{compiling} is about the process you must go through to convert your TeX from .tex source files into your output document format, be it pdf, dvi, or something completely different.
115
votes
12answers
17k views
Compiling documents online
I have heard rumors that you can compile documents online, and more specifically that Google has a free online compiler, but I have never been able to find any. Is there a way to compile documents ...
102
votes
15answers
14k views
Is there any way to do a correct word count of a LaTeX document?
Often assignments (or even papers) have a word count limit. That is not a big deal when using Word, but I don't know how to do that using LaTeX. My solution has been so far to compile the document and ...
75
votes
22answers
5k 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 ...
63
votes
10answers
6k views
Speeding up LaTeX compilation
Usually I don't mind about LaTeX's compilation speed, because a paper of less than 20 pages is compiled rather fast. However, I am working on a large document - A report with more than 80 pages. ...
60
votes
5answers
3k views
Is there any reason to compile to DVI rather than PDF these days?
I appreciate that in the past, latex was faster than pdflatex, but computer speeds being what they are nowadays, I can't see any difference in how quickly documents compile...
So, given that the end ...
43
votes
3answers
612 views
When and why should I use % !TEX TS-program and % !TEX encoding?
Occasionally, I see other people's documents starting with two lines like that:
% !TEX TS-program = xelatex
% !TEX encoding = UTF-8 Unicode
It's clear to me that the first line declares the engine ...
42
votes
27answers
4k views
Real Time LaTeX? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is there any way to get real-time compilation for LaTeX?
I'm looking for an application in which I can write pure LaTeX in one half of the screen and on the other half ...
42
votes
8answers
4k views
Can one TeX file output to multiple PDF files?
I'd like to be able to create a TeX file that will output multiple PDF files with one compilation. I'm not even sure if this is possible. Here is the setup:
I am writing dozens of cover letters for ...
41
votes
7answers
4k views
What is the practical difference between latex and pdflatex?
I understand that some packages (like PSTricks) can't be used with pdflatex.
Are there any other differences between these tools?
Can we say that pdflatex is better if we don't care about ps?
40
votes
10answers
5k views
38
votes
6answers
1k views
Does anyone place anything after \end{document}?
Just like http://programming.itags.org/tex/137196/ I have noticed that everything after \end{document} is ignored. What is the point of \end{document}? It seems that the compiler could just read until ...
35
votes
17answers
5k views
Is there any way to get real-time compilation for LaTeX?
I would really love to have a software or tool which provided real time compilation of my LaTeX document (to be able to see the final pdf or dvi document as I type the latex code), especially for when ...
30
votes
1answer
287 views
Static analysis of LaTeX documents?
For programming languages like C, C++, C#, Java and so on there always exist some kind of static analysers, tools that check the sourcecode for unreachable code, unused variables, memory leaks and ...
29
votes
4answers
1k views
What's the maximum number of pages a PDF produced by pdfTeX can have?
Are there some limitations regarding the pdflatex command with respect to the count of pages of the input files?
My highest page count, when compiling, was 90 without any troubles. (2008)
Currently ...
25
votes
6answers
454 views
Compiling only a page range or page selection
How do I easily compile only a page range or page selection? That is, I would like a document that
looks exactly like the full document,
has only the subset of pages that were manually chosen, by ...
25
votes
2answers
469 views
Programming TeX macros so that they output instructions to rerun the compilation
This question is motivated by the behavior of the tikzmark macro created by Andrew Stacey, and a recent discussion with David Carlisle on chat.
I have noticed that LaTeX code using tikzmark typically ...
25
votes
3answers
529 views
Document requiring infinitely many compiler passes?
It is an unfortunate reality that one must compile a LaTeX file several times in order to get all labels and citations correct. As far as I know, one should go on compiling as long as TeX warns that ...
24
votes
3answers
12k views
LaTeX with Sublime Text 2
I recently (2 days back) started using LaTeX, I use Sublime Text 2 (ST2) for most of the programming. I found that ST2 has LaTeX package. So what I am doing is write the document with ST2 and run it ...
23
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
5answers
1k views
Stop LaTeX compile with a command?
Is there a way to stop the compile process through the use of a command? Something like:
\exception{This is a user-set exception. Compile halted.}
So when performing the compile process, the ...
23
votes
7answers
2k views
Conditional typesetting / build
Let's say I have .tex file which is a set of problems and solutions, of which I want to make two pdf files, one which includes the solutions and one which doesn't. so I need to build the .tex file ...
23
votes
6answers
2k views
Reducing the console output of LaTeX
When I run pdfLaTeX, I get very verbose output:
(/usr/local/texlive/2008/texmf-dist/tex/generic/pgf/frontendlayer/tikz/librarie
s/tikzlibrarycalc.code.tex)
...
Is there a script to soak up all the ...
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 ...
23
votes
6answers
977 views
What reasons (if any) are there for compiling in interactive mode?
I'm a command-line junkie and often compile with a simple pdflatex filename.tex from a terminal, and I forget (or am too lazy) to type -interaction=nonstopmode or interaction=batchmode. Hence, when I ...
22
votes
5answers
774 views
Managing volumes of books
I would like to compile all of the books in a series at the same time. This would:
Guarantee that everything compiled with consistency.
Easily allow for cross-references between books.
Allow ...
22
votes
2answers
2k views
Understanding the Log file
I'm getting some cryptic (for me) errors and warnings when I compile. On the advice of darn near every internet resource I could find, I dug into the .log file. The trouble is, I don't know how to ...
21
votes
3answers
547 views
Are there LaTeX performance profiling tools?
The most obvious way to speed up LaTeX processing is to split a large and complex document into smaller pieces. For example, Makefiles, \beginpgfgraphicnamed/\endpgfgraphicnamed when using TiKZ, and ...
20
votes
6answers
2k views
Speed up beamer compile time
Is there a way to speed up the compile time? I have a, I would say, medium-sized presentation and it takes 10+ seconds to compile. It isn't too much, but it's annoying. Especially since I'm performing ...
20
votes
7answers
2k views
how to avoid bibtex error message “repeated entry” for an entry appearing in several bibtex files?
I am using several bibtex files, dedicated to several topics. But some references are common to several topics and then appear in several of my bibtex files. Currently, I am writing a document dealing ...
20
votes
1answer
270 views
What does --shell-escape do?
I stumbled upon an example, which needed to be compiled with the additional option --shell-escape. Using this option it worked just fine, but I'm curious:
Why or when is this option needed and ...
19
votes
3answers
1k views
LaTeX code sniffer and/or beautifier?
I'm looking for a LaTeX code sniffer and/or code beautifier, because I'm creating a CI server for my LaTeX books and I wanted a few things. :D
19
votes
4answers
719 views
Speeding up minted compilation
I've been looking into speeding up my pdflatex compilation time and it's lighting fast now.
Only one thing's still very slow: compiling source code using the minted package.
I was wondering if ...
19
votes
1answer
623 views
Why does pdflatex produce bigger output files than latex+dvipdfm?
Consider this sample code:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{lipsum}
\begin{document}
\lipsum[1-4]
\end{document}
When I compile this with latex and then use dvipdfm, the output file is 7893 ...
17
votes
3answers
349 views
What are the situations where you have to compile a document more than once?
You have compiled twice to get the desired output in the accepted answer to Lineno for 2 column. The accepted answer to How can I avoid compiling twice? provides a way to avoid compiling multiple ...
17
votes
1answer
229 views
Write to logfile
I want to write some things to the log file. What is the best practice for this? Is it \message{} or \typeout{} or what?
16
votes
2answers
3k views
Diagram / Infographic of TeX & friends?
So, I recently delved into LaTeX for a project at work. But I’m come from the XML+XSL world, and some of LaTeX’s design is kind of difficult for me to grok.
(I’m not interested in debating the ...
16
votes
1answer
109 views
Compile PDF without proofs
I am writing my degree thesis, and I need to make a synthesis of it: basically what I want to do is make a copy without the proofs...is there a way to exclude them automatically, without having to ...
16
votes
1answer
641 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 ...
15
votes
4answers
544 views
Is there a way to find out how long it took for my document to compile?
I was thinking it'd be nice to know how much time each package I load adds on to the total time between clicking "compile" and seeing the PDF come up on my screen, so that I can figure out which ones ...
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.
15
votes
2answers
2k views
Speed up compilation by (pre-)compiling chapters separately?
I am writing a long document with many chapters. They are all included from a root document using \input{chapterX.tex} etc. Compiling everything takes pretty long.
As a workaround to make compilation ...
15
votes
3answers
244 views
Print 'system information' in LaTeX doc
I've used TeX quite a bit before but am getting back into it at the moment.
I want to print a document details page with info such as:
Compiled on:
Compiled by:
OS version:
LaTeX version:
...
15
votes
2answers
130 views
How do extra braces impact the placement of items in the document?
I am placing some of my document through some outside BASH scripts, but want to protect some information such that the scripts will not change them. The simplest option for me is to put { and } around ...
14
votes
3answers
769 views
Hiring someone to help me with LaTeX for my PhD thesis
I do not know whether this is an appropriate question, but I was carrying it around for quite some weeks and now it just has to come out.
I am working on my PhD thesis. My thesis will include a long ...
14
votes
3answers
2k views
Is there any way to generate custom errors/warnings in LaTeX?
I want something like \ifmmode\else\GenerateWarning{The command \backslash uzuka is supported only in math mode.}\fi, which is supposed to generate a warning "The command \uzuka is supported only in ...
14
votes
1answer
2k views
Why can Bakoma process .tex files so fast?
Bakoma is a LaTeX Editor which has the real-time preview on Windows. On Linux, one has Gummi which has a similar feature and on Windows, I use WinEdt with Sumatra PDF together with an AutoIt script to ...
14
votes
1answer
292 views
Different compilation times with different Operating Systems
I have noticed that when compiling or rather typesetting with XeLaTeX, I experience very different compilation times on different Operating Systems.
When I typeset on Windows, the compilation process ...
13
votes
3answers
432 views
Why does the use of microtype and xfrac lead to a high compile time?
While I was discussing another issue I came across this problem:
I included the xfrac package and the compile time of my document 100folded. After playing around I found out that microtype caused the ...
13
votes
2answers
288 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 ...
13
votes
2answers
944 views
What are the pros and cons pertaining to “latex -> dvipdfm” versus “latex -> dvips -> ps2pdf”?
There is another option to produce PDF actually, i.e., using pdftex. But let's omit it in this topic.
I usually do "latex -> dvips -> ps2pdf" to get pdf output. My LaTeX input file contains eps ...
