# Online LaTeX Editor

CoCalc is a web service where you can edit LaTeX documents online right inside your browser.

It handles all tedious details for you. You no longer have to:

• Install a LaTeX environment,
• Configure its engine and install packages,
• Periodically backup versions of your LaTeX files.

Instead, all you need to do to get started is to

1. Create an account,
2. Create a project,
3. Write or upload your *.tex files and open them in CoCalc's online environment.

# Focus on the content and CoCalc takes care of everything else

## Managed LaTeX environments

CoCalc makes sure that your desired LaTeX engine is available and ready to use. You can choose between PDF Latex, XeLaTeX or LuaTeX.
Many packages and utilities like PGF&TikZ are pre-installed.
On top of that, by default LatexMK is configured to manage the compilation process, which means that you do not have to bother too much about any additional configuration.
Finally, it is possible to fully customize the compilation command. This means you can bring your own Shell-script or Makefile!

## Full computational environment

What sets CoCalc apart from other online LaTeX editors is full access to computational software. This means you can seamlessly transition from computing your results to publishing them.
You can run Python, SageMath, R Statistical Software, Julia right inside your browser in the same project as your LaTeX document.
Consult the Available Software page or look at our Jupyter Notebook information page for more information.

## Collaborative editing

Once you share your project privately with collaborators, concurrent modifications of the same file are synchronized in real time. You can watch the cursors of others while they edit the document! You are also notified about the presence of watching collaborators.
Additionally, the compilation status and the resulting output is synchronized between everyone, because everything is fully managed by CoCalc.
This ensures that everyone involved experiences editing the document in exactly the same way.

## SageTeX

SageTeX lets you embed SageMath in your document!
This means you can write LaTeX like \sage{2 + 2} and the document will contain "4", or \sage{f.taylor(x, 0, 10)} for the Taylor-expansion of a function "f". Drawing graphs becomes as simple as this: \sageplot{sin(x)}.
CoCalc deals with all the underlying details for you:
• It runs the initial compilation pass,
• uses Sage to produce all output and graphs/images,
• and then runs the second compilation pass to produce the final output.

## R/Knitr

CoCalc's Latex editor also supports Knitr .Rnw documents. This gives you the ability to embed arbitrary R Project commands and plots in your LaTeX file.
Behind the scenes, CoCalc deals with all underlying details for you:
• installation and management of all R packages,
• orchestrates the full compilation pipeline for LaTeX and running R, and
• reconciles the line-numbers of the .Rnw file with the corresponding .tex document for correct forward/inverse search.

## Forward/Inverse search

click to play
Forward Search let's you jump from the LaTeX source to the corresponding part in the rendered preview. That saves you time looking for the output by scrolling around.
Inverse search does the opposite: double-click on a part in the output and your cursor jumps (roughly) to the line in the source file for that output.
Under the hood, CoCalc uses SyncTeX seamlessly.

## Time-Travel

The Time-travel feature is specific to the CoCalc platform. It records all changes in the LaTeX notebook in fine detail. You can go back and forth in time across hundreds of changes to recover your previous edits.
This is especially helpful for pinpointing which of the recent changes did cause a compilation error. You can see the most recent changes during the past few minutes and see exactly where the modification happenend.

## Side-Chat panel

A side-by-side chat for each LaTeX file gives you the ability to discuss the content with your project collaborators or give feedback to your students working on their assignments.
Chat messages also support Markdown formatting and LaTeX formulas.

## Backups

Every couple of minutes, all files in your project are saved in consistent read-only snapshots.
This means you can always recover older versions of your files in case they got corrupted or accidentally deleted.

## Publishing

CoCalc helps you sharing your work with the world. It offers its own hosting of shared documents, alongside with any associated data files.
You can configure if your published files should be listed publicly, or rather only be available via a confidential URL.