synctextranslator

This is a package providing a shell script to convert the linenumbers from a source file to the resulting file and vice versa. The main task is to serve as a synctex glueing program between various editors and viewers.

supported editors

Visual Studio Code

For now only Visual Studio Code is supported, which is available using the target vscode. It can be configured to support synctextranslator using the .vscode/settings.json file with the following content:

{
    "latex-workshop.view.pdf.viewer": "external",
    "latex-workshop.view.pdf.external.synctex.command": "synctextranslator",
    "latex-workshop.view.pdf.external.synctex.args": [
        "%LINE%",
		"%TEX%",
		"viewer",
    ],
    "latex-workshop.showContextMenu": true,
}

supported viewers

Okular

The pdf viewer okular can be configured to fully support syntextranslator under Settings > Configure Okular > Editor > Custom Text Editor: synctextranslator %l %f editor Both okular and zathura are fully supported, their names serve as targets.

configuration

Each file that should be used with synctextranslator must contain a section similar to this:

% synctextranslator
% directory = /home/benedikt/Entwicklung/scientific_report/
% tex_source = Template.tex
% tex_file = _build/scientific_report.tex
% pdf_file = _build/scientific_report.pdf

directory is optional, but then filenames have to be absolute. The script compares tex_source and tex_file line by line and creates a map. It then calls the appropriate viewer of editor to update the cursor position.

The call of this script should follow the pattern: synctextranslator <linenumber> <texfile> <target>

• Linenumber is the linenumber that has been given by the editor or the viewer respectively.
• Texfile may be either the source or the generated tex file, it must however contain the described section.
• target is one of the known targets

Meta targets

Special targets are available if they are defined in a file in the .config directory: ~/.config/synctextranslator.conf. The two targets editor and viewer can be used:

[DEFAULT]
editor = vscode
viewer = okular