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Your First LaTeX Document

Let's create our first LaTeX file and understand the basic anatomy of a document.

Creating a File

Create a new file called hello-world.tex (or use the example file 00_Creating_a_LaTeX_Document.tex from this guide).

Type the following code:

hello-world.tex
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath, amssymb, amsfonts}

\title{My First Document}
\author{Your Name}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

Hello! This is my first \LaTeX\ document.

A rectangle has side lengths of $(x+1)$ and $(x+3)$.
The equation $A(x) = x^2+4x+3$ gives the area of the rectangle.

\end{document}

Compilation

To turn this into a PDF, you need to compile it. In VS Code with LaTeX Workshop, simply save the file (Ctrl+S). The output should look like a formatted document with the title, author (you), and today's date, followed by your text.

Understanding the Structure

Every LaTeX document has two main parts:

1. Preamble (Before \begin{document})

The preamble sets up the document.

  • \documentclass{article}: Defines the document type (article, report, book, letter). The [12pt] option sets the base font size.
  • \usepackage{...}: Loads external packages to add functionality (like amsmath for math support).
  • \title{...}, \author{...}: Metadata commands.

2. Body (\begin{mcdocument} ... \end{document})

The actual content of your document goes here. Everything outside this environment is ignored or part of the preamble.

  • \maketitle: Prints the title, author, and date.
  • $...$: Inline math mode.
  • \LaTeX: A command that prints the LaTeX logo.

Common Errors

  • Mismatched \begin{...} and \end{...}.
  • Forgetting \usepackage{...} for a command (e.g. using \frac without amsmath sometimes works but best practice is to load it).
  • Using special characters like %, $, &, _, {, }, # without escaping them (e.g. \%).

Next Steps

Now you have a basic document structure. Let's learn how to format text in the next section.