write thesis in overleaf

Overleaf for Scholarly Writing & Publication: LaTeX Theses and Dissertations

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• LaTeX Theses and Dissertations

LaTeX Theses and Dissertatons

Tips and tools for writing your LaTeX thesis or dissertation in  Overleaf, including templates, managing references , and getting started guides.

Managing References

BibTeX  is a file format used for lists of references for  LaTeX  documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate  BibTeX  files of your library or folders for use in your  LaTeX  documents.

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Getting Started with Your Thesis or Dissertation

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the  Overleaf Gallery .

You can  upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery   if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other  tutorial videos   if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

How to Write your Thesis/Dissertation in LaTeX: A Five-Part Guide

Five-Part LaTeX Thesis/Dissertation  Writing Guide

Part 1: Basic Structure   corresponding  video

Part 2: Page Layout   corresponding  video

Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables   corresponding  video

Part 4: Bibliographies with Biblatex  corresponding  video

Part 5: Customizing Your Title Page and Abstract   corresponding  video

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Overleaf is a collaborative, online LaTeX editor and scientific writing and publishing tool. It's features include real-time track changes, unlimited collaborators, and full document history. It is designed to make the process of writing, editing and producing your research papers and project reports much quicker. Overleaf can also be linked to other services to best fit into your workflow.

Managing References

BibTeX is a file format used for lists of references for LaTeX documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate BibTeX files of your library or folders for use in your LaTeX documents.

LaTeX on Wikibooks has a Bibliography Management page.

Find list of BibTeX styles available on Overleaf here

View a video tutorial on how to include a bibliography using BibTeX  here

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Getting started with your thesis or dissertation

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the Overleaf Gallery .

You can upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos  if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

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Contact Overleaf   or email [email protected]

5-part Guide on How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX

5-part LaTeX Thesis Writing Guide

Part 1: Basic Structure corresponding  video

Part 2: Page Layout corresponding  video

Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables   corresponding video

Part 4: Bibliographies with Biblatex corresponding video

Part 5: Customizing Your Title Page and Abstract corresponding video

ShareLaTeX Joins Overleaf!

Read more about Overleaf and ShareLaTeX joining forces here

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See Overleaf news   on  our blog.

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• Last Updated: Feb 16, 2022 2:41 PM
• URL: https://library.essex.ac.uk/overleaf_theses

LaTeX Authoring With Overleaf: Theses in LaTeX

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Caltech Thesis LaTeX template in Overleaf

As of January 2016, the Caltech Overleaf portal offers thesis authors a LaTeX template that reflects the regulations of the Office of Graduate Studies and the requirements of the Institute. There are two versions of the thesis template available: one with the approved Caltech logo; the other without a logo.

Downloading Overleaf template files

You can download the Overleaf template files as zip files to your own computer if you prefer to use them that way. Open up a blank thesis template on the Overleaf site, then click on Project at the top of the screen. A green box labeled “Download as ZIP” will show up in the left column, and you can choose which types of files you want to download.

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How to effectively use List of Symbols for a thesis?

I am looking at some thesis templates online, and virtually all of them have a line that says:

\chapter*{List of Symbols} \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Symbols}

For example:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/latexusersgroup/tfHpC9MvpsI https://gist.github.com/FuzzyWuzzie/4678259

But absolutely no instruction as to how to add symbols onto this list! How do I start adding symbols to this list?

One source online said the way to add new symbols to this page is to create a table under this chapter:

But I would like to add symbols as I go so the symbols on different chapters are "hyperlinked" with the list of symbols when they are defined.

I wish to achieve this using something like \addsymbol{\beta: name of a cat} .

Is there a way to do that without creating a separate table of symbols?

