The Department of Mathematics has a one ECTS credit online course for learning LaTeX. It's open for all Helsinki University students (includes exercises and a final exam).
Much more than just a system for managing references, LaTeX is a powerful document preparation system that is commonly used in scientific publishing, especially in computer science, mathematics and physics.
Its philosophy emphasizes users to focus on the content and let the system take care of the appearance of the document. LaTeX produces professional grade typography.
Here are some common reasons to learn LaTeX:
While LaTeX can sometimes have a reputation for being difficult to learn, those who put in the time and effort are rewarded with a powerful tool for scientific writing that often becomes an important part of the research process.
As a popular non-profit project with a long history there´s a lot of good documentation available. Here are some links:
We also have a several e-books on LaTeX in our library collections:
Last but not least, YouTube can be a good source for learning LaTeX. There are several unofficial video series – just search for "LaTeX tutorial".
The Department of Physics maintains a both a LaTeX and a MS Word template for thesis and course reports along with citation style instructions: both can be downloaded from the Helsinki University My Studies site (login required).
This is how LaTeX is generally used: take a template as a base and work from there.