Summary of MENTOR problem-solving session
March 25, 2016

About presentations, can keep in mind the short note How to Give a Good Colloquium. It was published in 1999, so a few suggestions (e.g.,"Do not use slides"), while good, might be hard to follow.

Discussed LaTeX, including Beamer (a LaTeX style to make presentations, similar to Powerpoint).

Why LaTeX/Beamer:
Because it makes writing mathematics much easier than with other tools.
It also takes care automatically of the numbering of sections, theorems, equations, etc., making it very convenient for writing long documents.

• A tutorial that I wrote (not the best, but one place to start); search the web for many more
  Sections to look at:
  • Introduction: see how/what to install to your machine.
    However, one easy way to begin is https://www.overleaf.com/, which saves you the trouble of installing the software, has templates, etc.
  • An example: a simple document.
  • Slides, Beamer: look at the Beamer (\documentclass{beamer}) part only and the links there.
    Slides (\documentclass{slides}), is an old option, do not recommend it.
  • A short paper: a sketch of a math paper; has theorems, numbered equations, etc.
  • Internet help: in particular, look at the "The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX"; this has more than a casual user needs, one frequently used section is "List of Mathematical Symbols" (was 3.10 in one edition).
  • Pictures: how to include images in your document.
  • BibTeX: a convenient way to handle references.
  • MathJax: math formulas in HTML, using LaTeX.