{automation} is about automating certain tasks when creating a (La)TeX document, e.g., with the help of {packages}, custom {macros} or {tools} for {compiling}.
76
votes
22answers
6k views
Tools for automating document compilation
A lot of people write makefiles that say something like
paper.pdf: paper.tex
pdflatex paper
bibtex paper
pdflatex paper
pdflatex paper
To handle re-running TeX to ...
24
votes
10answers
3k views
Passing parameters to a document
I compile most of my documents via Makefiles which take care of the bibliography, indexes, etc. Often I'd like to compile different versions from the same TeX file changing only small things (e.g. a ...
23
votes
4answers
2k views
How to make Latexmk use makeglossaries?
Is there a way to make Latexmk invoke makeglossaries (part of the glossaries package)?
Specifically I want to use latexmk to compile a LaTeX document that uses the glossaries package to produce a ...
83
votes
11answers
5k views
LaTeX packages for use with revision control
I use revision control (Subversion, to be exact) to keep track of the edits to my LaTeX documents. Is there a LaTeX package that interfaces with revision control? Specifically, it would be nice to see ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
Replace \input{fileX} by the content of fileX automatically
Suppose I have a document with multiple include or input statements
\input{fileA}
\input{fileB}
etc.
Is there an easy way to generate a single .tex file where \input{fileA} is replaced by the ...
13
votes
4answers
2k views
How to automatically skip leading white spaces in listings
This question led to a new package:
lstautogobble (lstaddons bundle)
For my programming lecture slides I heavily use the listings package with \lstnewenvironment to typeset source code. It's a ...
12
votes
6answers
598 views
Custom format file: How to automate the generation of the “precompiled preamble” whenever one of the files that are used there are changed
I would like to speed up compilation of my LaTeX documents using the precompiled preamble approach, and I was wondering whether any of the Tools for automating document compilation have support for ...
2
votes
1answer
1k views
How to include all files within a directory relative to the edited *.tex-file?
I am writing my reports which need to reference complete *.java files with latex.
I am using the Texlipse Eclipse plugin to do the editing.
Right now I am referencing the complete path to each ...
20
votes
4answers
3k views
Script to automate externalizing tikz graphics
Is there a script to automate externalizing tikz graphics?
(As suggested by Scott here)
17
votes
1answer
667 views
ultrafast pdflatex with precompiling
I try to improve the time pdflatex needs to compile my book.
Really working example
book.tex
%&preamble
\begin{document}
Hi
\end{document}
and
preamble.tex
\documentclass{article}
I run ...
12
votes
2answers
614 views
Automatically Locate Included Images
Do you think it's possible to include images into LaTeX without specifying the exact path to them. So instead of:
\includegraphics{path/to/image/myfig.pdf}
It would be:
\includegraphics{myfig.pdf}
...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
How to use kile with feynmf or feynmp?
Does somebody know how to teach kile to automatically do the additional steps for compiling Latex documents that contain Feynman diagrams produced with feynmf or feynmp?
For what I know I have to ...
26
votes
2answers
2k views
What's the advantage of using csquotes over using an editor's auto-replacement for "?
Many editors (TeXnicCenter, Texmaker, TeXworks, ...) offer auto-replacement of " by the desired form of quotation marks, be it `` and '' for English, "` and "' for German, or whatnot. Usually, I know ...
17
votes
1answer
707 views
How to automatically arrange an unknown number of images?
I have several compilable LaTeX input files and their corresponding PDF files. Each PDF file contains any number of pages. I want to import each LaTeX input file with \lstinputlisting followed by its ...
18
votes
2answers
334 views
How to compute the remaining space on the current page
Is there a way to compute the remaining space on the current page and issue an optional command?
15
votes
3answers
2k views
How can I avoid compiling twice?
Sometimes I need to run compile twice (eg when I use lastpage). Is there a way to set things so TeX knows that there is need for second run and do it automatically? I use Texmaker.
