Filename	Description
`main.tex`	Main LaTeX File where the contents of the document belong into
`bibliography.bib`	Bibliography list for citing with BibTeX
`titlepage.tex`	Title-Page of the Document as an own Folder. So that it can be designed independently.

Use this Template to create your own repo with the starter-documents and an integrated Action to build and publish your LaTeX-Projects on Push.

Files

Here, the various contents and variables of the files get explained. This is especially important for the initial setup of your project.

Titlepage.tex

The Titlepage-File defines (as the name implies) the layout and contents of the titlepage. It gets imported into the main.tex document, that you only get one PDF with all the contents in it.

Placeholders

The File holds multiple placeholders, which should be replaced with the actual value.

Placeholder	Meaning
`<TITLEPAGE_GRAPHICS_PATH>`	Path to the image that is placed over the title/subtitle. Refer to the graphics-section for more information on graphic files.
`<MAIN_TITLE>`	Main title of the document
`<SUBTITLE>`	Subtitle of the document

Basic LaTeX formatting

LaTeX enables you to format your text as you wish, probably with much more flexibility than e.g. Microsoft Word. There are a few commands (explained below) which you should know before starting with your LaTeX file.

Creating titles

These commands are used to create different titles. The titles in this document are automatically numbered and are automatically styled correctly.

Command	Explanation
`\section{<YOUR_TITLE>}`	The biggest title of all. It is numbered with one number (e.g. 1 Title).
`\subsection{<YOUR_TITLE>}`	This is the first subtitle. It is numbered with two numbers (e.g. 1.1 Subtitle).
`\subsubsection{<YOUR_TITLE>}`	This is the second subtitle. It is numbered with three numbers (e.g. 1.1.1 Subsubtitle).
`\subsubsubsection{<YOUR_TITLE>}`	This is the third subtitle. It is not numbered at all and is also not showing up in the table of contents.

If the section should not be numbered, you can use a * before the opening bracket. Should look like this: \subsection*{<YOUR_TITLE>}.

Formatting text

The following commands are used to format normal paragraphs. However, most commands can be used in other environments ( e.g. tables) as well.

Command	Explanation
`\\`	Creates a new line. Its usage is only necessary when you explicitly want a newline. LaTeX generally does the line break for you.
`\textbf{<TEXT>}`	Formats the text inside the brackets bold.
`\textit{<TEXT>}`	Formats the text inside the brackets italic.
`\underline{<TEXT>}`	Underlines the text inside the brackets.

Escaping characters

Some characters are used as a part of a command for latex. Due to that, they need to be escaped when they should be printed specifically. To escape a character, you use a '\' before the character or symbol. Typical symbols you need to escape are:

Symbol	Escaped
\	\\

Bulletpoints and Enumerations

Bulletpoints

To create a list of bulletpoints, we use an itemized environment. Inside it, we can use \item to create a new point.

\begin{itemize}
    \item first point
    \item second point
    \item third point
\end{itemize}

Inside an itemized environment, you don't need to do line breaks manually. With each item, you start a new line.

Enumerations

Enumerations work nearly the same as bulletpoints. They just use the enumerate environment instead of the itemized environment. As with bulletpoints, you can use \item to create a new item in the list.

\begin{enumerate}
    \item first numbered item
    \item second numbered item
    \item third numbered item
\end{enumerate}

Specials

Here are some special options to format the text. ⚠️ In general, these commands should not be used. There are a few exceptions where it's okay to use them.⚠️

Command	Explanation
`\noindent`	Used before a paragraph. It disables the indentation of the whole paragraph, if there is no title before it.
`\pagebreak`	As the name of the command implies, it creates a new pagebreak. This is pretty useful, if you want to finally format your document. It does break the formatting which the compiler does and messes with the whole formatting in a way that you can't control. Only use with absolute caution!
`\newline`	This command creates a new line, on which the text is continued. So it does the same as `\\` but just that it does not mess with some things (e.g. tables or escaping special characters instead of breaking).

Use of Graphics

Using graphics in LaTeX is not difficult. It's best practice to create a new subfolder (e.g. graphics) in your project to store all the graphics. To embed a graphic into your document, two steps are required. First, you need to insert the graphic with all information associated with it into the document. Idealy you position this part near the position in the real document.

⚠️ Attention:
If used correctly, the graphic is placed into the document by the compiler. You do not need to position the graphic yourself.

Importing graphics into LaTeX

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{<YOUR_GRAPHICS_PATH>}
    \caption{<CAPTION_TEXT> (Quelle: \cite{<CITE_REFERENCE>})}
    \label{fig:<FIGURE_ID_NAME>}
\end{figure}

The example places the Figure in the middle ( \centering).
It's width is defined as 80% of the linewidth (linewidth equals the width of a text-line). The percentage-value can be changed as needed. If the width should be 100% of the line, you just use \linewidth.

