LaTeX is the go-to language for typesetting scientific and mathematical research papers. While there are many LaTeX editors out there, the one that I can definitely recommend is ShareLaTeX. ShareLaTeX does for mathematical typesetting what Google Docs does for document collaboration. It allows you to edit documents in real time with other collaborators, although it works just as well for going solo. You can even open your project to the public if you like.

It’s very simple to create an account with ShareLaTeX, although I wish they had social network integration like what StackOverflow has. At any rate, registering with ShareLaTeX will automatically put you on the personal (free) plan, where you can collaborate with one other person. If you need to collaborate with two or more users, then you will need to look into one of the paid plans, starting at $15/mo. If you’re a student, however, you get 50% off the subscriptions. In short, the free plan works best for personal use, which is 98% of what I do.

Interface

When you log in, you will see your Projects page, done superbly well by the ShareLaTeX team. It’s easy to navigate and organize, and you can create as many projects as you want. Furthermore, there’s also a variety of project templates available for instant use. These templates go way beyond just the run-of-the-mill research paper. With LaTeX, you can create anything from presentations to curriculum vitae, and even informational brochures. Huge props to ShareLaTeX and the template developers for highlighting these lesser-known uses of LaTeX.

The editing page puts functionality at the utmost importance, allowing you to write code and see it compiled as a PDF. On the editing page there are three panes:

• On the left-most pane, you can organize your documents neatly with folders, and upload supporting documents such as EPS files or PDF diagrams.
• In the center pane is your code, which is enhanced with basic syntax highlighting and auto completion of commands. Different themes for the syntax highlighter are available, making your code look like Vim or Emacs if you want. The default font size is far too small, but fortunately that can be changed in your user settings.
• On the right-most side, you see a PDF preview every time you press Recompile. In case your browser doesn’t have built-in PDF support, ShareLaTeX provides a fallback, unfortunately not matching the quality that one might expect. For this reason, I recommend using ShareLaTeX with the latest version of Google Chrome, as Chrome has the best built-in PDF system.

Furthermore, the panes can be resized, allowing you to focus on what matters. There is also an option that shows the PDF alone, but it’s not really necessary with large monitor resolutions.

Collaboration mode

For all the excellence of the other features, collaboration mode was surprisingly disappointing. In short, it barely works. When I was collaborating with a colleague on a math research paper, glitches ran rampant. From losing connection to glitchy typing, the list of bugs goes on and on. Eventually, we resorted to typing one at a time, because simultaneous editing produced too much chaos.

As a result, I will not personally recommend upgrading to a paid plan. If ShareLaTeX’s collaboration mode isn’t up to par for two-way collaboration, there’s no way it will handle more than that. However, if you are willing to get your feet wet, you can request a free trial of one of the premium plans. This trial lasts for a month, and includes Dropbox sync, full change history, and up to 10 users per project.

Under the hood

ShareLaTeX has three compilers available: LaTeX, pdfLaTeX, and XeLaTeX. I use pdfLaTeX for most purposes, as it provides support for EPS diagrams.

You can select from a variety of themes for the code GUI. There are plenty of themes to choose from, but no good way to preview them, so selecting a theme can be like a hit-and-miss mission. Some of the themes look downright disgusting, but there are a few gems in there.

For best results with ShareLaTeX, I recommend the latest version of Google Chrome. It has the best built-in PDF viewer that I’ve seen, beating competitors like PDF.js and Adobe Reader. To take advantage of this beautiful PDF viewer, you’ll need to go into your User Settings -> Editor -> PDF Viewer, and select Native. There’s not much to say about ShareLaTeX’s built in editor.

Outside of the core features of the ShareLaTeX web app, the website itself is a very useful resource. Among some of the offerings: helpful LaTeX-related links on their Resources page, their blog, public discussion forum, and more. The team also maintains a fairly active Twitter account, @sharelatex, where they respond to questions and bug reports.

If for some reason you don’t like ShareLaTeX, you can actually delete your account! I’m not saying you should, but web services that allow you to delete your account deserve extra style points.

Conclusion

ShareLaTeX not only lets you store your projects in the cloud, it provides the editing interface so that you can work on your projects on almost any computer. Its interface will be very familiar to LaTeX users. While it provides a collaboration mode, however, ShareLaTeX is best used in solo mode.

For all its great features and cloud-minded approach, I give ShareLaTeX an 8.5/10, and would highly recommend for all LaTeX users.

Resources

Website: ShareLaTeX.com. Account required. For most browsers, there is no need to download any additional software.