1 compilation, several outputs

Question

I'm a teacher and using PdfTeX to write my courses. My question is the following : How can I compile my .teX file and generate into Pdf file : the course itself, and one or two excerpts (that I've chosen) of this same document. Typically, I edit the whole course with annotations for myself throughout the whole document but I want to provide my students with portions of it only (AND without annotations) Thank you

Addendum post comments: Let me a little be more specific : Let's assume a document such as :

\begin{document}

    \begin{tabular}
        Big array
    \end{tabular}

\begin{note for self}
  here should be done ex 2 p75
\end{note for self}

bla bla bla
\end{document}

Then compilation. Nature of the wanted outputs (.pdf) :

1) Normal (with everything provided in the document) for my personal use.

2) The same document WITHOUT the "note for self". For students use.

3) If possible a third output with the array only. For other students to cut out and stick in their notebook. (in the code i used no made up code because I didn't know how to make a reference to it).

I hope my case is a little bit clearer now.

Answer 1

multiaudience package could be an alternative to comment package. You will also need several compilations to get any pdf version unless you hide them inside a makefile or any other script system. But multiaudience provides advantatges in front of comment because you can combine/discard different audiences and not only select one of them.

Following you have a little example.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multiaudience}

% Declare all possible audience groups
\SetNewAudience{teachers}
\SetNewAudience{students}
\SetNewAudience{public}

%You can decide the desired audience inside the document
%\DefCurrentAudience{public}

\begin{document}

% this array is always included
\begin{tabular}{c}
  All: First sentence seen by all audiences
\end{tabular}

% only for teachers
\begin{shownto}{teachers}
  Teachers: This text is seen only by teachers
\end{shownto}

% only for teachers and students
\begin{shownto}{public, students}
  Public,students: This text is seen by public and students but not teachers.
  \begin{shownto}{-,students}
  -students: But this one only by public
  \end{shownto}
\end{shownto}

% for all audiences except teachers
\begin{shownto}{-, teachers}
  -teachers: all except teachers.
\end{shownto}

\end{document}

Instead of fixing the audience inside the .tex file you can pass it as a compilation parameter:

pdlatex "\def\CurrentAudience{students}\input{your-tex-file}"

Answer 2

This can be done with the comment package like so:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{comment}

% Include custom environments before they are included/excluded
\specialcomment{teachersnote}{}{}
\specialcomment{notinsummary}{}{}

% Comment out as needed
\excludecomment{teachersnote}
\excludecomment{notinsummary}

\begin{document}

% this array is always included
\begin{tabular}{c}
  Big array
\end{tabular}

\begin{teachersnote}
  here should be done ex 2 p75
\end{teachersnote}

\begin{notinsummary}
  bla bla bla
\begin{teachersnote}
  this is a note inside a non-summary section.
\end{teachersnote}
\end{notinsummary}
\end{document}

The simplest way to create 3 pdfs in a platform independent way is probably to create 3 different files and use \input to put the body of your document in.

---

Example:

To compile (to put in a shell script/batch file, or done manually):

pdflatex teachersversion.tex
pdflatex studentsversion.tex
pdflatex studentssummaryversion.tex

preamble.tex:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{comment}

% Include custom environments before they are included/excluded
\specialcomment{teachersnote}{}{}
\specialcomment{notinsummary}{}{}

body.tex:

\begin{document}

% this array is always included
\begin{tabular}{c}
  Big array
\end{tabular}

\begin{teachersnote}
  here should be done ex 2 p75
\end{teachersnote}

\begin{notinsummary}
  bla bla bla
\begin{teachersnote}
  this is a note inside a non-summary section.
\end{teachersnote}
\end{notinsummary}
\end{document}

teachersversion.tex:

\input{preamble}

% Comment out as needed
% \excludecomment{teachersnote}
% \excludecomment{notinsummary}

\input{body}

studentsversion.tex:

\input{preamble}

% Comment out as needed
\excludecomment{teachersnote}
% \excludecomment{notinsummary}

\input{body}

studentssummaryversion.tex:

\input{preamble}

% Comment out as needed
\excludecomment{teachersnote}
\excludecomment{notinsummary}

\input{body}

Answer 3

Some shameless self-promotion: there is also my commenting package, available at

https://github.com/bordaigorl/latex-commenting

You can declare multiple authors

\declareauthor{jon}{Jonathan}{blue}

and put comments in your text with various commands:

\comment[jon]{bla}% Inline comment
\annot[jon]{bla}% Margin comment

and others.

Then you can control what is shown by using either the draft class option or more fine grained macros like

\onlyauthors{jon}