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Now there are a couple of online LaTeX editors that seems fancy and handy to use, such as ShareLaTeX and Overleaf. On the other hand, there are classic local Latex installation packages that are also easy to set up and use, like MiKTeX and TeX Live.
I wonder what are pros and cons of online vs. local LaTeX editors and which I should use. (I am a PhD student and I need to write papers and thesis using LaTeX.)
This is how I would do it in regular LaTeX (though I would use \[...\] to enclose display math):
$$\mathbf{I}_n = \left.\left(
\vphantom{\begin{array}{c}1\\1\\1\\1\\1\end{array}}
\smash{\underbrace{
\begin{array}{ccccc}
1&0&0&\cdots &0\\
0&1&0&\cdots &0\\
0&0&1&\cdots &0\\
\vdots&&&\ddots&\\
0&0&0&\cdots &1
\end{array}
}_{n\text{ columns}}}
\right)\right\}
\,n\text{ rows}
$$
The \vphantom line creates a box whose height is equal to an nx1 array of 1's. The \smash around your matrix typesets the matrix (including the underbrace) but makes its height and depth zero. Put these together and you have a box which includes the underbrace, but whose width and height are equal to that of the matrix without the underbrace.
See "A complement to \smash, \llap, and \rlap" by Alexander R. Perlis in TUGBoat for more on all of these commands and also \mathclap.
I pasted it into the MathJax demo page too and it seems to work.
Why dont you consider Authorea? They implemented version control through git.
Best Answer
Privacy: you can't guarantee that no one ever had access to you documents in online services. On the other hand they are greatly increase the collaborative editing of the documents. So, for this you need to choose between this:
And which do you value more: than it should be either local install (for private), or online services (for public access and some privacy options). For sharing better to use
git, you will easily manage multiple editions of the document, can easily share with others, and rollbacks are awesome there! And you can use local install ofGitLabfor sharing private documents.Usability: everything you need for online editors - is a modern browser and an Internet. Online services already have preinstalled the most used packages. But ease-of-use lacks customizability: you would definitely have problems with some packages (like,
mintedorTikZ), fonts, files processing, additional command-line options. So you need to choose between the customizability and easy-of-use:If you want to have full control on the compilation process - than online services are not for you. You want be able to use
xindyor modernbiber, or other modernTeXsoftware. Moreover, online services can have old TeX distribution and on local install you can have most up-to-date packages available.Compilation: I've already put some of the pros and conses in the usability section. In local install you can easily change anything: TeX engine, command-line options, BibTeX processing software, additional software, like
asymptoteorGeoGebra, evenPythonscript for data processing. On the local install you have full support of any software available. That's much helpful for PhD thesis. And online tools useful to edit documents for which you already have all preprocessed data and images.Extensibility: your local install can be easily extended. If you typeset more than one document at a time, it's much easier in local install to manage shared custom document styles,
beamerthemes, common images in your%APPDATA%in Windows or.localin Linux (so, this can depend on distro).If you typeset just one document: the online services are OK; but for multiple, complex documents it is better to use local install.