12
votes
1answer
827 views
Automatically connect nodes without overlapping other nodes or connections
In making a tree diagram with TikZ. Say that I've got the following nodes
\node(a) {\(A\)};
\node(b1) at ($(a)+(4,1)$){\(B_1\)};
\node(b2) at ($(b1)+(0,-1)$){\(B_2\)};
\node(c) at ...
20
votes
2answers
2k views
Intelligent paragraph reflowing in vim?
I'm not sure whether this is an appropriate question for tex.SE. If you think questions like this should not be asked here, please voice you concern. If necessary I'll open a question on meta.
For ...
10
votes
3answers
847 views
Cross Platform LaTeX Build System
I am on Windows 7 Professional (64 bit) and would like to be able to execute one command to completely compile a PDF from source .tex files (including all required runs to get the table of contents, ...
21
votes
4answers
369 views
Count and use the number of items in advance
When writing LaTeX code, I often successively make changes like adding or removing items. I'd like to have TeX count and update the number of items in the list automatically, as in
There are ...
14
votes
1answer
685 views
Automatic line break in alignat
Consider the following example from http://tex.stackexchange.com/a/12782/4011
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\newcounter{eqn}
\renewcommand*{\theeqn}{\alph{eqn})}
...
10
votes
6answers
2k views
Is there an automatic process to create index creation?
Certainly, there must be some way to somewhat create a list of words suggested to be included in an index.
12
votes
2answers
527 views
Automatically avoid more than one node when drawing a path
Background
Andrew Stacey's answer to Automatically connect nodes without overlapping other nodes or connections presents code to make a path avoid a node by going through a corner of that node ...
16
votes
2answers
553 views
Is there any package to automatically select font size and margins to optimize pages?
Suppose I am preparing multi-page handouts using LaTeX.
I don't care much about the font and margins size (while they are reasonable), but I would like all the pages to be filled, ie. avoid the ...
2
votes
2answers
105 views
Automatically Adding Potentially Referenced Macros From Auxillary File
In this question someone asked if there was any way to eliminate user defined macros from a TeX document and replace them with the appropriate primitives. The answer seemed to be that while some ...
13
votes
2answers
298 views
Avoid linebreaks in LaTeX console / log output
Is it possible to tell the LaTeX command not to use line breaks in its console / log output?
This would make it easier to automate the processing of the log file, e.g. extracting the names of missing ...
9
votes
2answers
1k views
Replacement for MiKTeX's texify in TeX Live
I used to use the texify command in MiKTeX on Windows.
I would, for example, run a command like:
texify --pdf --run-viewer file.tex
which, as I understand it, would produce a pdf, automatically ...
5
votes
1answer
291 views
Include figure (from macro) with underscore in filename
I have a system of where a .tex is generated from a program. The final .tex file has a (simplified) structure like this:
\newcommand{\PlotFrame}[1]{%
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{...}
...
...
...
15
votes
3answers
363 views
Mathematical functions inside LaTeX tables
I have several tables where I have tables which may look like this:
-------------------------------------
| X | Y | X + Y | X - Y | (X + Y)/2 |
-------------------------------------
| | | | ...
30
votes
1answer
519 views
TeX as the basis for data driven document generation system?
I am in the early stages of trying to replace an existing document generation system based on Microsoft Office apps (Word and Excel).
The system runs once a year to generate over 300,000 individual ...
14
votes
7answers
433 views
Automatic generation of pages with variable fields
I need to produce dozens of same pages, except for the part that each page has to have a different person's name on it. Imagine it as an exam, where the content is equal for every page, except that I ...
10
votes
3answers
688 views
Generating a table of glyphs with XeTeX
I am trying to get XeTeX to generate a table of all the possible glyphs of a given font, but can not figure out how to make XeTeX know how many glyphs the font has, so I have to specify an exact ...
31
votes
3answers
2k views
Detecting all pages which contain color
In an larger LaTeX document there are often only some pages with color content (mainly figures) and the remaining ones are only black and white.
Because printing costs for color pages are much higher ...
