Building Latex thesis style documents using VS Code (tested in Ubuntu)

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This repository contains the configuration steps that are necessary to compile Latex documents in a local environment. It has been tested in Ubuntu and can be used to generate from simple documents, to publications articles. It supports citations for Research related documents.

Features

• Works fully offline
• Bibliography support with citations
• Auxiliary files are hidden in subfolders
• Only the Main file is shown in the main directory of the project

VS Code setup

In order to use it, you need to do the following

Install Visual Studio Code

VS Code is the IDE that you will use to edit and compile your LaTeX files. You can download it from the official source here

Install MikTex

Ubuntu users can use the command sudo apt-get install miktex

You can check the Miktex Website for the installation details

Install the LaTeX Workshop extension in VS Code

The Publisher of this extension is James Yu. You can find it by searching for LaTeX Workshop in the Extensions option in the menu on the left of the VS Code IDE. The Extensions option is also activated by using the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+X in Ubuntu.

After installing, restart the VS Code and you will see a new added extension to the VS Code menu on the left, with the text TEX as icon.

Edit the User Setting in VS Code

You have to open the JSON version of User Settings (JSON) using the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Shift+P in Ubuntu. Once inside you have to add the following components

"latex-workshop.latex.tools": [ { "name": "lualatex", "command": "lualatex", "args": [ "--interaction=nonstopmode", "--recorder", "--output-directory=%DOCFILE%", "--aux-directory=%DOCFILE%", "%DOCFILE%" ] }, { "name": "bibtex", "command": "bibtex", "args": [ "%DOCFILE%/%DOCFILE%" ], }, { "name": "pdflatex", "command": "pdflatex", "args": [ "-interaction=nonstopmode", "-synctex=1", "-include-directory=%DOCFILE%", "-jobname=%DOCFILE%", "-aux-directory=%DOCFILE%", "%DOCFILE%" ] }, ], "latex-workshop.latex.recipes": [ { "name": "pdflatex", "tools": [ "pdflatex" ] }, { "name": "lualatex -> bibtex -> lualatex", "tools": [ "lualatex", "bibtex", "lualatex", "pdflatex" ] }, ],

Build Latex projects

To build a latex project go into the new TEX added extension, and as a fist item you will see a list titled Build LaTeX project. Inside the list are listed the latex compilation recipes we defined in the previous step, namely pdflatex and lualatex -> bibtex -> lualatex. In case the latex document you create has only text and figure, you can use pdflatex, whereas if you have a bibliography and citations use lualatex -> bibtex -> lualatex.