[Tex/LaTex] How to get TeXShop to automatically insert line breaks

line-breakingsourcecodetexshop

As I am using version control (hg) it is convenient to have hard line breaks in my tex files.

Is there a way to set up TeXShop so that it automatically inserts line breaks? (For instance, as I am typing, at some fixed maximum width.)

If this is not possible, is there a convenient command line way to insert hard line breaks into a whole file automatically? (I tried, for instance, "cat longlines.tex | tr '\r' '\n' > shortlines.tex", but this does not work because TeXShop does not even put in Mac breaks '\r'.)

Best Answer

One solution is to use an external editor for the source file. TeXShop makes this possible: in the Source panel of its Preferences, check the "configure for external editor" button and link it to a code editor. I always use AlphaX, freely available here which has an excellent TeX/LaTeX menu. With AlphaX, you can set up your source window to wrap automatically at, say, 70 characters (globally, or only in TeX mode, as you please).

Moreover, AlphaX integrates with the MacTeX-2010 code base to typeset in the background until the citations and references are properly sorted (just hit the space bar to redo the Latex run), and then invokes TeXShop to display the typeset window, in pdf by default. A quick initial configuration is needed, but there are clear setup instructions.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Indentation and line wraps in TeXShop

I not sure what exactly is your required feature, but maybe the following will satisfy you. I make use of another program to do the work, namely Textwrangler, to properly align and insert hard line breaks.

Here is a macro that does the following:

collects all marked text,
passes it on to Textwrangler
where the text is properly aligned and broken
the result is pasted back in TexShop in place of the marked text.

I apply the macro using an assigned keyboard shortcut. I am no Applescript whizkid, so I guess the macro can be improved.

--Applescript
-- Script to transfer the current TeXShop document to TextWrangler
-- Ido Ben-Zvi
-- Based on Ramon Figueroa-Centeno's macros 

tell application "TeXShop"
    try
        activate
        set posPath to path of the front document
        --return posPath

        tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}

        tell application "TextWrangler"
            activate
            tell application "System Events"
                keystroke "a" using command down
                keystroke "v" using command down
                keystroke "a" using command down
            end tell
            hard wrap selection of text window 1 limit character width width 80 indentation none with paragraph fill and relative
            --copy selection of text window 1
            --set modified_text to selection of text window 1       
            tell application "System Events" to keystroke "c" using {command down}
            --close myTeXfile
        end tell


        -- back at TexShop      
        activate
        --set modified of front document to yes
        --paste 
        tell application "System Events"
            keystroke "v" using command down
        end tell
    on error
        beep
    end try
end tell




--tell application "TextWrangler"
--  close POSIX file FILEPATH
--end tell

[Tex/LaTex] TeXShop: Force spaces instead of tabs

Here is a script that inserts a single space in front of each selected line, and leaves the lines selected.

It works by saving the location of the selection, adding a space to each line, and then using reselecting the original selection.

tell application "TeXShop"
    --get the front document
    set thisDoc to the front document
    --get the current selection text, offset, and length
    set selContent to content of selection of thisDoc
    set selOffset to offset of selection of thisDoc
    set selLength to length of selection of thisDoc
end tell

set outcome to ""
set spaceAdded to 0
-- add a space to each line, except for blank lines
repeat with oneLine in (paragraphs of selContent)
    if length of oneLine is equal to 0 then
        set outcome to outcome & return
    else
        set outcome to outcome & " " & oneLine & return
        set spaceAdded to spaceAdded + 1
    end if
end repeat

tell application "TeXShop"
    try
        -- this will avoid the error caused if there is no text selected
        set content of selection of thisDoc to (text 1 thru -2 of outcome)
        set offset of selection of thisDoc to selOffset
        set length of selection of thisDoc to selLength + spaceAdded
    end try
end tell

Best Answer

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Indentation and line wraps in TeXShop

[Tex/LaTex] TeXShop: Force spaces instead of tabs

Related Question