Vanderbilt University on Overleaf
Overview
Upgrade your LaTeX writing
Vanderbilt University’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are providing access to the features available with an Overleaf Professional individual subscription for all students, faculty and staff.
Get collaborating fast with features including:
- Real-time track changes
- Unlimited collaborators
- Full document history
- Powerful integrations with Git, GitHub, and Dropbox
- Advanced referencing features, including integrations with Mendeley, Zotero, and Papers
- Faster compilation speeds and longer compile timeouts
With Overleaf, anyone can write smarter—creating complex, beautifully formatted documents with ease.
Link your account to the Heard Libraries' subscription or create and link your account below with the Vanderbilt University single sign-on.
Note: Unlimited usage of Overleaf AI Assist is not included as part of Vanderbilt University's subscription.
Join a community of over 1355 authors at Vanderbilt University
Quick Start
Welcome to the quick start guide to Overleaf. We've put together some useful resources and links in the sections below, and if you have any questions about how to get started please let us know and we'll be happy to help!
For Students
Try out the Overleaf editor with built in tutorial
If you'd like to dive straight into the editor, simply click the button to create a new paper using our quick-start template. A short tutorial will walk you through the main features to quickly get you started.
Browse the Overleaf template gallery
You can find a selection of featured templates, or check out our full template gallery for more ideas and inspiration.
Take our free course to quickly master the LaTeX essentials
If you're new to LaTeX, we've put together a free online course to help you learn the basics. If you have never used LaTeX before, or if it has been a while and you would like a refresher, this is the place to start.
For Researchers
Find a journal template
Through our partnerships within the publishing community, we provide a selection of academic journal templates for articles and papers. These templates automatically format your manuscripts in the style required for submission to that journal.
Edit in Visual Editor mode or directly in LaTeX
Overleaf provides an intuitive and easy-to-use manuscript editor (our Visual Editor mode), which is especially useful if you or your co-authors aren't familiar with writing in LaTeX.
If you prefer to edit directly in LaTeX, you can! Overleaf provides a full collaborative online LaTeX editor you can switch to at any time.
Submitting your articles to journals, repositories and more
You can also submit your paper directly to a number of journals and other editorial and review services via the publish menu in the editor. Simply open the publish menu from any document and follow the appropriate 'Submit to ...' link.
For Instructors
Introducing students to LaTeX
Overleaf has several on-demand webinars available that address a variety of beginner, intermediate, and advanced topics.
Help students understand LaTeX errors
Addressing errors as they happen helps ensure that your LaTeX project continues to compile and look the way it should.
Show your class how to turn on track changes for review
Overleaf offers an impressive collection of collaboration features, and your institutional subscription provides all users with access to the powerful track changes feature.
Featured LaTeX Templates
This is the official LaTeX template prepared in 2021 by the Vanderbilt University Graduate School for submission of dissertations. It is based on a template originally prepared by Eli Hooten and updated by Haley Adams. Using the template is no guarantee that you pass format review with your first submission, but it should save you significant amount of time.
This is a basic journal article template which includes metadata fields for multiple authors, affiliations and keywords. It is also set up to use the lineno package for line numbers; these can be turned on by adding the 'lineno' option to the documentclass command.
Know the LaTeX command you want to use but can't remember how to write it? Here we present a great tips sheet produced by Dave Richeson; it's pre-loaded in Overleaf so you can see how the commands work instantly. Simply click on the button above to open a version in Overleaf for editing (and to quickly copy and paste the commands you need!). For more comments visit this page on Dave's site, or if you'd like to work through a fuller introduction to LaTeX why not check out our free online course?
Metropolis is originally created by Matthias Vogelgesang and is available from https://github.com/matze/mtheme as well as CTAN. More information about the theme, including the design principles, can be found at http://bloerg.net/2014/09/20/a-modern-beamer-theme.html. This version demonstrates the use of a progress bar under the frame titles. See the manual for other customisation options.
Edward Tufte is a pioneer in the field of data visualization, and his works inspired the creation of two LaTeX classes for books and handouts. Here we present the excellent sample book produced by the The Tufte-LaTeX Developers pre-loaded into Overleaf (formerly writeLaTeX) for you to use as a starting point for your own work. Simply click the button above to use Overleaf to create and edit your article - there's nothing to install and no sign up required. When you're finished, use our integrated publish to figshare option to publish your work freely online. Click here if you'd like to try the corresponding Tufte handout design on Overleaf. PS: If you're new to LaTeX, our free online LaTeX course covers all the steps you need to get you started.
A4 document with page numbering and adjusted margins. Included options for gentium and times font, as well as language.
FAQ & Help
Who should I contact if I have questions about Overleaf or the Vanderbilt University license?
If you need technical support while working on any Overleaf projects, please use our contact form and we'll make sure your question gets to the right person in our team. You can also send Vanderbilt-specific questions to Ask a Librarian.
I'm new to Overleaf, how should I get started?
We've put together a short How do I use Overleaf help page to give you pointers on exactly that :)
You can also watch upcoming and on-demand webinars.
How do I upload an existing LaTeX project into Overleaf?
Here's how to import existing LaTeX documents into Overleaf.
What packages does Overleaf support?
Overleaf supports the packages listed here.