LaTeX Documentation

The data below was created using the crowd on Amazon Mechanical Turk. The commands, parameters and descriptions were taken verbatim from the worker's responses.

Commands

  1. \TeX

    Prints special text string of TeX logo

  2. \address

    Specifies the return address as it appears on the letter and on the envelope

    Parameters:

    • {senders address}

      With the \address declaration, it is formatted as a personal letter.

  3. \bibitem

    Command used to specify a bibliography item. The \bibitem command generates an entry labelled by label. If the label argument is missing, a number is automatically generated using the enumi counter.

    Parameters:

    • {cite_key}

      The cite_key is any sequence of letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols not containing a comma.

  4. \bibliographystyle

    The command sets the style of font that will be used for the bibliography section in the latex text.

    Parameters:

    • {bibfile2}

      (This parameter is used with /bibliography, not the command given).

  5. \cc

    Start a parbox introduced with \ccname:

    Parameters:

    • {first name}

      "\cc{President \\ Vice President}"

  6. \chapter

    Chapter titles a specific section of text to create text that is easily readable.

    Parameters:

    • {title}

      The title given here will be used as a chapter name.

  7. \cline

    Draw a horizontal line spanning some columns for a chart

    Parameters:

    • {j}

      tabular environment beginning in column i and ending in column j.

  8. \dashbox

    This command creates a dashed rectangle around text in a picture environment.

    Parameters:

    • {text}

      this is the text that will enclosed by the box.

  9. \displaystyle

    The \displaystyle declaration forces the size and style of the formula to be that of displaymath.

  10. \footnotetext

    The \footnotetext command must appear in outer paragraph mode

    Parameters:

    • {text}

      A \footnote or \footnotetext command puts the footnote at the bottom of the minipage instead of at the bottom of the page, and it uses the \mpfootnote counter instead of the ordinary footnote counter

  11. \hspace

    A command that adds a variable amount of horizontal spaces defined by length, either positive or negative (with negative being equivalent to backspaces).

    Parameters:

    • {length}

      Length determines the amount of horizontal spaces \hspace adds or removes, with a negative parameter being spaces removed.

  12. \includeonly

    This command limits the files that are used when editing a longer document.

    Parameters:

    • {file2}

      This parameter is one of the files that will be included in the text.

  13. \item

    Command used to create an entry in a list. The entries are prefixed by a label, whose default depends on the list type.

    Parameters:

    • [optional label]

      Optional argument give to the entry un the list. If the optional label is surrounded by square brackets ([ and ]), to use square brackets inside the optional argument you must hide them inside curly braces, as in \item[Close square bracket, {]}]. Similarly, to use an open square bracket as first character in the text of the item, also hide it inside curly braces.

  14. \label

    assigns to key the number of the current sectional unit

    Parameters:

    • {key}

  15. \location

    Text that will be displayed, centered, at the bottom of each page.

    Parameters:

    • {text}

      String to be displayed.

  16. \makebox

    Creates a box wide enough to contain the text specified. Optionally, the width of the box can be overwritten with the width argument.

    Parameters:

    • {text}

  17. \multicolumn

    Make an array or tabular entry that spans several columns.

    Parameters:

    • {text}

      The first argument numcols gives the number of columns to span. The second argument cols specifies the formatting of the entry, with c for centered, l for flush left, or r for flush right. The third argument text gives the contents of that entry.

  18. \multiput

    Copies a shape object across a picture. The first object is placed at position (x, y), then at (x+\delta x,y+\delta y), and so on, for N amount of times. Copies of objects are placed in a regular pattern across the picture.

    Parameters:

    • {obj}

      The shape object to be copied across the picture.

  19. \newcommand

    Allows for defining macros as new commands.

    Parameters:

    • {defn}

      Text that will be substituted when the new command, {cmd}, is input.

  20. \newcounter

    Command that defines a new counter named countername. The name consists of letters only and does not begin with a backslash (‘\’). The name must not already be used by another counter. The new counter is initialized to zero.

    Parameters:

    • [supercounter]

      Optional argument to numbered the countername within, or subsidiary to, the existing counter supercounter.

  21. \newfont

    "This defines a control sequence \cmd that will change the current font. LaTeX will look on your system for a file named fontname.tfm. The control sequence must must not already be defined. It must begin with a backslash (‘\’). This command is obsolete. It is a low-level command for setting up an individual font. Today fonts are almost always defined in families (which allows you to, for example, associate a boldface with a roman) through the so-called “New Font Selection Scheme”, either by using .fd files or through the use of an engine that can access system fonts such as XeLaTeX (see TeX engines). But since it is part of LaTeX, here is an explanation: the font description consists of a fontname and an optional at clause; this can have the form either at dimen or scaled factor, where a factor of ‘1000’ means no scaling. For LaTeX’s purposes, all this does is scale all the character and other font dimensions relative to the font’s design size, which is a value defined in the .tfm file."