• table-of-contents

• 1 A general way to do it would be for \addsymbol to write the information to an auxiliary file which is then read back into the main file. (This is how things like the table of contents and indices are made.) –  jon Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 3:16
• 3 Also have a look at the glossaries package –  siracusa Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 7:07
• 3 A template that defines a List of symbols that way tricks you into doing stuff by hand. If you want stuff automated have a look at acro or glossaries , but they might be overkill. –  Johannes_B Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 8:14
• 6 Templates are most often not an example of good practice and usability. Quite the contrary, actually. –  Johannes_B Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 8:15
• 1 For example, one of my answers with glossaries and symbols here: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/192666/appendix-list-of-symbols/… ? –  user31729 Commented Jan 14, 2017 at 8:43

Both the glossaries package and the glossaries-extra extension package provide the package option symbols , which creates a new list labelled symbols with the default title given by the language-sensitive \glssymbolsgroupname ("Symbols"). This list can be referenced with type=symbols . If you don't use this package option then you can use the default main glossary instead but the default title will be obtained from \glossaryname ("Glossary").

Table 1.1: Glossary Options: Pros and Cons in the glossaries manual summarises the key differences between the various options described below, and the glossaries performance page evaluates the performance (build time and sorting) of the various methods.

Method 1 (no external tools required, manual sorting)

This is the simplest method as it doesn't require any addition to the build process. Requires at least v1.08 of the glossaries-extra package.

Pros and Cons:

• you need to define the entries in the required order;
• there's no page list associated with each entry in the symbol list (although it's possible to add this manually);
• all defined entries will be included in the list regardless of whether or not they have been used in the document;
• all entries must be defined before the list is displayed;
• no external tools are required.

The first three points also apply to the manual method in your question that uses the tabular environment. The fourth point is automatically ensured by glossaries-extra 's default behaviour, which prohibits entries from being defined in the document environment. (If you have a lot of symbols, I recommend you put the definitions in a separate file and load it in the preamble using \input or \loadglsentries .)

Each symbol must first be defined. If the symbols package option is used, this can be done with \glsxtrnewsymbol[ options ]{ label }{ symbol } . The symbol can then be referenced in the document using \gls{ label } . For example, the symbol $t$ can be defined with the label t using:

It can then be referenced using \gls{t} . An alternative way of defining this symbol is:

or (if the symbols glossary has been defined):

The \glsxtrnewsymbol command is more compact and is more appropriate for symbols, but the symbols package option is required to provide it.

With this method, I recommend the sort=none package option, as this switches off the redundant construction of the sort key. (This option may not be available if you have an old version of glossaries .)

If the file is called mydoc.tex , then the build process is:

(Replace pdflatex with xelatex etc as appropriate.) The second instance of pdflatex is only needed here to ensure the table of contents and the PDF bookmarks are up-to-date.

This produces the symbol list:

The list of symbols is automatically added to the table of contents:

You can change the title using the title key:

I've used the long style, which is the closest match to your tabular example, but there are many predefined styles to choose from .

Make sure hyperref is loaded before glossaries-extra . (This is contrary to the general rule that hyperref should be loaded last.) This will allow commands like \gls to link to the relevant entry in the list of symbols.

It is possible to include a location, but as with all manual methods, this can be tiresome an error-prone. The following example only includes a location for the first symbol:

The record option (amongst other things), creates a field called location which \printunsrtglossary checks for. The list of symbols now looks like:

Method 2 (using an external tool to sort)

This method is more complicated as it requires an extra step in the build process. It's much like the previous example, but there are a few modifications:

• The nonumberlist option is added to suppress the location list that would automatically appear after each entry in the symbol list. (Remove this option if you actually want the locations.)
• The command \makeglossaries must be added to the preamble (before the symbols are defined).
• The command \printunsrtglossary must be replaced with \printglossary .
• the entries are listed alphabetically (according to their sort value);
• each entry in the list can have a list of locations where that symbol has been used (with \gls ) in the document;
• only those entries used (with \gls ) in the document are included in the list;
• entries may be defined in the document (but this must be enabled with the docdef=restricted or docdef=true package option, which has some potentially problematic issues) ;
• an external tool is required in the build process.

