Quentin Guidée

Write LaTeX reports with VSCode

Benefits and configuration

8 avr. 2022

If you don't know it yet, LaTeX is a language that allows you to write documents without worrying about the layout. It is used in the scientific community.

Problem: how to write documents efficiently?

If you know a little bit about LaTeX, you have probably already heard about softwares like Texmaker. However, all these programs that I could find are really ugly, not user-friendly, etc.

The only good editor that is currently widespread and that I recommend is Overleaf. It is very useful for group editing with people who don't know Git/GitHub especially. But when you work alone, it is not necessarily ideal...

First of all, it's a website and not a program, so when the servers are down 2 hours before the delivery of a project, nothing is accessible anymore (yes, it has happened to a friend recently...). Moreover, the editor is not necessarily configurable as you wish. You can't install a local package for example (you have to upload it to each of your projects). In short, it is not necessarily ideal.

Solution: Use VSCode, our favorite editor!

Prerequisites

LaTeX Workshop

This very complete extension allows you to replace your usual LaTeX editor. In particular, it allows :

  • Automatic PDF compilation of files when saving
  • Autocompletion
  • Table of contents with jump to sections
  • A library of symbols
  • A TikZ library
  • Preview of equations and TikZ diagrams
  • ...

Personally, I prefer to compile with XeLaTeX (especially for the custom fonts support). To do so, you need to add this in your VSCode configuration (Settings > Show settings in JSON):

{ "latex-workshop.latex.tools": [ { "name": "latexmk", "command": "latexmk", "args": [ "-xelatex", "-synctex=1", "-interaction=nonstopmode", "-file-line-error", "%DOC%" ] } ] }

LaTeX Utilities

Less known, this great extension adds several third party features. I use it a lot to speed up writing equations.

It has a multitude of shortcuts. For example:

  • >=
    will be replaced by
    \geq
  • 2/3
    will be replaced by
    \frac{2}{3}
  • a1
    will automatically add the underscore to write
    a_1
  • ...

Taken together, these shortcuts will save you several hours.

For a more complete overview of the features of this extension, I advise you to take a look at the README of the project.

And then?

This is where the magic happens. When you create a

.tex
file in VSCode and save it, LaTeX Workshop will automatically compile your file into a PDF. You can then open this PDF in a VSCode tab (and for example have your
.tex
on the left and your pdf on the right).

Multi-file or multi-document projects are also very well handled.

Conclusion

  • It is indeed possible to edit LaTeX files without having to use unpleasant editors;
  • You will save a lot of time.