Configuration

Configuring TeXlipse is possible through the preferences page. Additional project-specific options can be set from the properties page. Here is a description of both of these.

Preferences page

The TeXlipse preferences page is in the Eclipse preferences menu (select: Window > Preferences).

BibTeX Editor

These options are BibTeX-file editor specific. The code completion can be enabled or disabled and the delay for the completion menu to appear can be adjusted.

BibTeX Syntax Highlighting

These colors are used for highlighting BibTeX keywords when editing BibTeX files.

BibTeX Templates

The BibTeX templates are like Java templates. To activate a template, write its name or the beginning of its name and press the completion key (usually Ctrl+Space). There are controls for adding new templates and editing the existing ones. The templates use the same syntax as the Java editor templates. The syntax is discussed in more detail in the Java editor help.

Builder Settings

This page contains a list of external programs that are used when building. Not all programs are necessary in use, the actual programs needed depends on the project output format and build commands -settings.

Choose one program in the list and press the edit-button. A configuration dialog will appear. The program configuration dialog contains a text field for specifying the location of the program, and another field for the program arguments. The default values that are provided should work on fairly recent systems. LaTeX version 7.3.x doesn't seem to support --src-specials -argument, so that may have to be changed when working with an older distribution.

TeX distribution usually contains one directory, where all the executable programs are installed (usually called "bin"). That directory contains a lot of programs, and some people don't keep it in their path. If the TeX-programs directory is not in the path (or if Eclipse installs its own path environment variable at startup), TeXlipse can't find the necessary programs. Because it is boring to setup ten programs individually, there is a text box to set the paths all at once. Press Browse-button, browse to the TeX-programs directory (the directory where latex, bibtex, etc. programs are) and press the big Apply-button at the bottom of the page. The program paths should all change.

The console log means the Console View, which is accessible through Window > Show View > Other > Basic > Console. If the builder console log is enabled, all the messages printed by external programs to standard output will be shown in the console log. That's a lot of output, and that's why this option is disabled by default. It is, however, very handy for figuring out why something doesn't work.

LaTeX Temp Files

Latex produces some temporary files to help with processing the input files. This page lists all the file extensions of the files that should be handled as temporary files. Temporary files are kept in the Temporary Files -directory (set in the project properties page). The extension list can be modified, but it should not contain any of the input file extensions (.tex, .ltx, .bib) or output file extensions (.dvi, .ps, .pdf) as that may mess up the building process.

Editor

This page contains LaTeX-editor specific options. The code completion can be enabled or disabled and the delay for the completion menu to appear can be adjusted.

TeX Syntax Highlighting

These colors are used for highlighting LaTeX keywords when editing LaTeX files.

LaTeX Templates

The LaTeX templates are like Java templates. To activate a template, write its name, or the beginning of its name and press the completion key (usually Ctrl+Space). There are controls for adding new templates and editing the existing ones. The templates use the same syntax as the Java editor templates. The syntax is discussed in more detail in the Java editor help.

Indentation

Some Latex environments (those between \begin and \end) can have their contents indented to keep the document structure clear. Those environments are listed in this page. Also the indentation width, i.e. the number of spaces that is inserted to the beginning of a line, can be changed in this page.

Outline

The LaTeX-editor has a configurable outline. This page has controls to enable or disable some common LaTeX document sections' appearance in the outline. There is also a list of environments to show in the outline.

Project Templates

User-created project templates can be deleted easily via this page. To view a template, start a new project with that template.

Viewer Settings

This page shows the list of example configurations for an external viewer program. The configuration at the top of the list is used when activating the previewer. Viewer configurations can be edited by choosing a configuration name from the list and pressing the edit-button. A viewer configuration dialog will appear. The viewer program location and viewer arguments can be changed from this dialog. If the arguments-field contains the special string "%file", it will be replaced with the input file name when launching viewer.

The build before launch -checkbox controls whether the project will be built automatically before launching viewer. If the Project > Build Automatically -option is used, this checkbox has no effect.

The inverse search port number is the port that is opened for external viewer programs to input inverse search (navigation from output file to source file) commands.

 

Properties dialog

This dialog opens by selecting Project > Properties from the Eclipse menu and choosing Latex project properties. This dialog contains options specific to the project.

Note: project properties dialog shows only the property pages associated to the current Eclipse perspective. If your project is a Java project, your workbench is likely to be in Java perspective. Because TeXlipse is built upon Resource perspective, you may have to switch to Resource perspective in order to see the Latex project properties.

Project properties

Project Main File

This field contains the name and path of the project main file. Main file means the file that is given to external latex program as a parameter.

The project main file is necessary because a Latex project doesn't always have an obvious main file. If the Latex project is, for example, a book project, there might be more than ten files with the extension '.tex'. Because of the flexible syntax of LaTeX, there is no simple way to determine which of these files is the starting point of the document. To prevent weird errors, determining which file is the main file is left to the user.

Project Output File

This field contains the name and path of the project output file. Note that the extension of this file must be the extension of the output format chosen.

Project Temporary Directory

This field contains the name of the directory that is used for storing temporary files (e.g. Latex aux- and log-files). Temporary files are recognised from their file extension. The list of file extensions for temporary files is in the Latex Temp Files preference page.

Project Output Format

This option configures the output file format of the project. There is a possibility to choose between DVI (Device Independent format), PS (PostScript format) and PDF (Portable Data File format). The output file has to have the extension according the file format. Note that changing this field affects the output file name's extension, but not the other way around.

Project Build Commands

This option shows which combination of external programs is used to build this project. For example, if PostScript (.ps) output is chosen, there is a chance to choose between pslatex and latex+dvips. Choosing pslatex here means that the pslatex program is used to produce a PostScript file directly, whereas latex+dvips means that the latex program is used to produce a DVI file and then the dvips program is used to convert the DVI file into PostScript format.