Modified example:

Assuming the file is called mydoc.tex , the build process is:

makeglossaries is a Perl script, so you need Perl installed to use it . If you don't have Perl, there's a light-weight Lua alternative called makeglossaries-lite which you can use instead. (Since modern TeX distributions come with LuaTeX, you should have a Lua interpreter already available.) The build process in this case is:

( makeglossaries-lite is actually distributed as makeglossaries-lite.lua , but TeX Live on Unix-like systems strip the .lua extension. I don't use Windows, but I think the extension can be omitted there as I believe the Windows distributions convert the Lua script to an executable makeglossaries-lite.exe .)

This produces an ordered list of symbols where the sort order is obtained from the first required argument of \glsxtrnewsymbol , which is also the label used to identify the term. If \newglossaryentry is used instead, the sort defaults to the name field, which causes problems for symbols that are defined in terms of LaTeX commands, such as \alpha or \sum . (This is why \glsxtrnewsymbol uses the label instead.)

Without the nonumberlist option the list includes a location list:

In this case, each location list consists of the number 3, which is the page on which all instances of \gls occur. You can switch to another counter if you prefer (for example, using the counter package option). The postpunc option allows a way of automatically inserting a punctuation character after the description but it's best used with the stylemods option. For example:

You can change the sort value using the sort key in the optional argument of \glsxtrnewsymbol . For example:

How you actually run makeglossaries / makeglossaries-lite depends on your setup. See, for example:

• How to makeglossaries with TeXworks?
• Incorporating makeglossaries or makeglossaries-lite or bib2gls into the document build .

If you're really stuck you can use the automake package option:

This doesn't have the diagnostic tools provided by makeglossaries and requires the shell escape.

Both makeglossaries and makeglossaries-lite call an indexing application. You can call it directly, but you need to know all the necessary switches and file extensions. (The Perl and Lua scripts provided with the glossaries package find the necessary information in the .aux file.) The default behaviour is to use makeindex . You can switch to xindy by adding xindy to the list of package options:

(Note that xindy is a Perl script, so you need Perl installed to use it.) In the above example, there's no difference since \glsxtrnewsymbol sets the sort field to the label, which only contains ASCII characters.

Things become much more complicated if you directly use \newglossaryentry and the name field contains commands. For example:

In this case, the sort field is obtained from the name field, but neither makeindex nor xindy understand LaTeX commands. In the case of makeindex , it treats \ensuremath{\alpha} as a string containing 19 characters, starting with \ so the result is:

This doesn't follow the natural ordering of Greek letters (which should be α δ ζ λ χ) and will position the Greek symbols before Latin symbols (since \ is ordered before a by makeindex ).

This example fails completely with xindy . If you use the makeglossaries-lite script, it fails with a cryptic message. If I just modify the document so that it includes the xindy package option:

then makeglossaries-lite reports:

This is because the document doesn't have the codepage set. This needs to be added:

(This isn't necessary with makeglossaries which falls back on -L english -C utf8 if this information is omitted.) However, even with this information, makeglossaries-lite fails with xindy 's rather cryptic message:

Switching to makeglossaries provides a more intelligible explanation:

So with xindy you must supply a sensible sort value (or use \glsxtrnewsymbol to default to the label) for entries that only contain commands in the name field.

Method 3 (no external tools required, order by use in the document)

To order the symbol list according to the first time the symbol is used in the document, you need to make the following changes:

• Add sort=use
• Replace \makeglossaries with \makenoidxglossaries
• Replace \printglossary with \printnoidxglossary
• entries may be listed in alphabetical order (not recommended with this method) or by order of use ( sort=use , as in this example) or by order of definition ( sort=def );
• all entries must be defined in the preamble;

As you might be able to gather from the first point, you can also use this method as a substitute for the other two methods. However, when sorting alphabetically, Method 2 is far more efficient and can support various locales (when used with the xindy option), although this may not be applicable for symbols (especially when they just contain ASCII characters). For a large list, this method can take a long time when sorting alphabetically . When sorting by definition ( sort=def ), this method differs from Method 1 as it only includes those entries that have been used in the document (whereas Method 1 lists all defined entries).

