Shuvangkar Das, PhD

3 minute read

At the beginning of my second year of PhD, my professor gave me a big task: prepare the final report for our project titled “Real-Time Interconnection Studies and Control of New York Offshore Wind.”1 This wasn’t a short summary — it was a hundred-page technical report. Like many others, I began using Overleaf, thinking it was the best choice for LaTeX documents. And initially, it was smooth. But as the report grew, the cracks began to show.

Why Overleaf Didn’t Work for Me

1. Slow Compilation with Large Documents

As my report reached dozens of pages, every small edit triggered a long wait — sometimes several minutes — just to compile. When you’re trying to focus, that delay is a productivity killer.

2. Attachment Management is a Pain

Every time I tweaked a figure — even a small label — I had to re-upload the image manually into Overleaf. That might seem trivial, but in a hundred-page technical report, it quickly becomes frustrating and repetitive.

3. Manual Reference Upload from Zotero

I use Zotero for all my paper management and citation tracking. My workflow involves adding new papers to a Zotero subfolder and generating a BibTeX file. But each time I added a paper, I had to upload the BibTeX file again into Overleaf. It broke the automation I wanted and made citation management unnecessarily manual.

4. Lack of Modern UI Features

I prefer dark themes for long working hours, and Overleaf doesn’t support that. The interface feels outdated, lacks tab support, and isn’t optimized for writing large, modular reports.

5. No Free Git Integration

Version control is crucial, especially when collaborating. But Overleaf charges for Git integration. For a student, that felt unnecessary — particularly when free alternatives exist.

My Workflow Transformation with VS Code + LaTeX

After a frustrating experience, I began exploring local LaTeX editors. TeXStudio was my first try, but it didn’t feel modern or smooth. Then I discovered the power of VS Code + LaTeX Workshop extension. That completely changed my workflow and made everything 10x faster.

1. Instant Compilation

Unlike Overleaf, compilation is blazing fast in VS Code — usually under a second. No more waiting to see changes.

2. Easy Figure Management

All my figures are in a subfolder. When I update a figure, it automatically reflects in the report without any manual uploads. That’s peace of mind.

3. Fully Automated Zotero Integration

I configured my Zotero subfolder to automatically export BibTeX into my manuscript folder. Now, when I add a paper to Zotero, it updates the .bib file without me touching anything. I just copy the cite key, and that’s it.

4. Customizable UI

With VS Code, I use a dark theme, multiple tabs, and font settings optimized for writing. It’s far easier on my eyes, especially during long writing sessions.

5. Seamless Git and GitHub Integration

Since everything is local, I manage my manuscript versions with Git. I push to GitHub and collaborate with co-authors without paying extra. I can even review commit history, create branches for different versions, and merge changes — all inside VS Code.

6. Peace of Mind

No delays. No repeated uploads. No formatting glitches. Just writing, compiling, and focusing on content.

How to Set Up LaTeX in VS Code2

Here’s what I did to replicate this setup:

Step-by-Step Installation

  1. Install LaTeX Workshop Extension in VS Code
  2. Download and install MiKTeX
  3. Download and install Strawberry Perl
  4. Open your .tex file and press Alt + Z to enable word wrap — essential for readability

That’s it. You now have a powerful, offline LaTeX environment optimized for speed, automation, and version control.

If you’re a researcher, grad student, or engineer writing long technical documents and struggling with Overleaf, give VS Code a shot. It saved me hours and gave me control back over my writing process.

👋 About Me

Hi, I’m Shuvangkar Das, a power systems researcher with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Clarkson University. I work at the intersection of power electronics, DER, IBR, and AI — building greener, smarter, and more stable grids. Currently, I’m a Research Engineer at EPRI (though everything I share here reflects my personal experience, not my employer’s views).

Over the years, I’ve worked on real-world projects involving large scale EMT simulation and firmware development for grid-forming and grid following inverter and reinforcement learning (RL). I also publish technical content and share hands-on insights with the goal of making complex ideas accessible to engineers and researchers.

📺 Subscribe to my YouTube channel, where I share tutorials, code walk-throughs, and research productivity tips.

Connect with me:

📚References

  1. https://www.nypa.gov/news/press-releases/2020/20201106-clarkson ↩

  2. https://github.com/James-Yu/LaTeX-Workshop/wiki/Install [[Latex on vscode]] ↩

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