Node: Customization, Previous: Installation Trouble, Up: Frequently Asked Questions



Customization

How can I deactivate the annoying balloon mode?

Use the Preview/Customize menu or <M-x> customize-variable in order to customize preview-use-balloon-help to `Off'. This only concerns XEmacs: tooltips under GNU Emacs can't be disabled, and are less bothersome, anyhow.

How to include additionally environments like enumerate

Per default, preview-latex mathematical formulas, so environments like enumerate or tabular (except where contained in a float) are not included. You can include them however manually by adding the lines:

     \usepackage[displaymath,textmath,sections,graphics,floats]{preview}
     \PreviewEnvironment{enumerate}
     

in your document header, that is before

     \begin{document}
     

In general, preview should be loaded as the last thing before the start of document.

Be aware that

     \PreviewEnvironment{...}
     

does not accept a comma separated list! Also note that by putting more and more

     \PreviewEnvironment{...}
     

in your document, it will look more and more like a DVI file preview when running preview-latex. Since each preview is treated as one large monolithic block by Emacs, one should really restrict previews to those elements where the improvement in visual representation more than makes up for the decreased editability.

What if I don't want to change the document?

The easiest way is to generate a configuration file in the current directory. You can basically either create prdefault.cfg which is used for any use of the preview package, or you can use prauctex.cfg which only applies to the use from with Emacs. Let us assume you use the latter. In that case you should write something like

     \InputIfFileExists{preview/prauctex.cfg}{}{}
     \PreviewEnvironment{enumerate}
     

in it. The first line inputs the system-wide default configuration (the file name should match that, but not your own prauctex.cfg), then you add your own stuff.

Suddenly I get gazillions of ridiculous pages?!?

When preview-latex works on extracting its stuff, it typesets each single preview on a page of its own. This only happens when actual previews get generated. Now if you want to configure preview-latex in your document, you need to add your own \usepackage call to preview so that it will be able to interpret its various definition commands. It is an error to add the active option to this invocation: you don't want the package to be active unless preview-latex itself enables the previewing operation (which it will).

Does preview-latex work with presentation classes?

Version 0.7.3 works with the slides, foils and seminar classes. Earlier versions failed with the seminar class and derived classes (such as prosper) because they failed to take the magnification settings of the class into account.

Since preview-latex does not yet support PDFLaTeX, presentation packages like pdfscreen and pdfslides will not yet work.

Texpower appears to work.

Troubleshooting

preview-latex does not work with package xy

Actually, text math fails to get previewed. The reason is that the package xy fiddles around with the $ character at \begin{document} time, at which time it reverts the changes preview-latex has done to it. A similar battle of "who will be last?" is known from packages like hyperref. This particular batte can be won by loading preview by hand, after xy, and specifying the delayed option to it. That way it gets its changes in after those of xy.

In short:

     \usepackage[all]{xy}
     \usepackage[textmath,displaymath,floats,graphics,delayed]{preview}
     

Preview causes all sort of strange error messages

When running preview-latex and taking a look at either log file or terminal output, lots of messages like

     ! Preview: Snippet 3 started.
     <-><->
     
     l.52 \item Sie lassen sich als Funktion $
                                              y = f(x)$ darstellen.
     ! Preview: Snippet 3 ended.(491520+163840x2494310).
     <-><->
     
     l.52 \item Sie lassen sich als Funktion $y = f(x)$
                                                        darstellen.
     

appear (previous versions generated messages looking even more like errors). Those are not real errors (as will be noted in the log file). Or rather, while they are really TeX error messages, they are intentional. This currently is the only reliable way to pass the information from the LaTeX run of preview-latex to its Emacs part about where the previews originated in the source text. Since they are actual errors, you will also get AUCTeX to state

     Preview-LaTeX exited abnormally with code 1 at Wed Sep  4 17:03:30
     
after the LaTeX run in the run buffer. This merely indicates that errors were present, and errors will always be present when preview-latex is operating. There might be also real errors, so in case of doubt, look for them explicitly in either run buffer or the resulting .log file.

preview-latex when not using LaTeX

Does preview-latex work with PDFLaTeX?

Currently not. This might change in future releases though. The usual "volunteers welcome" applies here. AUCTeX does not handle PDFLaTeX too well in version 11.11, either. If you have configured AUCTeX to call PDFLaTeX by default, for the sake of previewing a normal LaTeX will be substituted starting with preview-latex 0.7.4. Together with packages like ifpdf.sty documents which run reasonably well under both PDFLaTeX as well as LaTeX can be created, making it possible to use preview-latex on them.

Does preview-latex work with elatex?

No problem here. If you configure your AUCTeX to use elatex, or simply have latex point to elatex, this will work fine.

Does preview-latex work with ConTeXt?

In short, no. Currently three obstacles: the preview package is LaTeX-dependent, AUCTeX is required for preview-latex operation but does not support ConTeXt, and PDFLaTeX is not supported yet. The last two obstacles might be removed at some time (preview-latex should become independent of AUCTeX, and PDFLaTeX will get supported), but the first again requires volunteer work.

Does preview-latex work with plain TeX?

Again, no. Restructuring the preview package for plain operation would be required. Volunteers welcome.

In some cases you might get around by making a wrapper pseudo-Master file looking like the following:

     \documentclass{article}
     \usepackage{plain}
     \begin{document}
     \begin{plain}
     \input myplainfile
     \end{plain}
     \end{document}