GitHub.13
2. If you do not already have one, set up an account on Overleaf.14
...
3. Install Git on your personal computer.15
4. Install a full LATEX distribution on your personal computer (see Stanton, 2013).16
5. Install the full Anaconda Python distribution (version 3.8) on your personal computer.17
This includes Jupyter.
6. (Optional) If you want to use Julia, install it on your personal computer.18
7. Install GNU Make on your personal computer.19
8. Install an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) on your personal computer.
```
---
### Result 9
**[www.overleaf.com · learn · latexFree online introduction to LaTeX (part 1) - Overleaf](https://www.overleaf.com/learn/latex/Free_online_introduction_to_LaTeX_(part_1))**
**Last Updated:** 2026-10-03
```
Welcome to the first part of our free online course to help you learn $\mathrm\LaTeX$.
If you have never used LaTeX before, or if it has been a while and you would like a refresher, this is the place to start.
This course will get you writing LaTeX right away with interactive exercises that can be completed online, so you don't have to download and install LaTeX on your own computer.
In this part of the course, we'll take you through the basics of how LaTeX works, explain how to get started, and go through lots of examples.
Core LaTeX concepts, such as commands, environments, and packages, are introduced as they arise.
In particular, we'll cover:
- Setting up a LaTeX Document
- Typesetting Text
- Handling LaTeX Errors
- Typesetting Equations
- Using LaTeX Packages
In part two and part three, we'll build up to writing beautiful structured documents with figures, tables and automatic bibliographies, and then show you how to apply the same skills to make professional presentations with beamer and advanced drawings with TikZ.
```
---
### Result 10
**[[PDF] The Scientific Paper: A Template with Tips for Working with LATEX](https://www.dickinson.edu/download/downloads/id/67/tipsforlatex)**
**Last Updated:** 2026-02-07
```
This paper should serve as an outline for writing scientific papers.
It contains all of the important sections that should be included in scientific paper as well as descriptions of what should be included in each of these sections.
It also contains some useful tips on how to use LATEX to write scientific papers.
The easiest way is to use this document as a template and insert your text and figures as described in the text below.
...
It
provides a good template within which you can easily write a paper.
...
A clear description of how any data was collected should be included as well as a description of the raw data, gen- erally in graphical format.
...
Finally, every paper should end with a references section.
A scientific paper without any references, indicates that the author believes that every thought conveyed in the paper is original.
Any informa- tion that you obtain from another source should be cited.
...
This document will serve as a template
for producing professional looking papers in LATEX.
...
All equations should be incorporated into the text us- ing a program designed to properly format equations.
LATEX is designed to handle equations, equation num- bering, and cross referencing to sections, equations, and figures with ease.
In fact, you do not need to worry about numbering any sections or equations, that will be done for you automatically.
You may want to refer back to an equation, figure, or section.
To do so, you simply la- bel the appropriate item and then refer back to it when needed.
...
You must also include a references section in any sci- entific paper.
...
All you do is add a “bibitem” to thebibliography and give it a label.
Then, whenever you
want to refer to it, you use a \cite{} command.
```
---