Referencing graphics in the text

It's important that the graphics that you use are referenced in the text, so that LaTeX can determine where the graphic should be positioned in the document. To reference a graphic in the text, use the following syntax:

\cref{fig:<FIGURE_ID_NAME>}

Special graphic-options

⚠️USE THESE WITH EXTREME CAUTION⚠️

\begin{figure} [h] ➡️ the [h] means that the figure should be placed exactly here in the document. You override the compiler with this setting, so you should only use it if really necessary.
\captionof{figure}{<CAPTION>} ➡️ Sometimes you need to use \captionof instead of \caption to get the caption below a figure working.

Use of Tables

In this template some preparations are done, that creating tables is not that difficult.

Column width

There are five different widths defined for the table columns. The width gets calculated from the value m, so a column-width of m equals 100% relative width.

letter defining width	relative percentage to `m`
`W`	150%
`w`	125%
`m`	100%
`S`	75%
`s`	50%

Defining a basic table

To define a table, we start by defining a centred (you probably want your tables centred on the page) block. Then we define a tabularx environment, which gives us the functionality of the table itself. In there, we need to define our columns and can define the contents of the table. An example-definition of a table looks like this:

\begin{center}
    \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| S | w |}
        \hline
        \textbf{Header 1} & \textbf{Header 2} \\ \hline
        Content 1.1       & Content 1.2       \\ \hline
        Content 2.1       & Content 2.2       \\ \hline
    \end{tabularx}
\end{center}

In the example above, the table is defined with a S and a w column width. Due to the fact, that there are two columns defined, the sum of all width-percentage-values need to get to 200% (per defined column 100% width, so with two columns 200%).
In this case we have a 75% width column (defined with S) and a 125% width column (defined with w). In sum, we get to 200%. If this calculation is not done correctly, the table will not be shown correctly in the generated PDF.

Table width

The table width is determined by the first argument of tabularx. In the example above, the table-width is defined as the textwidth. If you want 80% of the textwidth, you can do that by typing 0.8\textwidth.

Defining columns

To define columns, we use the second argument of tabularx. To get vertical lines in the table, they need to be defined in this argument.
The left line (created by AltGR + 7) represents the left table-border.
Then there is a space, following the letter for the column width (as seen in the last chapter).
After another space, the seperator between the two columns follows.
The same is repeated for the second column and it's border to the right of it.

\\ \hline?

\\ creates a new line, as learned in the chapter Basic LaTeX formatting. It does the same in tables. Just that you only want to generate a new line in tables, when you're actually at the end of the line.

The command \hline creates a horizontal line. If you don't write that command (and just break the line to the next one) you don't get a delimiting line between the lines.

Separating column content

To separate the contents of two different columns, the & symbol is used. You can just place it wherever you need the seperation of the contents to happen.

Defining a table with all properties

In the previous chapter, you learned how to define a basic table. To define a full table (as probably needed in your documentation) you need to add a few lines of LaTeX.
The full table-definition defined with placeholders looks like this:

\begin{center}
    \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| S | w |}
        \hline
        \textbf{Header 1} & \textbf{Header 2} \\ \hline
        Content 1.1       & Content 1.2       \\ \hline
        Content 2.1       & Content 2.2       \\ \hline
    \end{tabularx}
    \captionof{table}{<TABLE_CAPTION>}
    \label{tab:<TABLE_ID_NAME}
\end{center}

Here, we also have the table captioned (which enables us to create a table-directory) and we also gave the table a label. The label is (as with graphics) important to reference it in the text, that it can be placed correctly by the compiler.

Reference tables and images in text

With the compiler in LaTeX you get the best results with the placement of pictures and tables, if you reference them in the text they belong to. The compiler then places them near that text automatically. You can also reference to a section, in which case the title of the section gets automatically updated.

Referencing tables & images

The process of referencing tables and images is the same for both of them. In the preceeding chapters of this manual we have seen the labelling process for tables and images.

Labelling tables & images

To create a reference, the target-element has to be given an id first. That id is called label in LaTeX. Its best practice, to label tables and images differently. I personally like to use the following prefixes for tables and images, followed by a short 1-3 word description of the image or table.

type	label
Table	tab:<DESCRIPTION_OF_TABLE>
Image	fig:<DESCRIPTION_OF_IMAGE>

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\linewidth]{graphics/examplegraphic}
    \label{fig:exampleimage}
\end{figure}

\begin{center}
    \begin{tabularx}{\textwidth}{| m | m |}
        \hline
        \textbf{Header 1} & \textbf{Header 2} \\ \hline
        Content 1.1       & Content 1.2       \\ \hline
    \end{tabularx}
    \label{tab:exampletable}
\end{center}

Referencing on tables & images in the text

To reference on tables and images in the text, we use the command cref. It takes the label of the element you want to reference as a parameter. So an example-usage in a text would be the following:

This is a text example. You can see its usage in the image \cref{fig:exampleimage}.
You can also view the table \cref{tab:exampletable} for the full command reference.

Referencing sections

Referencing sections works basically the same way as referencing tables or images. It also uses labels on the sections, but it does not use cref to create the reference. Instead we just use ref.

Labelling sections

For labelling sections, I also like to use a prefix. I use the prefix sec: for sections. After the prefix, there is a short description of the section (or the whole title if it's just 1-3 words) to identify the section uniquely.

type	label
sections	sec:<DESCRIPTION_OF_SECTION>

\section{This is a section.}
\label{sec:examplesection} This is the text that is displayed directly after the title.