Adjusted example (third page modified to show effect):

The build process is back to:

The list of symbols now looks like:

Again, removing the nonumberlist option makes the location list appear:

Things go badly wrong if you use this method with the default alphabetical sorting when the sort value contains commands. Adjusting the earlier example with Greek symbols:

During sorting, the following error occurs:

This method is only designed for ASCII sorting. With this method, you must ensure that the sort value doesn't contain any commands (for example, use \glsxtrnewsymbol which obtains the sort value from the label) or use sort=def or sort=use .

Method 4 (external tool and .bib file(s) required)

This is a fairly new method. Instead of using makeindex or xindy (via makeglossaries or makeglossaries-lite ), it requires bib2gls , which performs two functions:

• se­lects en­tries ac­cord­ing to records found in the .aux file (sim­i­lar to bib­tex );
• hi­er­ar­chi­cally sorts en­tries and col­lates lo­ca­tion lists (sim­i­lar to makein­dex or xindy ).
• you need to define the entries in a .bib file (not in the document);
• bib2gls allows any location format or you may instruct it to omit the location list;
• you can instruct bib2gls to select all defined entries or only recorded entries (and optionally their dependencies);
• can interpret common symbol commands;
• can sort according to locale, character code, letter-number mix, numeric, date, time, order of definition, order of use, or can shuffle or omit the sorting;
• requires at least Java 7.

The symbols are now defined in a .bib file. For example, instead of:

the symbol is defined as:

Alternatively, instead of

(The type field has been omitted, as it's more flexible to assign it in the document.) As with \glsxtrnewsymbol , the @symbol definition uses the label as the fall back for the sort field, whereas the @entry definition uses the name as the fall back.

For example, the file greek-symbols.bib may contain:

The document needs the record package option. Instead of nonumberlist I can instruct bib2gls to not save the location list (which is more efficient). Instead of \makeglossaries / \makenoidxglossaries you need to use \GlsXtrLoadResources :

This uses \printunsrtglossary from the earlier Method 1. Unlike the other methods, bib2gls works by selecting only those entries that are required and then writes the definition ( \newglossaryentry ) to the file input by \GlsXtrLoadResources in the appropriate order. This means that \printunsrtglossary automatically lists the entries in the requested order (since that's the order of definition from glossaries-extra 's point of view).

The build process is now

This produces:

(Remove save-locations=false if you want the location list.)

Since bib2gls recognises commands like \ensuremath{\alpha} , it's used the correct Greek order. Alternatively you can instruct bib2gls to sort by the description instead:

If the file latin-symbols.bib similarly contains the Latin symbols:

Then they can be combined:

or separated into two distinct groups within the same glossary:

The group setting requires the --group (or -g ) switch when calling bib2gls :

This setting also requires a style that supports group headings, which is why I changed to the style to altlistgroup .

• If $$ is allowed instead of ensuremath it would be less typing and easy. –  alhelal Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 17:17
• bib2gls results exception. –  alhelal Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 17:31
• paste.ubuntu.com/p/r8q5fndNKY –  alhelal Commented Oct 23, 2018 at 17:40
• 2 This answer is great, thank you very much! I have some questions: 1. I use latexmk because it is easier to use with VS Codium. Is there a way to use bib2gls with it if I want to use method 4? 2. In method 3 (or any other), is there a way to group the entries the same way it is done in method 4? –  Pedro G. Mattos Commented Apr 11, 2020 at 3:54

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Overleaf for LaTeX Theses & Dissertations: Using Templates on Overleaf

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Start your projects with quality LaTeX templates for journals, theses, dissertations, CVs, resumes, papers, presentations, posters, assignments, letters, project reports, and more.

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(If your University has an official thesis template published on Overleaf, you can customize this box accordingly with a link to the template)

Write your thesis using the official ' Name of University goes here ' thesis template

Find your University's template on Overleaf here ( insert link to official LaTeX thesis template on Overleaf Gallery or custom Overleaf institutional portal template page ).

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Dissertations and Theses

Tips and tools for writing your LaTeX thesis or dissertation in Overleaf, including templates, managing references , and getting started guides.

