I am very new to being able to use LaTeX to type up mathematical papers, and I just got my "system" set up. Currently I have installed TexWorks, and MikTex, and I have put together a 'hello world' article which seems to run well.
I have also used the syntax "\usepackage{amsmath}" and "\usepackage{amssymb}" in the beginning of my .tex file to write math symbols, only because some online tutorial said so.
My question is, firstly, are those the only packages I need to use for writing math, and secondly, I remember reading about some shortcuts(?) that can be used for writing math symbols, and/or user defined shortcuts that can be 'set' in the beginning so as to reduce the amount of LaTeX code needed to write mathematical symbols. However, I do not know if this is true, and if it is, how to go about 'installing' such a thing.
Does such a thing exist? Am I able to make my own shortcuts?
Thanks!
Best Answer
You surely can define your shortcuts; indeed you should.
Let's make some examples. Suppose your document is full of Fourier transforms, for which you need a fancy F. Instead of writing every time
it's surely better to define a new command, say
(choose any name you like), so that you can type
and get the same result as before, with a big bonus! If you change your mind about the notation, you can simply modify the definition.
Another example. The "gradient" operator is not predefined; so you might want to have a command for it:
A different one; my preferred notation for vectors is, say,
\mathbf{v}
. However, since conventions are different, I never type vectors in that way, but prefer to havefor the same reason as before; I might change my mind and want to modify the appearance, say for using bold italic; this would be accomplished just by saying
and changing the above into
How do you organize this? Here's an example:
Add definitions while you find that they are useful for distinguishing logical units of your document.