Previous: Functions for editing TeX files, Up: Quick Start [Contents][Index]
If you have typed some text and want to run LaTeX (or TeX, or
other programs—see below) on it, type C-c C-c. If applicable,
you will be asked whether you want to save changes, and which program
you want to invoke. In many cases, the choice that AUCTeX suggests
will be just what you want: first latex
, then a viewer. If a
latex
run produces or changes input files for
makeindex
, the next suggestion will be to run that program,
and AUCTeX knows that you need to run latex
again
afterwards—the same holds for BibTeX.
When no processor invocation is necessary anymore, AUCTeX will
suggest to run a viewer, or you can chose to create a PostScript file
using dvips
, or to directly print it.
Actually, there is another command which comes in handy to compile
documents: type C-c C-a (TeX-command-run-all
) and AUCTeX
will compile the document for you until it is ready and then run the
viewer. This is the same as issuing repeatedly C-c C-c and
letting AUCTeX guess the next command to run.
At this place, a warning needs to be given: First, although AUCTeX is
really good in detecting the standard situations when an additional
latex
run is necessary, it cannot detect it always. Second,
the creation of PostScript files or direct printing currently only works
when your output file is a DVI file, not a PDF file.
Ah, you didn’t know you can do both? That brings us to the next topic.
From a LaTeX file, you can produce DVI output, or a
PDF file directly via pdflatex
. You can switch
on source specials for easier navigation in the output file, or tell
latex
to stop after an error (usually \noninteractive
is used, to allow you to detect all errors in a single run).
These options are controlled by toggles, the keystrokes should be easy to memorize:
This command toggles between DVI and PDF output
toggles interactive mode
toggles source specials support
toggles usage of Omega/lambda.
There is also another possibility: compile the document with
tex
(or latex
) and then convert the resulting
DVI file to PDF using
dvips
–ps2pdf
sequence. If you want to go by this
route, when TeX-PDF-via-dvips-ps2pdf
variable is non-nil,
AUCTeX will suggest you to run the appropriate command when you type
C-C C-c. For details, see Options for TeX Processors.
When AUCTeX runs a program, it creates an output buffer in which it
displays the output of the command. If there is a syntactical error in
your file, latex
will not complete successfully. AUCTeX
will tell you that, and you can get to the place where the first error
occured by pressing C-c ` (the last character is a backtick). The
view will be split in two windows, the output will be displayed in the
lower buffer, and both buffers will be centered around the place where
the error ocurred. You can then try to fix it in the document buffer,
and use the same keystrokes to get to the next error. This procedure
may be repeated until all errors have been dealt with. By pressing
C-c C-w (TeX-toggle-debug-boxes
) you can toggle whether
AUCTeX should notify you of overfull and underfull boxes in addition
to regular errors.
Issue M-x TeX-error-overview RET to see a nicely formatted list of all errors and warnings reported by the compiler.
If a command got stuck in a seemingly infinite loop, or you want to stop execution for other reasons, you can use C-c C-k (for “kill”). Similar to C-l, which centers the buffer you are in around your current position, C-c C-l centers the output buffer so that the last lines added at the bottom become visible.
If you want to check how some part of your text looks like, and do not want to wait until the whole document has been typeset, then mark it as a region and use C-c C-r. It behaves just like C-c C-c, but it only uses the document preamble and the region you marked.
If you are using \include
or \input
to structure your
document, try C-c C-b while you are editing one of the included
files. It will run latex
only on the current buffer, using the
preamble from the master file.
Previous: Functions for editing TeX files, Up: Quick Start [Contents][Index]