Referencing a section in the text

As mentioned, we reference a section similarly to tables and images. We just use another command to reference it. We use \ref, which takes the label of the section as an argument.

This is a text. In this text we reference to the chapter \ref{sec:examplesection}.

Citing with BibTeX

This template is already setup to use citations with BibTeX. To define your sources to cite from, you need to use the bibliography.bib file.

Defining sources

When defining sources, it's important to know, what type of source you want to create and cite. For mor information you can visit https://www.bibtex.com/e/entry-types/. There all BibTeX types are documented.

Defining Web-Sources

To define web sources, I've found the type "misc" perfect. You can always use the following template and fill in the variables in with blanks.

It's very important to fill out the variable <CITING_ID>. This variable is used to reference the reference in the text to the correct BibTeX entry.

@misc{<CITING_ID>,
author = {<AUTHOR_NAME>},
title = {<WEBSITE_TITLE>},
date = {<PUBLISHED_DATE>},
year = {<PUBLISHED_YEAR>},
urldate = {<VIEWED_ON_DATE>},
note = {Abgerufen am <VIEWED_ON_DATE>},
howpublished = {<URL_TO_PAGE>}
}

Defining a Book-Source

To define a book source, it's basically the same principle as a web source. You just got other variables / fields to fill in.

@book{<CITING_ID>,
author    = {<AUTHOR_NAME>},
title     = {<BOOK_TITLE>},
publisher = {<PUBLISHER>},
year      = {<YEAR_PUBLISHED>},
pages = {<PAGES_RELEVANT>}
}

Defining a Newspaper-Source

Newspaper sources work the same. You got a few more variables to fill, because there are more informations relevant.

@article{<CITING_ID>,
author   = {<AUTHOR_NAME>},
title    = {<ARTICLE_TITLE>},
journal  = {<NEWSPAPER_NAME>},
year     = {<YEAR_PUBLISHED>},
volume   = {<NEWSPAPER_VOLUME>},
number   = {<NUMBER>},
pages    = {<PAGES_OF_NEWSPAPER_RELEVANT>},
}

Citing defined sources in LaTeX

To cite your sources you've defined in your bibliography file, you can use the syntax of \cite{<CITING_ID>} as you can see, you need your citing-id here again. This is to reference your citing in the text to the correct entry in your bibtex-file.

Importing other files

With LaTeX you can import other files (such as other LaTeX files or pdfs) into your main file. This is very useful for attachments or external documents, which you want to include in your documentation.

Import .tex files

To import .tex files, you can use \input{<FILEPATH>} or \import{<FILEPATH>}.

Import one .tex file

To import a single text file, you can just use \input{<FILEPATH>}.

Import multiple .tex files after each other

If you want to import multiple .tex files directly after each other, the syntax is a bit special. You use \input{<FILEPATH>} for the first .tex file, and \import{<FILEPATH>} for all the following .tex files. As soon as there is a text, heading or float (graphics/tables) between two imported .tex files, you can use \input{<FILEPATH>} again. See the example below for clarification.

\input{<FILEPATH_1>}
\include{<FILEPATH_2>}
\include{<FILEPATH_3>}
\include{<FILEPATH_4>}


\section{New header}
This is a text for this header.

\input{<FILEPATH_5>}

Importing external pdf's

Importing pdfs is especially interesting for attaching sources to your documentation. The most practical way is to use a special configuration of the \includegraphics command.

\includegraphics[height=0.9\textheight]{<PDF_FILEPATH>}

With this configuration you also have enough room to add a header above the included pdf.

Importing a selection of pdf pages

There is a possibility to import only two pages of a pdf into your document. Use the following configuration for this:

\includepdf[pages={<PAGE_RANGE>}, noautoscale=true, scale=0.9, pagecommand={\thispagestyle{fancy}}]{<PDF_FILE_PATH>}

In page range its possible to use a number-range. To include from the first to for example 3rd page you can also use the keyword first. The same is possible with the last page by using the keyword last.

Importing the whole multipage pdf document

To import a full pdf document with multiple pages, you need a combination of the above standing commands. This is because if you want to have a title above the first page, you need to make space for the title. With the \includegraphics command, we make that space by making the height of the float smaller.

So to import multiple pages of the same document, use the following syntax:

\includegraphics[height=0.9\textheight]{<PDF_FILEPATH>}
\includepdf[pages={2-last}, noautoscale=true, scale=0.9, pagecommand={\thispagestyle{fancy}}]{<PDF_FILEPATH>}

The first command imports the first page of your pdf. The second command includes the 2nd to last page into your main file. You can also change the page-range of the second command, in case you don't want all pages to the last inculded.

Create a landscape page inside a document

To create a landscape page inside a portrait document, you can use \begin{landscape}. In the following example this is explained better:

This paragraph is still in portrait.
\pagebreak
\begin{landscape}
  This paragraph is in landscape.
\end{landscape}

This paragraph is in portrait again.