Getting started with your thesis or dissertation

How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it - nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced pdf, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Review this video from Overleaf to help you get started writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard thesis template from the Overleaf Gallery .

You can upload your own thesis template to the Overleaf Gallery if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files or you may find your university's thesis template already in the Overleaf Gallery.

This video assumes you've used LaTeX before and are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos  if not), and focuses on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

5-part Guide on How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX

5-part LaTeX Thesis Writing Guide

Part 1: Basic Structure corresponding  video

Part 2: Page Layout corresponding  video

Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables   corresponding video

Part 4: Bibliographies with Biblatex corresponding video

Part 5: Customizing Your Title Page and Abstract corresponding video

Managing References

BibTeX is a file format used for lists of references for LaTeX documents. Many citation management tools support the ability to export and import lists of references in .bib format. Some reference management tools can generate BibTeX files of your library or folders for use in your LaTeX documents.

LaTeX on Wikibooks has a Bibliography Management page.

Find list of BibTeX styles available on Overleaf here

View a video tutorial on how to include a bibliography using BibTeX  here

Collaborate with Overleaf

Collaboration tools

Every project you create has a secret link. Just send it to your co-authors, and they can review, comment and edit. Overleaf synchronizes changes from all authors, so everyone always has the latest version. More advanced tools include protected projects and integration with Git.

Collaborate online and offline with Overleaf and Git

Protected projects with Overleaf Pro

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Link your ORCiD account to your Overleaf account.

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How to Write a Thesis in LaTeX (Part 4): Bibliographies with BibLaTeX

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5

Author: Josh Cassidy (August 2013)

This five-part series of articles uses a combination of video and textual descriptions to teach the basics of writing a thesis using LaTeX. These tutorials were first published on the original ShareLateX blog site during August 2013; consequently, today's editor interface (Overleaf) has changed considerably due to the development of ShareLaTeX and the subsequent merger of ShareLaTeX and Overleaf. However, much of the content is still relevant and teaches you some basic LaTeX—skills and expertise that will apply across all platforms.

In the previous post we looked at using images and tables in our thesis. In this post we are going to look at adding a bibliography to our thesis. To do this we are going to use the biblatex package . This involves creating a list of sources in a separate file called a .bib file.

The Bib File

When we create this file we need to choose a name for it and save it as a .bib file rather than a .tex file.

Now every time we need to reference a source we can cite it in the text and then fill in the source details in the .bib file. First we'll look at filling in our .bib file and then we'll move on to discussing citations. To add a new entry to our .bib file we need to first tell BibLaTeX what type of source we are referencing. We do this using an @ symbol followed immediately by the source type.

Then comes an opening curly bracket and a citation key of our choice followed by a comma. We then need to tell it all the details it wants for that particular type of source. We do this using a list of keywords each followed by an equals sign and the corresponding information in curly brackets. Items in the list are separated by commas. Each recognised source type has a list of required details which we must provide. But we'll often want to give more details. For example, for an article entry we need to use the author , title , journaltitle and year or date keywords. For an online source we need to use the author or editor , title , year or date and url keywords, and finally for a book it's the author , title and year or date keywords. Here's an example of what they might look like filled-in:

All of the information about the recognised source types and all the keywords you can use can be found in the biblatex documentation .

Now let's return to the main .tex file. To set it up for a bibliography we need to load up the biblatex package using the \usepackage command. Also in the preamble we need to specify which .bib files we want to use by calling the \addbibresource command and entering the file name in the curly brackets including the .bib extension.

Now let's look at citations. To cite a source in the text we use one of the biblatex citation commands. The simplest is the \cite command which prints the citation without any brackets unless you are using the numeric or alphabetic styles. We'll discuss styles a little later on. For example we may cite a source in the text like this:

Another one is the \parencite command which prints citations in parentheses except when using the numeric or alphabetic styles when it uses square brackets. There are more citation commands available to you which again can be found in the biblatex documentation .

