⚡️ Ideas
Rahul Arora Rahul Arora Mar 27, 2023

LaTeX support, both inline and full-width

Explain the problem as you see it

I often take notes about technical content, including mathematical formulas

Why is this a problem for you?

This is one of the two things that is still keeping me on LogSeq for some of my use cases. The other thing is the lack of spaced repetition flashcards

Suggest a solution

Implement LaTeX with $...$ syntax for inline and $$...$$ syntax for multiline

⁨10⁩ ⁨Comments⁩

Yes. I agree. For the developers, this is a similar post to Steven Durham. I hope the votes would add up.

While I do understand Tana seems to like WYSIWYG style, some implementations could be similar to Ed, as shown in the photo below:
Screenshot 2023-04-06 at 4.41.55 PM.png

It can be seen that as a user, you can use latex form or a click the appropriate layout. so depending on their latex skill level, you can use either the former or latter, or even both.

The alternative one is similar to Craft Docs as shown below:
Screenshot 2023-04-06 at 4.45.06 PM.png

But I think Ed has a better design.

However, the missing element in both of these options is an in-line equation.
This is obviously solved in latex through $...$ syntax.

In the personal knowledge management community, I believe that a lot of people major in Math, Statistics, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, Computer Science, Software development. Even Social Science makes use of mathematical and statistical tools. So Latex Support is vital for a note-taking tool.

Agreed. So important for any STEM field. Tana's been an absolute dream to use compared to other PKM's for me as a student, but not being able to use equations has me looking for alternatives that don't exist.

Lack of maths is the main reason we are not considering Tana in my group (physics research) so addition of this would be awesome. The syntax $..$ for inline and $$..$$ for display would be the best as it taps into muscle memory for anyone writing latex, see Logseq for a good implementation in an outliner and Obsidian for long-form writing.

For tana to compete in an extraordinarily large market, there are some simple things that need careful consideration. There is lots of complexity and flexibility but this (by definition) appeals to a smaller cohort of users when compared to basic 'quality of life' capabilities. My two needs that allow me to abandon other tools are:

Image flexibility and configuration
Some form of latex for mathematical functions
Every other tool I have looked at cover these to varying degrees. It will be a deal breaker at some point. The AI integration is strong enough - surely it's time to think a little more about things that (I assume) a large number of users will benefit from.

thanks