# 1. Collaborating with non-LaTeX users

If you are reading this, you probably know LaTeX: a typsetting system ideal for scientific papers. ShareLaTeX brings the LaTeX desktop experience to the web. You compose LaTeX code in one window pane and press compile, then generate a PDF in a separate pane. This is familiar to LaTeX writers (a small percentage of the scholarly community), but is still difficult for non-LaTeX users (the vast majority) to grasp.
With Authorea, LaTeX is one of many formats you can write in. Others include Markdown, and HTML (rich text, like Word!). Authorea offers a format-neutral, web-native platform. Regardless of the format, you render content on the web - not a separate pane that compiles a PDF (side note, you can still export a PDF... see below!). The advantage: you can collaborate with authors who don't know (and will never learn) LaTeX. Authorea's rich text editor is a true WYSIWYG editor (What you see is what you get). It also has the ability to include as much LaTeX and mathematical notation as you need. Every document written in Authorea becomes a beautiful webpage.