The citation commands in biblatex also give us the option of adding a prenote and postnote in as arguments:

• a prenote is a word or phrase like "see" that is inserted at the start of the citation;
• a postnote is text you want inserted at the end of the citation.

To add these notes in you uses two sets of square brackets in the citation command. If you only open one set of square brackets it will assume the contents of the brackets is a postnote , so if you only want a prenote make sure you still open the second set of square brackets and then just leave them empty. Here are some examples:

Now to actually get the bibliography printed in our thesis we use the \printbibliography command at the end of the document. By default the bibliography and citations use the numeric style which looks like this:

To change the style we pass more arguments into the \usepackage command in square brackets. For example this specifies the alphabetic style:

Which looks like this:

And this is the authoryear style:

Another thing we can change here is the way the bibliography is ordered. For example this sorts entries by year , name , title :

While this doesn't sort them at all but displays them in the order they are cited.

More information about the numerous styles and sorting options available can be found in the biblatex documentation . This concludes our discussion on adding a bibliography. In the final post of this series we'll look at customising some of the opening pages.

All articles in this series

• Part 1: Basic Structure ;
• Part 2: Page Layout ;
• Part 3: Figures, Subfigures and Tables ;
• Part 4: Bibliographies with BibLaTeX ;
• Part 5: Customising Your Title Page and Abstract .
• Documentation Home
• Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes

Overleaf guides

• Creating a document in Overleaf
• Uploading a project
• Copying a project
• Creating a project from a template
• Using the Overleaf project menu
• Including images in Overleaf
• Exporting your work from Overleaf
• Working offline in Overleaf
• Using Track Changes in Overleaf
• Using bibliographies in Overleaf
• Sharing your work with others
• Using the History feature
• Debugging Compilation timeout errors
• How-to guides
• Guide to Overleaf’s premium features

LaTeX Basics

• Creating your first LaTeX document
• Choosing a LaTeX Compiler
• Paragraphs and new lines
• Bold, italics and underlining

Mathematics

• Mathematical expressions
• Subscripts and superscripts
• Brackets and Parentheses
• Fractions and Binomials
• Aligning equations
• Spacing in math mode
• Integrals, sums and limits
• Display style in math mode
• List of Greek letters and math symbols
• Mathematical fonts
• Using the Symbol Palette in Overleaf

Figures and tables

• Inserting Images
• Positioning Images and Tables
• Lists of Tables and Figures
• Drawing Diagrams Directly in LaTeX
• TikZ package

References and Citations

• Bibliography management with bibtex
• Bibliography management with natbib
• Bibliography management with biblatex
• Bibtex bibliography styles
• Natbib bibliography styles
• Natbib citation styles
• Biblatex bibliography styles
• Biblatex citation styles
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using polyglossia and fontspec
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec
• International language support
• Quotations and quotation marks

Document structure

• Sections and chapters
• Table of contents
• Cross referencing sections, equations and floats
• Nomenclatures
• Management in a large project
• Multi-file LaTeX projects
• Lengths in L a T e X
• Headers and footers
• Page numbering
• Paragraph formatting
• Line breaks and blank spaces
• Text alignment
• Page size and margins
• Single sided and double sided documents
• Multiple columns
• Code listing
• Code Highlighting with minted
• Using colours in LaTeX
• Margin notes
• Font sizes, families, and styles
• Font typefaces
• Supporting modern fonts with X Ǝ L a T e X

Presentations

• Environments

Field specific

• Theorems and proofs
• Chemistry formulae
• Feynman diagrams
• Molecular orbital diagrams
• Chess notation
• Knitting patterns
• CircuiTikz package
• Pgfplots package
• Typesetting exams in LaTeX
• Attribute Value Matrices

Class files

• Understanding packages and class files
• List of packages and class files
• Writing your own package
• Writing your own class

Advanced TeX/LaTeX

• In-depth technical articles on TeX/LaTeX

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Writing master thesis on overleaf.

