How to use custom LaTeX document classes and Pandoc templates to customize documents without losing focus on writing

I often want to keep a flow when I'm writing. I want to avoid detours and distractions like looking up citations or finding a particular piece of information. But if I don't put in some kind of marker to remind myself to enter the information later, then I will definitely forget.

Texmaker stopped compiling LaTeX code after I (finally) upgraded to High Sierra (btw, what a stupid name; it's not like the U.S. has a shortage of rock formations to use as names). I avoid upgrading operating systems because of this very problem: things just stop working. Fortunately this one turned out to be an easy fix.

I have been using the exam class by Philip Hirschhorn in LaTeX to write out homework and tests for my class, The Epidemiology of Everyday Life. It allows me to write out problems with the ease of mathematical notation in LaTeX, provide solutions that can be turned on and off with a single line of code, and to easily tally points on various pages. If you haven't used it and teach a stats-based course, I would definitely recommend checking it out.

I ran into a problem, however, because I am a procrastinating perfectionist. I have had a desired to have all of my teaching handouts to have a similar look. ...

I really like using LaTeX for writing, both articles and for teaching. I find that it eliminates many of the hassles of using Word. I started trying to figure out how to write my own packages this past year and ran into many problems. One of those problems was figuring out a way to keep the .sty packages in a directory that I could easily access and that would be convenient for my workflow rather than what the LaTeX directory structure enforced.

The LaTeX search path includes two environment variables: TEXMFHOME and TEXMFLOCAL that determine where you would store .sty files to be recognized by LaTeX.¹ If you follow ...