Lists, Figures and Tables

Simple Lists

Within the environment that contains the bulleted or numbered list, every entries of the list starts with \item. This will generate a bullet or number. Whether it will generate a bullet or number depends on the environment used. An itemize environment will result in a bulleted list:

\begin{itemize}
  \item Airplane
  \item Train
  ...
\end{itemize}

An enumerate environment will result in a numbered list:

\begin{enumerate}
  \item Mercurius
  \item Venus
  ...
\end{enumerate}

Creating a nested list can be done by simply creating a list environment inside an existing list. The bullet type and number format changes with increasing depth of the entries. In both cases, the depth is limited to 4 levels.

Figures and Tables

Floats

In order for figures and tables to be positioned correctly and include a caption, the whole environment has to be treated as a single object: a float. Floats are containers that cannot be broken over a page and include a placement specifier (\begin{<float environment>}[<placement specifier>] ... ). The following placement specifiers can be used:

h   % Position approximately here (not exactly)
t   % At the top of the page
b   % At the bottom of the page
p   % On a special page with only floats
!   % Override internal parameters that determine 'good' positions
H   % Exactly here (part of 'float')

Sometimes LaTeX might complain that it has trouble placing a float. Multiple placement specifiers can be used at once to give LaTeX more flexibility if needed (such as [htbp]).

Figures

Adding a figure can be done in a single command: \includegraphics{}. That would, however, be a figure that is not centered and has no caption. With the help of the graphicx package and figure environment, a figure can be included easily and properly. An example can be found below.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{example.png}
    \caption{The caption of the figure}
    \label{fig:example}
\end{figure}

The environment starts with the placement specifier ([htbp]) and a command to ensure the figure is centered on the page (\centering) respectively. The figure is added with the \includegraphics{} command with a certain specified width ([width=0.75\textwidth]). Note that this width does not have to be relative (e.g. width=7.5cm), nor does it have to be the width (e.g. height=90pt). Finally, the caption is added and a label is added to easily cross-reference the figure later.

Figures side-by-side with independent captions

A minipage environment can be used to insert figures side-by-side with independent captions. An example can be found below.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
    \centering
    \begin{minipage}{.45\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{example1.png}
        \caption{First figure}
        \label{fig:first}
    \end{minipage}\hfill
    \begin{minipage}{.45\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=.9\textwidth]{example2.png}
        \caption{Second figure}
        \label{fig:second}
    \end{minipage}
\end{figure}

Figures side-by-side with subcaptions and a global caption

The package subcaption (included in both templates) allows the creation of the subfigure environment, which can be used to insert figures side-by-side with subcaptions and a global caption. An example can be found below.

\begin{figure}[htbp]
    \centering
    \begin{subfigure}{.45\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=.9\linewidth]{example1.png}
        \caption{First subfigure}
        \label{fig:first}
    \end{subfigure}\hfill
    \begin{subfigure}{.45\textwidth}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=.9\linewidth]{example2.png}
        \caption{Second subfigure}
        \label{fig:second}
    \end{subfigure}
    \caption{Global caption}
    \label{fig:global}
\end{figure}

Tables

An introduction to creating tables by Overleaf can be found here. As soon as the table becomes larger, it might be easier to use a LaTeX table generator. This table generator also allows you to paste table data from a spreadsheet or text document.

Just getting the information inside the table is only the first step. Creating a professional-looking table generally requires a bit more work. The package booktabs (included in both templates) might be able to help. See Section 1 to 3 of the package documentation for more information.