I´m currently thinking about making the switch from Windows to ChromeOS since I´m in the market for a new notebook and the only windows applications I am using are the MS Office apps anyway. For smaller documents I am already using Google Docs which works absolutely fine but I am a little worried that it is not sufficient enough for my upcoming master thesis. That´s why I was looking for alternatives and found Overleaf which I can just run from a browser.

I´v never used LaTeX before but I have read countless times that it´s great for academic purpose.

Is Overleaf a good choice for writing a master thesis? My field is business so there are no hard equations but a lot of figures and tables. How hard is it to get into using LaTeX or Overleaf specifically coming from Word/Docs?

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How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it—nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced PDF, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Here we provide a guide to getting started on writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard template which is pre-loaded into Overleaf.

We have a large number of thesis templates in our online library , and you can upload your own if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files.

We'll assume you've used LaTeX before and so are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos if not), and focus on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

• Documentation Home
• Learn LaTeX in 30 minutes

Overleaf guides

• Creating a document in Overleaf
• Uploading a project
• Copying a project
• Creating a project from a template
• Using the Overleaf project menu
• Including images in Overleaf
• Exporting your work from Overleaf
• Working offline in Overleaf
• Using Track Changes in Overleaf
• Using bibliographies in Overleaf
• Sharing your work with others
• Using the History feature
• Debugging Compilation timeout errors
• How-to guides
• Guide to Overleaf’s premium features

LaTeX Basics

• Creating your first LaTeX document
• Choosing a LaTeX Compiler
• Paragraphs and new lines
• Bold, italics and underlining

Mathematics

• Mathematical expressions
• Subscripts and superscripts
• Brackets and Parentheses
• Fractions and Binomials
• Aligning equations
• Spacing in math mode
• Integrals, sums and limits
• Display style in math mode
• List of Greek letters and math symbols
• Mathematical fonts
• Using the Symbol Palette in Overleaf

Figures and tables

• Inserting Images
• Positioning Images and Tables
• Lists of Tables and Figures
• Drawing Diagrams Directly in LaTeX
• TikZ package

References and Citations

• Bibliography management with bibtex
• Bibliography management with natbib
• Bibliography management with biblatex
• Bibtex bibliography styles
• Natbib bibliography styles
• Natbib citation styles
• Biblatex bibliography styles
• Biblatex citation styles
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using polyglossia and fontspec
• Multilingual typesetting on Overleaf using babel and fontspec
• International language support
• Quotations and quotation marks

Document structure

• Sections and chapters
• Table of contents
• Cross referencing sections, equations and floats
• Nomenclatures
• Management in a large project
• Multi-file LaTeX projects
• Lengths in L a T e X
• Headers and footers
• Page numbering
• Paragraph formatting
• Line breaks and blank spaces
• Text alignment
• Page size and margins
• Single sided and double sided documents
• Multiple columns
• Code listing
• Code Highlighting with minted
• Using colours in LaTeX
• Margin notes
• Font sizes, families, and styles
• Font typefaces
• Supporting modern fonts with X Ǝ L a T e X

Presentations

• Environments

Field specific

• Theorems and proofs
• Chemistry formulae
• Feynman diagrams
• Molecular orbital diagrams
• Chess notation
• Knitting patterns
• CircuiTikz package
• Pgfplots package
• Typesetting exams in LaTeX
• Attribute Value Matrices

Class files

• Understanding packages and class files
• List of packages and class files
• Writing your own package
• Writing your own class

Advanced TeX/LaTeX

• In-depth technical articles on TeX/LaTeX

Buďte v kontaktu

Have you checked our knowledge base ?

Message sent! Our team will review it and reply by email.

Email: 

Templates — Thesis

Templates tagged Thesis

Show all Templates

Your thesis or dissertation is often the most important single piece of work you’ll produce as a student (whether it be your final year undergraduate research project or your complete Masters / PhD thesis). These templates, many provided by the university themselves as official layout guidelines, include sections for you to add all the relevant author information (your university, department, supervisor, year, etc) along with placeholder chapters for your introduction, background, method, results, conclusion / discussion, references and appendices.

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