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A Fast Guide on Writing LaTeX with LaTeX Workshop in VS Code

Jia Jia avatarJia Jia  included in  category Tools and series Editors
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There are dozens of TeX editors so far, such as Texpad and WinEdt.

After encountered some wired bugs on Texpad, I decided to use native TeX Live / MacTex. However, TexShop (on macOS) does not have a pretty highlight system. It seems that the Visual Studio Code is one of the beast choice.

Step 1. Download & Install TeX Live

Windows users: download texlive.iso here.

Mac users: download MacTeX.pkg here.

Here are some references for the installation:

For Windows users, after installation, you should add TeX Live executables to your system PATH.

Step 2. Download & Install Visual Studio Code

You can download it here. The installation is easy.

Step 3. Install & Configure LaTeX Workshop

Follows the screenshot below to install the extension LaTeX Workshop.

install-extension
install-extension

After doing that, you may press Shift + Ctrl + P (Windows) or Shift + Cmd + P (macOS) to show all commands. Then type Open User Settings JSON and open the first item (as shown below).

open-json
open-json

Now copy and paste the following two snippets into your json file (inside the brackets {} of your file).

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"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [
 {
  "name": "latexmk",
  "command": "latexmk",
  "args": [
   "-synctex=1",
   "-interaction=nonstopmode",
   "-file-line-error",
   "-pdf",
   "-outdir=%OUTDIR%",
   "%DOC%"
  ],
  "env": {}
 },
 {
  "name": "xelatex",
  "command": "xelatex",
  "args": [
   "-synctex=1",
   "-interaction=nonstopmode",
   "-file-line-error",
   "%DOC%"
  ],
  "env": {}
 },
 {
  "name": "pdflatex",
  "command": "pdflatex",
  "args": [
   "-synctex=1",
   "-interaction=nonstopmode",
   "-file-line-error",
   "%DOC%"
  ],
  "env": {}
 },
 {
  "name": "bibtex",
  "command": "bibtex",
  "args": [
   "%DOCFILE%"
  ],
  "env": {}
 }
],

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"latex-workshop.latex.recipes": [
 {
  "name": "pdfLaTeX",
  "tools": [
   "pdflatex"
  ]
 },
 {
  "name": "latexmk 🔃",
  "tools": [
   "latexmk"
  ]
 },
 {
  "name": "xelatex",
  "tools": [
   "xelatex"
  ]
 },
 {
  "name": "pdflatex ➞ bibtex ➞ pdflatex`×2",
  "tools": [
   "pdflatex",
   "bibtex",
   "pdflatex",
   "pdflatex"
  ]
 },
 {
 "name": "xelatex ➞ bibtex ➞ xelatex`×2",
 "tools": [
   "xelatex",
   "bibtex",
   "xelatex",
   "xelatex"
  ]
 }
]

Step 4. Write & Compile

Now you may open a tex file or create a new one. If you want to compile the file, press Ctrl + Alt + B (Windows) or option + Cmd + B (macOS). Moreover, you may choose another recipes from the sidebar. There is a button in the right top corner to preview PDF file.

tex-recipes
tex-recipes

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