Tex2Txt README

A Visual Studio Code extension for converting a LaTeX .tex file into simplified plain text by removing unwanted content, replacing equations with placeholders, and extracting relevant content based on your custom settings.

Features

Remove comments: Deletes all LaTeX comments starting with %.
Replace equations with placeholders: Inline ($ ... $, $ ... $ ) and display math (\[ ... \], $$ ... $$) equations are replaced with a configurable placeholder (default: [FORMULA]).
Extract specific content: Retains content within specified LaTeX commands (e.g., \section{}, \subsection{}) and environments (e.g., \begin{document} ... \end{document}).
Remove blocks: Deletes text within custom delimiters such as \iffalse ... \fi, \if0 ... \fi, or \begin{comment} ... \end{comment}.
Handle captions: Retains captions (e.g., \caption{...}, \subcaption{...}) while removing the surrounding content (e.g., \begin{figure}...\end{figure})
Open converted text: Displays the converted text in a new editor without saving to a file.

Usage

Open a LaTeX .tex file in VSCode.
Run the command Tex2Txt: Convert tex to txt from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P or Cmd+Shift+P on macOS).
The converted plain text will open in a new editor tab.

Configuration

You can customize the behavior of the extension using the following settings in settings.json:

Example Settings

{
  "texToTxtConverter.removableSurroundings": [
    ["\\begin{comment}", "\\end{comment}"],
    ["\\iffalse", "\\fi"],
    ["\\if0", "\\fi"],
    ["\\if\\s*0", "\\fi"]
  ],
  "texToTxtConverter.contentExtractionEnvironments": [
    "document",
    "abstract",
    "itemize",
    "enumerate"
  ],
  "texToTxtConverter.formulaPlaceholder": "[FORMULA]",
  "texToTxtConverter.formulaPatterns": [
    "\\\\\\(.*?\\\\\\)",
    "\\\\\\[.*?\\\\\\]",
    "\$\$(.*?)\$\$",
    "\$(.*?)\$",
    "\\\\begin{equation}(.*?)\\\\end{equation}",
    "\\\\begin{equation\\*}(.*?)\\\\end{equation\\*}",
    "\\\\begin{align}(.*?)\\\\end{align}",
    "\\\\begin{align\\*}(.*?)\\\\end{align\\*}",
    "\\\\begin{eqnarray}(.*?)\\\\end{eqnarray}",
    "\\\\begin{eqnarray\\*}(.*?)\\\\end{eqnarray\\*}"
  ],
  "texToTxtConverter.latexCommandReplacements": {
    "cite": "[CITATION]",
    "ref": "[REFERENCE]",
    "label": "[LABEL]",
    "eqref": "[EQUATION]",
    "url": "[URL]"
  },
  "texToTxtConverter.removableEnvironments": [
    "figure",
    "table",
    "figure\\*",
    "table\\*"
  ],
  "texToTxtConverter.captionCommands": ["caption", "subcaption"],
  "texToTxtConverter.contentExtractionCommands": [
    "section",
    "subsection",
    "subsubsection",
    "footnote",
    "title",
    "bf",
    "it",
    "emph",
    "rm",
    "tt",
    "textbf",
    "textit",
    "texttt",
    "textrm",
    "noindent"
  ]
}

Configuration Options

removableSurroundings:
- Specify pairs of delimiters to remove their contents.
- Example: [["\\iffalse", "\\fi"]] removes all content between \iffalse and \fi.
contentExtractionEnvironments:
- Specify LaTeX environments whose content should be retained.
- Example: ["document", "abstract", "itemize"] extracts the content of \begin{document} ... \end{document}.
formulaPlaceholder:
- Placeholder text to replace math equations.
- Default: [FORMULA].
formulaPatterns:
- Regular expressions for detecting inline and display math equations, as well as advanced math environments.
- Example: \\\\\$.*?\\\\\$ matches $ ... $.
latexCommandReplacements:
- Specify LaTeX commands to replace with placeholders.
- Example: { "cite": "[CITATION]" } replaces \cite{...} with [CITATION].
removableEnvironments:
- Specify LaTeX environments to remove while retaining the content of their captions (e.g., \caption{...}).
- Example: ["figure", "table", "figure\\*", "table\\*"] removes the environment but retains captions within.
captionCommands:
- Specify LaTeX commands whose content should be retained.
- Example: ["caption", "subcaption"] retains the content of \caption{...} and \subcaption{...}.
contentExtractionCommands:
- Specify commands whose content should be retained without the command itself.
- Example: ["section", "subsection", "title"] retains the content of \section{...}.

Example Workflow

Input `.tex` File

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}

% This is a comment
This content should remain.

\iffalse
This content should be removed.
\fi

\if 0
This content should also be removed.
\fi

\begin{comment}
This block should also be removed.
\end{comment}

\section{Introduction}
This is the introduction.

eq: $A formula$

a paper~\cite{hoge,fuga}

\begin{figure}
    \begin{minipage}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{example.png}
        \subcaption{This is a subcaption.}
    \end{minipage}
    \begin{minipage}
        \centering
        \includegraphics[width=0.5\textwidth]{example.png}
        \subcaption{This is a subcaption 2.}
    \end{minipage}
    \caption{This is a figure $hoge fuga eq$ caption}
    \label{fig:example}
    Some figure content that should be removed.
\end{figure}


\end{document}

Output Text

\documentclass{article}
This content should remain.


Introduction.
This is the introduction.

eq: [FORMULA]

a paper[CITATION]

This is a figure [FORMULA] caption.
This is a subcaption.
This is a subcaption 2.

Limitations

Nested Delimiters: Currently, the extension does not support nested delimiters (e.g., \iffalse ... \iffalse ... \fi \fi).
Advanced Commands: Custom LaTeX commands not included in the settings may not be processed correctly.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you encounter any issues or have feature requests, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

License

See the LICENSE file for details.

Release Notes

Users appreciate release notes as you update your extension.

1.0.0

Initial release.

Enjoy!

Tex2Txt

sgnoya