In regards to Overleaf- Almost an FAQ

Overleaf: Almost an FAQ

Update, I will now include on here questions you ask and answer.

1) When adding a picture file to the document, does any picture file work, or only a specific few?
Overleaf Does not like .gif files, it does like png or .jpg though. IF you have .gif, you can change it using paint or an equivalent program.

2) Is indenting paragraphs the same as other word documents, using Tab, or is there special syntax for that?
Unknown as of 9/27/16

3) Do all pictures added have to be centered?
\begin{center}
\end{center}
Unknown as of 9/27/16

4) Are forward-slash, \, and back-slash, /, interchangeable in LaTeX?
NO

dcutchen6d:
5) Does anyone have any tips for uploading picture files I am still having trouble?

tmorse6d3 answered:
@dcutchen To upload a picture, you must do the following:

SUPER IMPORTANT: make sure you import the graphicx package by typing under "document class" and before "begin{document}":

                         \usepackage{graphicx}

Click on "Projects" on the top left of the document

Click on "Files...", which brings a drop down menu

In the drop-down menu, under "Upload from...", choose from where you would like to get the picture from (your computer, google drive, etc). When selected, it should pop up as a part of the directory on the left side of your document in the "Projects" tab

Include it in your source code tab by using the following syntax in between your "begin{document}" and "end{document}" (minus the parentheses):

    \includegraphics[width=(YourSizeHere)px]{your filename here}

More tips I picked up on:
\textit is italicized font.
\ref{fig:name of picture} will automatically fill in the figure number of a picture if you have a lot of photos.

Alright, I looked at Overleaf a bit and thought I could talk a bit about it from my perspective, at least:

1. The types of pictures that you can include, I would assume, are png, jpeg, and pdf files at least, as long as they are hosted on a site.

2. (and kinda 3) Overleaf is giving off the HTML vibe to me, so I would assume that you would be able to manipulate alignment for images as well as text. The overall themes of syntax seem to be very similar, just written in a different way.

3. It also seems that the forward-slash and the back-slash are not interchangeable. The forward-slash is specifically used for functions that are built in.

So ye. That's kinda what I gathered so far. I'm just kinda pulling from previous knowledge of HTML, but please, anyone, add to this. I would love to see more specific details on how to go about these things like syntax.

@tmorse I like this answer! You're certainly correct about the image types, the forward and backward slash stuff, and the manipulation of images.

The HTML analogy is also a good one. HTML and LaTeX are both examples of MarkUp languages - that is, you type plain text with some formatting commands and get a groovy looking document after some processing step. In the case of HTML, the processing is handled by a web-browser; in the case of LaTeX, the processing is handled by your TeX program. Beyond that though, the structure is fairly different. It does take some getting used to but is pretty nice once you do.

Does anyone have any tips for uploading picture files I am still having trouble?

@dcutchen To upload a picture, you must do the following:

1. SUPER IMPORTANT: make sure you import the graphicx package by typing under "document class" and before "begin{document}":

                                \usepackage{graphicx}

2. Click on "Projects" on the top left of the document

3. Click on "Files...", which brings a drop down menu

4. In the drop-down menu, under "Upload from...", choose from where you would like to get the picture from (your computer, google drive, etc). When selected, it should pop up as a part of the directory on the left side of your document in the "Projects" tab

5. Include it in your source code tab by using the following syntax in between your "begin{document}" and "end{document}" (minus the parentheses):

           \includegraphics[width=(YourSizeHere)px]{your filename here}

I don't know how to adjust height as well, but I'm sure it is very similar to how you do the width. So ye, bada bing, bada boom. There ya go.

This is a pretty late reply, but in regards to your second question about indenting, I've found that "tab" doesn't work to indent the first paragraph of a section. If you want the first paragraph of any section to be indented, you could try using

\usepackage{indentfirst}

at the beginning of your document; this indents the first paragraph of all sections. Then, if you don't want a particular paragraph to indent, use the command \noindent at the beginning of the paragraph.