Searching for a free online LaTex editor that lets you share, access and edit LaTeX documents, then try your hands on Sharelatex.com.
LaTeX is the go-to language, which is popular among technical writers and researchers (who are writing papers or books of their own on technical topics), and generally used in academia for preparing documents. There are lots of online LaTex editors available that help you in preparing such documents as PDF’s with ease. ShareLaTeX is included in the list of good online LaTeX editors, which allows you create and store LaTeX files and it allows you collaborate and share them at the same time. Just as what Google Docs does for document collaboration, ShareLaTeX does for mathematical typesetting. The Sharelatex.com website follows the freemium pricing model, delivering more advanced features like additional collaborators, change history, and Dropbox synchronization to paying customers.
An experimental LaTeX editor was created by Henry Oswald in 2011. Later, this experimental LaTeX editor became ShareLaTeX, and James Allen started working with Henry early in 2012. As ShareLaTeX is helpful to collaborate on the same LaTeX project and edit together in real-time, you’ll never go out of sync with your collaborators again or miss track of any alterations. ShareLaTeX needs registration and all projects are basically private.
Sharelatex offers two plans – Individual and Group plans, so select whichever is most convenient for you. Both plans are sub-divided into monthly, annual and half price student plans. They are also divided into different categories like personal, collaborator and professional. Personal plan is available for free forever, in which you can enjoy features like You + 1 free user per project, Low priority compiling, Unlimited projects and Unlimited compiles. Paid plans offer Many free users per project, Full history of changes, Highest priority compiling, etc.
How it works?
Creating an account with ShareLaTeX is very easy. For registering, just provide your email address and password and get started the use of ShareLaTeX.com. Registration facility through social network is not available. Once you successfully get registered on the site, you can catch hold of the personal plan (free), where you can collaborate with one other person. If you want to collaborate with more users, opt for paid plans. Good news for students as they would receive 50% off the subscriptions. As soon as you login, you will be directed to your Projects page. It is very well designed and easy to navigate. Then, start creating unlimited projects. Choose from different projects – blank project, example project and upload zipped project or else choose from templates of resume, presentation, thesis, etc.
ShareLaTeX allows you store your projects in the cloud also it gives the editing interface so that you can work on your projects on almost any PC. Now let’s come to the editing page, on which you can write code and view it compiled as a PDF. Use three panes given on the editing page. With left pane, you can arrange your documents precisely with folders, and upload supporting documents like PDF diagrams or EPS files. Your code is given on the center pane, which is provided with important syntax highlighting and auto completion of commands. You can make your code appear Emacs or Vim, using various themes offered for the syntax highlighter. The default font size can be changed to large with user settings. Using right pane, whenever you hit Recompile you observe a PDF preview. A fallback is given to use if your browser doesn’t have built-in PDF support. For this purpose, it is advised to use ShareLaTeX with the newest version of Google Chrome because it has the best built-in PDF system, beating rivals like PDF.js and Adobe Reader.
Expertise is not needed in LaTeX to edit your documents effectively as this work is done by ShareLaTeX. You can download your projects to work offline even upload present documents to get your work onto ShareLaTeX speedily. ShareLaTeX is best used in solo mode although it gives a collaboration mode. Compared to all other features of ShareLaTeX, collaboration mode doesn’t work much well. The list of bugs goes frequently from losing link to glitchy typing. Dropbox sync puts your LaTeX projects synced to your dropbox folder, as well you are able to do changes inside your dropbox afterward view them sync back to ShareLaTeX. Moreover, share the Dropbox folder with users who want to work offline with their own tool.
Good points:
Online Latex editor
A user-friendly web service
Free and paid plans offered for individuals and groups
No installation required
All projects are basically private
Your project is compiled into a PDF with just one click
Expertise not necessary to edit your documents effectively
Download your projects to work offline
Part 1 – LaTeX – Creating Your First Document video from youtube:
Part 2 – LaTeX – Sections and Paragraphs video from youtube: