2

It's all in the title. The issue is simple, I just wish to change the language so that I can type in french using babel. The original languages are ngerman and american.

I just want to replace the ngerman language to french or francais or frenchb or whatever needed to type in french.

So what I did was change this line 41 (in the ClassicThesis.tex file) :

\documentclass[ twoside,openright,titlepage,numbers=noenddot,headinclude,%1headlines,% letterpaper a4paper
                footinclude=true,cleardoublepage=empty,abstractoff, % <--- obsolete, remove (todo)
                BCOR=5mm,paper=a4,fontsize=11pt,%11pt,a4paper,%
                ngerman,american%
                ]{scrreprt}

into this

\documentclass[ twoside,openright,titlepage,numbers=noenddot,headinclude,%1headlines,% letterpaper a4paper
                footinclude=true,cleardoublepage=empty,abstractoff, % <--- obsolete, remove (todo)
                BCOR=5mm,paper=a4,fontsize=11pt,%11pt,a4paper,%
                francais,american%
                ]{scrreprt}

also changed line 63 to this

\selectlanguage{francais} % american ngerman

and finally I opened the ClassicThesis-config.tex file and uncommented line 78 to this :

\PassOptionsToPackage{francais,american}{babel}   % change this to your language(s)

And that's all I did. Then, when I try to compile (using TexShop on Mac), I get this message :

Package frenchb.ldf Warning: The definition of \@makecaption has been changed,
(frenchb.ldf)                frenchb will NOT customise it;
(frenchb.ldf)                reported on input line 60.

(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/hyperref/nameref.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/generic/oberdiek/gettitlestring.sty))
(./ClassicThesis.out) (./ClassicThesis.out)
(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/context/base/supp-pdf.mkii
[Loading MPS to PDF converter (version 2006.09.02).]
) (/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/epstopdf-base.sty
(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/oberdiek/grfext.sty)
(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/latexconfig/epstopdf-sys.cfg))
(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/microtype/mt-ppl.cfg)
ABD: EveryShipout initializing macros (./FrontBackmatter/DirtyTitlepage.tex)
(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/bera/t1fvm.fd) [1{/usr/local/texl
ive/2012/texmf-var/fonts/map/pdftex/updmap/pdftex.map}]
(./FrontBackmatter/Titlepage.tex [2]
<gfx/TFZsuperellipse_bw.pdf, id=17, 260.5755pt x 203.14595pt>
<use gfx/TFZsuperellipse_bw.pdf> [3 <./gfx/TFZsuperellipse_bw.pdf>])
(./FrontBackmatter/Titleback.tex
(/usr/local/texlive/2012/texmf-dist/tex/latex/psnfss/ts1pplj.fd)) [4]
(./FrontBackmatter/Dedication.tex) [5] [6] (./FrontBackmatter/Abstract.tex)
[7] [8] (./FrontBackmatter/Publication.tex) [9] [10]
(./FrontBackmatter/Acknowledgments.tex
./FrontBackmatter/Acknowledgments.tex:11: Missing \endcsname inserted.
<to be read again> 
                   \unskip 
l.11 ...\defcitealias{knuth:1974}{Donald E. Knuth}
                                                  \citetalias{knuth:1974} \c...

? 
Process aborted

Is this a normal reaction? What am I doing wrong?

1 Answer 1

2

Although, this isn't what you expects, the reaction is normal. This is due to the usage of an active character (:) in the definition of the alias.

In french, the followings characters are made actives and can not be used in labels, bibliography keys and command without protection :

  • colon (:)
  • semi-colon (;)
  • exclamation mark (!)
  • interrogative mark (?)

If you replace all the occurrences of colon using in construction like: \cite{xxx:xxx} or \@BOOK{xxx:dddd, or \label{xxx:xxx} or \defcitealias{xxx:xxx} or \citealias{xxx:xxx} or \citep{xxx:xxx} with minus, the compilation will be fine.

1
  • Of course! The active characters in the french language... Thanks for the advice, it now works fine!
    – Meclassic
    Mar 22, 2013 at 13:21

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