How to use reference (cross-links) by their names

There are many ways to do this, see e.g. here:
http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=nameref

The way that works for me is the nameref command from within hyperref package. One possible usage is:

\section*{foo}
\label{sec:foo}

...
\nameref{sec:foo}

How to create an empty page in your document

Sometimes we need empty pages in our document, the easiest way to do this is:

\newpage
\mbox{}
\newpage

Also if different style to the empty page is needed the following code is working:

\newpage
\thispagestyle{empty}
\mbox{}
\newpage

 Source: http://nw360.blogspot.pt/2007/10/creat-empty-page-in-latex.html

how to use landscape document mode

 \usepackage[landscape]{geometry}

\documentclass[landscape,twocolumn,letterpaper]{article}

 some more hints at

http://texblog.org/2007/11/10/landscape-in-latex/ 

How to put two figures next to each other

Use the minipage command, and the epsfig package e.g.

\begin{figure}[h]
  \hfill
  \begin{minipage}[t]{.45\textwidth}
    \begin{center}  
      \epsfig{file=figure1.eps, scale=0.5}
      \caption{figure 1}
      \label{fig-tc}
    \end{center}
  \end{minipage}
  \hfill
  \begin{minipage}[t]{.45\textwidth}
    \begin{center}  
      \epsfig{file=figure2.eps, scale=0.5}
      \caption{figure 2}
      \label{fig-tc}
    \end{center}
  \end{minipage}
  \hfill
\end{figure}

This, and other possible ways to put figures next to each other can be found here:
http://www.cse.iitd.ernet.in/~bagchi/latex-tips.html

How to write new line in LaTeX

Many LaTeX user (as myself in the past) think that the form of new line is to write

\\

Well, it works, bit it is actually not new line, but starting a new paragraph
The correct notation for new line (but not new paragraph) is

\\*

A more detailed description with many other possibilities to write new line new paragraph, new page is available at
http://www.personal.ceu.hu/tex/breaking.htm#newline

Avoid eqnarray

Some say, you should avoid eqnarray in multiline equations. There are several reasons why and how to do that, see here:
http://tug.org/pracjourn/2006-4/madsen/madsen.pdf

I personally used eqnarray a lot, and never had problems with that till now, when it just generated too much empty space before and after the equations, so I simply switched to array.

Poster in LaTeX

This tutorial sums up some possibilities how to prepare various size posters in LaTeX

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~reevesj/Classes/ELEC6970-latex/posters/BEAMERPOSTER.pdf

How to force no indentation at the beginning of a new section

Use the \noindent command at the beginning of the section. This will force the first line to have no indentation at all.

Include figures from a separate directory

It is often a good idea to have the figures separated into a folder. This can be done using the \graphicspath command as

\graphicspath{{./mypics/}}

after the includes.
This will tell the compiler to look up the figures from the mypics directory in the document root. Don't forget to include the graphicx (or similar) package.

Write comments in LaTeX

Normally comment is written in LaTeX with '%'. This rather suggested for short, one line comments, because the effect is only valid till the end of the line. If you would like to comment an entire block, it's more convenient to use the verbatim package as

\usepackage{verbatim}
 ...

\begin{comment}
  ...
  commented text
  ...
\end{comment}

How to refer to sections

Use \label to add label to a section and \ref to refer to it.

\section{Greetings}
\label{sec:greetings}
 
Hello!
 
\section{Referencing}
 
I greeted in section~\ref{sec:greetings}.

 see http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Labels_and_Cross-referencing for more detils

How to make references to equations

To have correct references of the same form to the equations use the \autoref{} command from within the hyperref package. This will also creat hyperlinks within the document into the referred equations.

How to leave open parenthesis in equations

If you use \left( and \right) the syntax checker will not allow you not to close (or not to open) the parenthesis. To get your LaTeX code correct you have to use \left. or \right. to have it closed.

This is useful for instance when you want to add new lines with parenthesis open or write cases like 

$\left\{
   \begin{array}{l c l}
      x &\rightarrow& y \\
      z &\rightarrow& w
    \end{array}
\right.$

Partial derivates in math equations

You can either write \partial in the equation

$
  \frac{\partial\x} {\partial{\theta}}$

Vertical spaces in equations

This might not be the most sophisticated way to do this, but it works:
simply escape the spaces using \ (backslash)

$x_{k+1}\ =\ x_k+w_k$