16
votes
2answers
584 views
Find optimal figure size to fit two images on one page
I often encounter a situation where I would like to fit two or three figures on one page.
I define my figures as follows:
\begin{figure}[htpb]
\centering
...
11
votes
4answers
704 views
Can small-caps be automated for abbreviations and acronyms?
Is there a way to force LaTeX to automatically use small-caps for abbreviations and acronyms (or more specifically, strings of two or more uppercase letters)?
13
votes
2answers
3k views
Inputting multiple files in LaTeX
Suppose I have a directory containing a bunch of LaTeX source files, and I want to input all of them into a single main file. I could do this by saying
\input{dir/file1.tex}
\input{dir/file2.tex}
...
9
votes
2answers
743 views
Is there a tool/script available to simply install packages locally?
This question is not on how to manually install packages but how to install packages automatically via script. This question is not about MikTeX or the limited tex package management in certain linux ...
8
votes
1answer
168 views
Automated generation of equation key
I am looking for a way to automatically create the legend for an equation (let's say embedded in the align environment).
What I'm currently using is a semi automated to fully manual way. Let me ...
6
votes
1answer
476 views
Latexmk can't see a dependency on a .fmt format file
I'm using latex on a small netbook, and with average-sized files (~150 pages at the moment) compilation is already pretty slow. So I am looking for every way to speed up the compilation.
In this ...
4
votes
3answers
695 views
Automatically start the necessary pdflatex runs if .tex has changed (MacOS X)?
I read about Latex Daemon, which seems to automatically start a new latex run, when the source document (.tex) has changed.
Can somebody recommend me a similar solution for MacOS X (as Latex daemon ...
10
votes
1answer
544 views
Images off the page in multicols environment
Before my question, some background information.
I’ve created an algorithm (not latex) which will generate a catalog for a collection of books dynamically. A user supplies information to query an SQL ...
7
votes
2answers
364 views
Footnotes with automatic final period
I'm tired to always add a period at the end of the \footnote command. Is there the possibility that LaTeX automatically does this at the end of every footnote?
6
votes
1answer
447 views
Create a “yearbook-style” multi-page layout of photos
I would like to create a "yearbook-style" layout of photos in LaTeX. Each photo would have a caption and the objective would be to automatically layout the differently sized rectangular photos to ...
4
votes
4answers
2k views
Dropbox & LaTeX compiling automation
I'm in the middle of a "drop a file here and compile it using LaTeX" project. I have a Dropbox and I would like to drop a .tex file in a specific folder and have a script that compiles it for me. I'm ...
1
vote
2answers
408 views
Extract document statistics? - How many pages has chapter xy? Count fixmes?
I have a large pdflatex document where each chapter is located in an extra text file and included with \include{chapter3.tex} ...
How can I extract the page numbers of each chapter and write them ...
14
votes
1answer
1k views
Automatic newspaper creation in LaTeX
This is a very general question about LaTeX, asked by a 100% newbie!
I'm trying to figure out if it's feasible to build an automatic newspaper creation engine, and if LaTeX can help in this field.
...
7
votes
2answers
65 views
Setting an “attribute” for Theorem to be accessed later
I am writing a math paper with a large number of theorems. I'm looking to have a table summarizing my results, and I'd love it if the table could be generated automatically from my paper. I' looking ...
7
votes
1answer
499 views
Timeline with automatized hours and minutes
Some time ago I've asked a question about Timelines, many solutions were given, but in the end I decided to go with TikZ and also presented my solution. But I couldn't have done it without Torbjørn ...
5
votes
1answer
140 views
Automatic calculation of error in pgfplots
When taking in data through a file (such as table[x index=0, y index=1, y error index=2]{plots/mydata.table};) is it possible to automatically calculate the error bars (instead of putting them in ...
0
votes
1answer
363 views
Fine-tuning bibliography
This question concerns fine-tuning a bibliography. I collected bib files (that are available for download from the source of a journal article) and put them all in a single biblio.bib file. Here are ...
