Create your first project

In a few minutes you’ll have a project with a working main.tex, open in the editor and ready to compile.

Before you start, confirm your email address. Luzbase asks for it before you can create a project.

Create the project

1. Go to luzbase.com/projects and click New project. You can also click Create project in the sidebar.
2. In Name, type a name such as Lab report. You can add a Description (optional) too.
3. Under Start from, leave Template selected. The Blank tile (“Blank · an empty main.tex”) is chosen by default.
4. Click Create project.

Luzbase creates the project, adds you as its Owner and opens the project page.

Tip

To start from a ready-made layout instead, pick a template in step 3, for example a thesis or journal format. See Use a template.

Open it in the editor

1. On the project page, click Open in editor.
2. The editor opens main.tex. A blank project starts with this file:

\documentclass{article}

\title{Untitled document}
\author{}
\date{\today}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

Start writing here.

\end{document}

What these lines do

• \documentclass{article} sets the kind of document.
• The lines before \begin{document} are the preamble, where settings and packages go.
• Everything between \begin{document} and \end{document} appears in your PDF.
• \maketitle prints the title, author and date you set above it.

New to LaTeX?

Click Visual at the top of the editor to see headings, math and lists formatted as you type. It edits the same file, so you can switch back to Code at any time. See Code and visual modes.

Write something

1. Change \title{Untitled document} to your own title, and put your name in \author{}.
2. Replace Start writing here. with a few sentences. For example:

\section{Introduction}
This report measures how fast a pendulum swings.
The period is $T = 2\pi\sqrt{L/g}$.

You don’t need to save. Luzbase saves every change as you type. The status in the header shows Saving… while your latest changes are on their way, and Live once everything is saved and shared.

Compile and save a version

1. Click Compile to build the PDF. It appears in the preview on the right. See Compile your first PDF.
2. When you reach a point you want to keep, click Save version… in the header, describe your changes (for example First draft of the introduction) and click Save version.

A saved version is a named snapshot you can return to later. How far back you can go depends on the project owner’s plan: on Free, versions older than the history window are hidden, and after an email notice their stored files can be deleted. See Save a version and Version history.

Next steps

• Take the editor tour
• Add files and folders, such as chapters and images
• Invite collaborators