How to generate list of abbreviations in LaTeX?

Question

I used the acronym package (usepackage{acronym}) to create acronyms in my thesis. In the beginning of the document, I define the acronym as, for example, \acrodef{USA}{United States of America}. And then later to use this abbreviation I call it as \ac{USA}. How do we generate a list of Abbreviations (acronyms) as a list of figures and list of tables in LaTeX?

Answer 1

From the acronym package documentation:

Acronyms can either defined from an environment specifically introduced for that purpose or by direct definitions.The acronym environment allows one to define all the acronyms needed by a document at a single place and is self-documenting, since a table of acronyms is automatically produced.

And

If one does not want an acronym list to be produced at all, acronyms can bedefined directly thanks to the two commands

\newacro{〈acronym〉}[〈short name〉]{〈full> name〉}

\acrodef{〈acronym〉}[〈short name〉]{〈full name〉}

Therefore, use the acronym environment and the \acro command instead of \acrodef if you want to have a list of acronyms.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[printonlyused,withpage]{acronym}
\begin{document}

Some text \ac{USA}

\section{List of Acronyms}
\begin{acronym}
 \acro{USA}{United States of America}
\end{acronym}
\end{document}

Compiling twice, you will get the following result:

---

For automated sorting and a lot more (formating) options, I'd recommend the glossaries or the glossaries-extra package.

Answer 2

I suggest the powerful acro package.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{acro}

\DeclareAcronym{usa}{
  short=USA,
  long=United States of America,
}
\DeclareAcronym{eu}{
  short=EU,
  long=European Union,
}
\DeclareAcronym{ussr}{
  short=USSR,
  long=Union of Soviet Socialist Republics,
}

\begin{document}

\ac{usa}, \ac{usa}

\ac{eu}, \ac{eu}

\ac{ussr}, \ac{ussr}

\printacronyms

\end{document}