Shuvangkar Das, PhD

2 minute read

If you’re a PhD student or researcher, you probably know this feeling:

You have the idea. You’ve done the experiments. You’re excited to write it up.

And then… you open Microsoft Word.

The formatting nightmare begins.

You spend hours dragging figures into the right place, tweaking captions, and praying your references don’t break. I’ve been there. Many of us have. And that’s exactly why I decided to change everything about how I write research papers.

Let me walk you through the journey that saved my sanity and doubled my writing productivity.

This is how I have written 8+ papers and my PhD dissertation in 2024. You can read about my 2024 high productivity [here]/PhD-Survival-guide-1

1. The Microsoft Word Struggle

In the early days, I used Microsoft Word.
Formatting figures? A nightmare.
Citations? Always messy.
Collaboration? Endless version conflicts.
It was painful. It felt like I was working against my tools.

2. Switching to Overleaf: My First Breakthrough

Overleaf was a breath of fresh air.
I no longer had to fight formatting every 5 minutes.
But I still had to manually upload figures, update BibTeX files, and manage references—which wasn’t ideal. I did not like the process uploading same figures hundred times when tweaking it for size, fonts etc. Also, since, I use Zotero for reference management, hate that I have to upload bibtext every time, I add new reference.

3. Taking Full Control with Local VS Code +Zotero

I wanted an automated pipeline where I will add reference and changes figures and whatever I want to do all those sorts of things will be reflected instantly into my writing. That’s when I build my vscode + zotero pipeline.

I already have my Zotero setup very well. I made a ton of video on these in my YouTube channel. Next things is prepare vscode for latex support. Here is step by step guide for you.

That’s when everything changed.

I moved to VS Code with the LaTeX Workshop extension and installed: Install Latex on vscode

  1. Install Latex Workshop Extension
  2. Install miktex from https://miktex.org/
  3. Install Strawberry Perl https://strawberryperl.com/
  4. Enable word wrap in VS code when you open .tex file (Shortcut: Alt+Z). You have to do this every time, you open latex files to make life easier

I enabled word wrap (Alt+Z) and never looked back.

Now, I write, build, and update everything locally. No more cloud delays. No more uploading figures one by one, no more monthly charge on overleaf. Once I have written 200 pages report and Overleaf did not compile in free version because it was taking longer time.

This setup isn’t just faster—it feels empowering. Like the tools finally work with me, not against me.

Are you a researcher or a PhD student? How do you manage your writing pipeline? Have you tried any of these tools? Share your experiences or tips in the comments! Let’s connect and help each other streamline our workflows.

#PhDLife #ResearchWriting #ProductivityTools #LaTeX #VSCode #Ortero #Overleaf #AcademicWorkflow

Shuvangkar Das, PhD
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA

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📚References

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