Why I Use LaTeX

Since this is an often discussed question—-with people having Very Strong Opinions on both sides—-I’ll just summarize a few reasons why I use LaTeX. I am not necessarily trying to convince you to use LaTeX, but rather share some of the reasons why I use it.

  1. I find it motivating. It’s motivating for me to write something that looks aesthetically pleasing. This is especially important for me at the early stages of a project.

  2. The “comment out” feature is a lifesaver. If you put a “%” sign in front of text, any relevant lines will appear in the editor but not in the compiled document. (For large chunks of text you’d like "commented out,” you can use the \begin{comment} command.) When I used Word (or some other WYSIWYG editor), I would have several documents open at once — some keeping track of some scraps, others of previous versions of paragraphs, and various notes to self.

  3. It generally looks more professional. People do judge others on how professional their documents look, whether they admit it—or are aware of it—or not!

  4. CITATIONS & Reference Management! Citations in LaTeX are a breeze. All you have to do is set up a bibliography or “.bib” file, where you add citation data for each article (you can usually export this easily via e.g. PhilPapers or Google Scholar). When you want to cite, you can use simple commands, like \cite{key}. Also, you can change the citation style with a single command.

  5. Excellent for any sort of formal work. Most of the philosophy I do is not formal. However, I’ve taught formal subjects and have taken classes in them. Many graduate students will find themselves in a similar boat. Typically, it’s pretty easy to find the relevant commands (and much easier than trying to do formal work in Word!). (P.S. TeX Stack Exchange can be your best friend.)

Some reasons people give against TeX:

  1. It fetishizes style over substance.

    • Response: I think this is a false dichotomy. Why not both?

      • See also responses #1 & #3 above.

  2. You’ll waste time perfecting the appearance of your document.

    • Response: There is a kernel of truth in this worry. I have certainly gone on multi-hour searches for tools that would help me create and improve some of my TeX templates.

      • The Solution: Choose a template you’re happy with, tweak it occasionally, and try your best to settle.

    • Also, shouldn’t you care about what your document looks like? You’ll have to look at it a lot! And it takes much more effort to make attractive looking documents in WYSIWYG editors!

  3. The learning curve is too high.

    • Response: In my experience, the learning curve for basic LaTeX is quite low, especially now thanks to websites like Overleaf. It’s easy to browse templates and adopt/adapt templates from others. You can even use commands you’re used to, such as “cmd+b” for bold rather than \textbf{}. Like anything, you can learn as you go along and will slowly become more and more proficient in it.

      • Forgive the horrible pun, but as a friend says: you don’t need to be technically inclined — just TeX-nically inclined. 🙄

      • Overleaf also has a LaTeX in 30 minutes guide.

  4. Some journals require Word.

    • Response: This is true, and it can be inconvenient to have to convert your .TeX document to Word. However, Pandoc is a true life-saver. (There are some decent PDF editors that will allow you to export to Word, though results vary.)

I should flag that some of the advantages I’ve listed for LaTeX are shared by various Markdown-based apps, like Ulysses. These typically also have a lower learning curve. I personally prefer LaTeX, though, because I find it far more customizable. I’ll also admit to not quite having figured out how to do citations easily with my Markdown editor! I do use Ulysses for process-writing and shorter documents, though, and I convert it via pandoc when I’m ready to switch to TeX.