LaTeX Helper
A VSCode extension by Aritra Bhowmick to enhance the LaTeX editing experience. The principal inspiration comes from the work of Gilles Castel. I don't claim any originality here, as most of these features are already implemented by other, more robust extensions.
Features
Highlighting
- Highlights
\input{filename} within LaTeX documents.
- Highlights the directory and filename inside
\import{dir}{filename}.
- For
\import{dir}{figname.pdf_tex}, the three parts dir, figname, and .pdf_tex are highlighted separately.
- All highlight colors can be customized.
Creating .tex Files and Opening Them in Tabs
- Clicking
filename in \input{filename} will auto-create a new filename.tex file if it doesn't already exist, then opens it in a new tab or switches to an existing tab if it's already open.
- Provides a snippet, which is disabled by default, to generate a LaTeX figure environment:
- The snippet is activated by typing
@ (customizable), and is triggered on space or a new line.
- Pressing
SPACEBAR, TAB, or ENTER after typing @fig/test_fig will generate the following code:
\begin{figure}[h]
\def\svgwidth{0.5\columnwidth}
\import{./fig}{test_fig.pdf_tex}
\label{fig:test_fig}
\caption{Test Figure}
\end{figure}
- Tabstops are provided to edit the values in
\svgwidth, \label, and \caption.
- The figure code, including tabstops, can be customized.
- The snippet behavior can probably be obtained using the extension HyperSnips. You can add the following to your latex.hsnips file
snippet `@([\w\/]+)\/([\w]+);` "Figure" iA
\begin{figure}[h]
\def\svgwidth{${1:0.5}\columnwidth}
\import{./``rv=m[1]``}{``rv=m[2]``.pdf_tex}
\label{fig:${2:``rv=m[2]``}}
\caption{${3:Some Figure}}
\end{figure}$0
endsnippet
InkScape Support
- Clicking
figname in \import{dir}{figname.pdf_tex} opens the SVG file dir/figname.svg via InkScape. The .svg file is created if necessary, with a customizable template.
- When the file
dir/figname.svg is modified, InkScape automatically exports to dir/figname.pdf and dir/figname.pdf_tex.
- If LaTeX Workshop is installed and active, then the LaTeX document is automatically compiled on any
dir/figname.pdf_tex change, including first-time creation.
- This behavior is achieved by using the npm file watcher package chokidar and is inspired by the extension Super Figure, which has more robust support (e.g., support for Typst and GIMP).
BibTex Support
- Handles
bibtex entries via the npm library @retorquere/bibtex-parser.
- Supports sorting
bibtex files by citation keys.
- Supporst automatically generating citation keys, while handling duplication.
- Supports adding new
bibtex entries from ArXiV and from MathSciNet. Uses the axios package.
- Supports searching for
bibtex etries from a list of existing .bib files and adding them. Uses the package fuse.js for fuzzy search.
Commands
The following commands are available provided the editor language is bibtex.
LaTeX Helper: Sort bib file by citation keys
- Command:
latex-helper.sortBibFileByCitationKey
- Description: Sorts a bib file by citation keys.
LaTeX Helper: Check bib file for duplicate citation keys
- Command:
latex-helper.checkBibFileForDuplicateKeys
- Description: Checks a bib file for duplicate citation keys.
LaTeX Helper: Add new entries to bib file MathSciNet or ArXiV IDs
- Command:
latex-helper.addToBibFileByIDs
- Description: Adds new entries to a bib file using MathSciNet or ArXiV IDs.
LaTeX Helper: Convert all citation keys
- Command:
latex-helper.convertCitationKeys
- Description: Converts all citation keys in a bib file.
LaTeX Helper: Fuzzy search a list of bib files by citation key, author or title
- Command:
latex-helper.searchMasterBibFiles
- Description: Performs a fuzzy search across a list of bib files by citation key, author, or title.
Configurations
You can customize the following settings in your settings.json:
Highlight Colors
Color to highlight text inside \input{}:
"latex-helper.inputTextHighlightColor": "DodgerBlue"
Color to highlight the directory inside \import{dir}{filename}:
"latex-helper.importDirectoryTextHighlightColor": "DarkGreen"
Color to highlight the filename inside \import{dir}{filename}:
"latex-helper.importFilenameTextHighlightColor": "DarkRed"
Color to highlight the extension inside \import{dir}{filename.pdf_tex}:
"latex-helper.importPdfTexTextHighlightColor": "Crimson"
Enable or disable the figure snippet:
"latex-helper.figureSnippetActivated": false
Customize the figure environment snippet with placeholders:
#mul for width multiplier#dir for directory#filename for filename
"latex-helper.figureEnvironmentSnippet": "\\begin{figure}[h]\\n\\t\\def\\svgwidth{${1:#mul}\\columnwidth}\\n\\t\\import{#dir}{#filename.pdf_tex}\\n\\t\\label{fig:${2:#filename}}\\n\\t\\caption{${3:Some Figure}}\\n\\end{figure}"
InkScape Settings
Location of the InkScape executable:
"latex-helper.inkscapeExecutableLocation": "C:\\src\\InkScape\\bin\\inkscape.exe"
Command for compiling SVG to pdf_tex:
"latex-helper.inkscapeExportCommand": "\"#executable\" -D --export-latex --export-dpi 300 --export-filename=\"#pdf\" \"#svg\""
SVG Template Settings
Default width of the SVG canvas:
"latex-helper.svgWidth": 160
Default height of the SVG canvas:
"latex-helper.svgHeight": 80
BibTex File Settings
A list of .bib files to do fuzzy search:
"latex-helper.masterBibFiles": [],
Automatically sort the entries in the bib file upon adding new ones:
"latex-helper.autosortBibFile": true
Choose the format for generating citation keys:
"latex-helper.citationKeyFormat": "Default"
Supports three possible values : Default, AuthorsYear, and Authors_Title.
Default : Uses the existing citation key. While adding from ArXiV or MathSciNet, uses the corresponding code.AuthorsYear : Concatenates the author lastnames, cutoff by latex-helper.authorCuttoff value, and the year.Authors_Title : Concatenates all the author lastnames. Then concatenates all the words in the title, after removing some common words, shortening some other words, and cutting off total number of words.
As an example, consider the bibtex entry obtained from MathSciNet.
@book {MR440554,
AUTHOR = {Milnor, John W. and Stasheff, James D.},
TITLE = {Characteristic classes},
SERIES = {Annals of Mathematics Studies, No. 76},
PUBLISHER = {Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ; University of Tokyo Press, Tokyo},
YEAR = {1974},
PAGES = {vii+331},
MRCLASS = {57-01 (55-02 55F40 57D20)},
MRNUMBER = {440554},
MRREVIEWER = {F. Hirzebruch},
}
- The generated key with
Default will be unchanged, i.e., MR440554.
- The generated key with
AuthorsYear will be MilSta1974, assuming authorCuttoff value is 3.
- The generated key with
Authros_Title will be MilnorStasheff_CharClasses, assuming wordsCutoff value is 5, with commonWords and replacements set to the default values.
Dictionary of word replacements: Only for Authors_Title format
"latex-helper.replacements": {
"top": "top",
"compact": "cpt",
"charac": "char",
"...": "...",
"group": "grp",
"space": "sp"
}
List of common words to be ignored during citation key generation: Only for Authors_Title format
"latex-helper.commonWords": [ "a", "an", "...", "some", "like"]
Ignore title words after this cutoff: Only for Authors_Title format
"latex-helper.wordsCutoff": 5
Cutoff author names: Only for AuthorsYear format
"latex-helper.authorCutoff": 3
| |
