Vim users, please cool down :) I am not saying Emacs is any better than vim. Just for the task of latex editing, Emacs combined with auctex indeed provides great convenience, at least in my view.

Install Emacs

Though one can download the pure emacs (e.g., pure emacs) or a managed emacs (e.g., aquamacs). I suggest to install Emacs using homebrew

brew install --with-cocoa --srgb emacs
brew linkapps emacs

It essentially installs pure emacs by downloading and compiling the emacs from GNU. Future update is made easy by using

brew update && brew upgrade && brew cleanup

Homebrew is quite a nice tool to manage most of popular packages on Mac. For more information, see homebrew.

Setting up Emacs for Latex Editing

Without setting up, Emacs can be used right after installation. But it does not look nice and function properly as you expect. To set up, we need create the init.el file and a few others in the hidden folder .emacs.d in the current user’s home folder. You can download my .emacs.d from https://github.com/reijz/my-settings. Here is what you need to do for setting up:

  1. Install auctex

    brew install homebrew/tex/auctex

  2. Install aspell

    brew install aspell --with-lang-en
  3. Put the .emacs.d folder in your home folder
  4. Put the .latexmkrc file in your home folder

  5. Add the following line

    file_line_error_style = t

    to file /usr/local/texlive/2014/texmf.cnf

To do 3,4 in the above, you can use the following command in your terminal

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/reijz/my-settings.git
mv my-settings .my-settings
ln -s .my-settings/.bash_prompt .bash_prompt
ln -s .my-settings/.bash_profile .bash_profile
ln -s .my-settings/.emacs.d/ .emacs.d
ln -s .my-settings/.latexmkrc .latexmkrc

The above steps basically customize and set up the following things

  • For the appearance, I changed the font face and enlarge the size. I also add line number on the left, and highlight the line where the cursor is. I make the cursor type box, and blinking with different colours.
  • I also customized a few key bindings, ⌘+→ to go to the end of the current line, and ⌘+← to the beginning.
  • I set up the spell checker to be aspell. That is why you need to install aspell using homebrew in the above step 2.
  • For latex, I set the compiler to be pdflatex, loaded auctex (step 3 in the above).
  • I make latexmk available in compiling tools. Often in time, you need to compile the latex file multiple time to get the reference (to equations, section, bib items) right. With latexmk, you don’t need to worry about it. Latexmk is a perl script for running LaTeX the correct number of times to resolve cross references. In order this works with emacs, you need to set it up as I did in the .emacs.d (step 3 in the above) and put the .latexmkrc file in the home folder of unix/linux user (step 4 in the above).
  • Step 5 is needed for error handling when compiling latex. I got the tip from https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.text.tex/aY3xrX7F3eM

Compiling and Error Handling

  1. Compile the latex file use C-c C-c. The short cut means ⌃+c followed immediately with ⌃+c. This by default invokes the latexmk script. You may also choose to clean up all the auxiliary files.
  2. In fact, you only need to use C-c C-c once. For future edit, just save the file (C-x C-s or simply ⌘+s) then latexmk will automatically compile it in the backgroup and update the pdf file.
  3. Whenever you see an error after compiling, just press C-c `, you can see the detailed error message and the line where it occurs.
  4. To see complete log, use C-c C-l.

Sync with pdf viewer

Emacs can also sync with pdf reader skim on OS X. For syncing, please go to the preference of the skim app, choose the “sync”, and set “preset” to be “emacs” from the dropdown menu.

Some how this above may not work. You may choose “custom” instead of “emacs” and type /usr/local/bin/emacsclient in the first entry.

Then shift-⌘-click on pdf in skim will take you to the corresponding location in the latex code, and same action on the latex code in emacs will take you to the corresponding location in the pdf file. The accuracy is up to the line in latex code.

http://mactex-wiki.tug.org/wiki/index.php/SyncTeX

Some basic shortcuts to get started

Latexing using emacs with auctex is quite easy. Here is a brief list of command short cuts to get you started.

  1. To type any begin/end environment, you just need to type C-c C-e.
  2. Referencing an equation/section is easy. Use C-c C-) you will see the list of all equations/sections in the paper.
  3. To reference any article in your bib file, just use C-c C-[ and type author’s name or some words in the title, you will see the list of papers containing the words you type.
  4. Navigating through long article is also easy, just use C-c C-=.
  5. In math environment, to type a greek letter, just use `+a for \alpha. See the reference card for a complete list. Most are intuitive, e.g., `+e for \epsilon and `+b for \beta.
  6. You can insert $…$ or \(...\) (in fact most paired parenthesis and brackets) by typing a single $ or \(. In order to use this feature.
  7. There are more advantages, see the reference card. You may also google if you need any features particularly for yourself.

See the reference card for various shortcuts.