Sections and titles

Organising with sections

• Real documents are split into sections so readers can follow them.
• The command is simple:

\section{Introduction}

• LaTeX numbers it automatically (1, 2, 3 …) — you never count by hand.

Smaller pieces

• Inside a section you can add subsections:

\section{Methods}
\subsection{Materials}
\subsection{Procedure}

• These become 2.1, 2.2, and so on. Add or remove one and everything renumbers itself.

A title block

• A report usually starts with a title, an author, and a date.
• You declare them in the preamble, then print them with \maketitle:

\documentclass{article}
\title{My First Report}
\author{Pat Lee}
\begin{document}
\maketitle
...
\end{document}

• \maketitle goes inside the body, usually as its first line.

Common mistakes

• \maketitle without \title{...}. LaTeX stops with ! LaTeX Error: No \title given. Without \author{...} it only warns and leaves the author line empty.
• \section Introduction without braces. Only the first letter, I, becomes the heading. Write \section{Introduction}.
• Numbering headings by hand. \section{1 Introduction} prints 1 1 Introduction. LaTeX numbers them; use \section*{...} for no number.