All documentation

A document skeleton that fits most work

Reports, dissertations, course notes and long articles share the same shape. This guide builds that shape once: a title page, an abstract, a table of contents, numbered chapters, an unnumbered introduction and conclusion, and a bibliography. Fill it in, or keep it as a starting point for every new document.

It takes about five minutes. If the document is a thesis, Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX without coding goes through everything it needs, including what Texifine does not do yet.

What you will end up with

  1. A title page — title, authors, date.
  2. An abstract, on its own page.
  3. A table of contents.
  4. An Introduction, not numbered.
  5. Numbered chapters, each with sections.
  6. A Conclusion, not numbered.
  7. The bibliography.

Step 1 — The document's settings

Create a document and open it. Click the empty margin of the page so that no block is selected, and in the Document panel:

  • choose the Language;
  • switch Abstract on;
  • switch Table of contents on;
  • switch Bibliography on.

Step 2 — The title page

At the top of the page:

  • type the title;
  • click Add an author and type your name; press Enter for a co-author;
  • click the date and choose what suits the document: the compilation date for a draft that keeps changing, a custom date ("June 2026", "Academic year 2025–2026") for a version you hand in.

Step 3 — The abstract

Write a few sentences in the abstract field under the title. You can leave it for last: an empty abstract prints nothing.

Step 4 — The introduction

  1. Insert a Heading and type "Introduction".
  2. In the right column set its level to Chapter, and its numbering to Plain.

A plain chapter starts a new page like any chapter, but takes no number and does not appear in the table of contents. Your first real chapter will be Chapter 1.

Step 5 — The chapters

For each chapter:

  1. Insert a Heading, level Chapter, numbering Numbered. Type its title.
  2. Inside the chapter, use H1 for sections and H2 for subsections.
  3. Write under each heading: paragraphs, equations, figures, tables.

A good outline to start from:

  • Chapter 1 — Context and state of the art
  • Chapter 2 — Method
  • Chapter 3 — Results
  • Chapter 4 — Discussion

Type the headings first and fill them in later: the table-of-contents preview at the top of the page shows your outline as it grows, and a click on an entry takes you to its heading.

Step 6 — The conclusion

Same as the introduction: a Heading, level Chapter, numbering Plain, titled "Conclusion".

Step 7 — The bibliography

At the bottom of the page, click Add a reference for each source and fill in its fields. Then cite them where you use them with Ctrl+Alt+C. See Citing sources.

The bibliography is printed after the conclusion and listed in the table of contents.

Step 8 — Check the PDF

Open PDF Preview. You should see, in order: the title page, the abstract, the table of contents with page numbers, the introduction, your chapters, the conclusion and the bibliography.

Variations

A short article or a homework, without chapters

Skip the chapters and use H1 for sections. Sections are then numbered 1, 2, 3, figures and equations too, and nothing starts a new page.

Appendices

There is no appendix mode yet (chapters numbered A, B, C). Use plain chapters titled "Appendix A — …", or numbered chapters after the conclusion.

Acknowledgements, foreword

A plain chapter placed before the introduction.

Reusing the skeleton

There is no "duplicate document" yet. The quickest way to reuse a skeleton is to keep its outline short — the settings and the headings take a couple of minutes to recreate.

Things worth knowing

  • Sections under a plain chapter. A plain chapter does not restart numbering. Sections in an unnumbered introduction are numbered as if they belonged to no chapter (1, 2…), and sections in an unnumbered conclusion continue the previous chapter (4.3, 4.4…). Mark those sections Plain too.
  • Figures in the introduction are numbered 1, 2… without a chapter prefix, since no numbered chapter has started.
  • Page numbers. The title page and the abstract carry no number; numbering starts at 1 on the page that follows them. There are no Roman numerals for the front pages.