    Parameters:

    • {font description}

      "the font description consists of a fontname and an optional at clause; this can have the form either at dimen or scaled factor, where a factor of ‘1000’ means no scaling. For LaTeX’s purposes, all this does is scale all the character and other font dimensions relative to the font’s design size, which is a value defined in the .tfm file. This example defines two equivalent fonts and typesets a few characters in each: \newfont{\testfontat}{cmb10 at 11pt} \newfont{\testfontscaled}{cmb10 scaled 11pt} \testfontat abc \testfontscaled abc"

  22. \nonstopmode

    The input file specification indicates the file to be formatted; TeX uses .tex as a default file extension. If you omit the input file entirely, TeX accepts input from the terminal. You can also specify arbitrary LaTeX input by starting with a backslash. For example, this processes foo.tex without pausing after every error:

  23. \oval

    This command produces a rectangle with rounded corners.

    Parameters:

    • [portion]

      allows you to select only half of the corners to be rounded with the following parameters: t, b, l, r for top, bottom, left, right. It is also possible to mix them - for example tl for top left.

  24. \pagenumbering

    S\Sets the style used for page numbers.

    Parameters:

    • {style}

      Specifies the style of page numbers, according to style; also resets the page number to 1.

  25. \pagestyle

    specifies how the headers and footers are typeset from the current page onwards

    Parameters:

    • {style}

      plain Just a plain page number. empty Empty headers and footers, e.g., no page numbers. headings Put running headers on each page. The document style specifies what goes in the headers.

  26. \parbox

    The \parbox command produces a box whose contents are created in paragraph mode.

    Parameters:

    • {text}

      It should be used to make a box small pieces of text, with nothing fancy inside. In particular, you shouldn’t use any paragraph-making environments inside a \parbox argument. For larger pieces of text, including ones containing a paragraph-making environment, you should use a minipage environment

  27. \providecommand

    Defines a command

    Parameters:

    • {defn}

      \providecommand{cmd}[nargs][optargdefault]{defn}

  28. \ps

    Add a postscript. This command is optional and usually is used after \closing.

    Parameters:

    • {text}

  29. \put

    A command that is used to place an image or other object type at a specified coordinate on the document.

    Parameters:

    • (ycoord)

      The parameter that determines the vertical coordinate of where \put places the object.

  30. \raisebox

    The command is used to format text higher or lower than normal.

    Parameters:

    • [depth]

      Depth specifies how low the text drops below the normal line.

  31. \ref

    Specifies the style of page numbers, according to style; also resets the page number to 1.

    Parameters:

    • {key}

      A \ref command that produces the number of the sectional unit, equation, footnote, figure, et cetera, of the corresponding label command.

  32. \renewcommand

    To change the format of the label use \renewcommand

  33. \rule

    Produces a rule (lines or rectangles) on the document.

    Parameters:

    • {thickness}

      The thickness of the line or rectangle to be produced.

  34. \savebox

    This command typeset text in a box just as with \makebox (see \makebox), except that instead of printing the resulting box, it saves it in the box labeled \boxcmd, which must have been declared with \newsavebox (see \newsavebox).

    Parameters:

    • {text}

  35. \section

    The command is used to format text higher or lower than normal.

  36. \section*

    A macro that allows Sectioning commands provide the means to structure your text into units.

  37. \setcounter

    command globally sets the value of counter to the value argument

    Parameters:

    • {level}

    • {value}

  38. \setlength

    Set the value of a length, an argument

  39. \signature

    A macro allows that signature and inserts a signature .

    Parameters:

    • {first line}

      A macro allows that first line argument is for specifying which line the numbering

  40. \telephone

    This command specifies the senders telephone number in a text.

    Parameters:

    • {number}

      The actual telephone number that this command takes.

  41. \title

    A macro allows that produce title of the page.

  42. \twocolumn

    This declaration starts a new page and produces two-column output.

    Parameters:

    • [prelim one column text]

      causes test to typeset in one-column mode before the two-column typesetting starts.

  43. \usepackage

    It is a command to insert footnotes in a table

    Parameters:

    • {pkg}

      \usepackage{pkg1,pkg2,...}, or use multiple \usepackage commands.

  44. \vector

    A picture command that draws a line with an arrow.

    Parameters:

    • {length}

      A vector command that draws a line with a specified length.

  45. \vspace

    A command that adds a variable amount of vertical spaces defined by length, either positive or negative, with negative equivalent to removing of existing vertical space.

    Parameters:

    • {length}

      Length determines the amount of vertical spaces \vspace adds or removes, with a negative parameter being spaces removed.