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/astronomy.

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.

• Documents are written in plain text files using a specific markup language and then compiled into the actual printable documents (usually DVI or PDF)
• LaTeX uses Donald Knuth's TeX typesetting system and is generally distributed as part of a full TeX distribution
• The easiest way to get started with LaTeX is to install one of the suggested distributions
• There are also web application based LaTeX editors you can use without having to install anything: see for example Overleaf

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:

• Official documentation
• The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX (in English; very popular unofficial guide)
• The Not so Short Introduction to LaTeX (latest Finnish translation, 2005)
• LaTeX Wikibook
• Detexify (a tool to quickly find that elusive symbol & package)
• Using GitHub for shared LaTex writing projects
• LaTeX Beamer presentations

We also have a several e-books on LaTeX in our library collections:

• Kottwitz: LaTeX Beginners Guide (2011)
• Gratzer: Practical LaTeX (2014)
• Gratzer: More Math Into LaTeX (2007)
• Syropoulos: Digital Typography Using LaTeX (2003)
• van Dongen: LaTeX and Friends (2012)

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.

• Additional templates can be found at sites like Overleaf and ShareLaTeX
• Many major physics journals provide their own LaTeX templates