1.3.2.1 One Command for LaTeX, helpers, viewers, and printing

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.

This document was generated on January 17, 2024 using texi2html 1.82.