Vim LaTeX-suite: set keybinding to compile and view pdf

Question

I'm new to Vim and it's just fantastic! Now I would like to set up the Latex-suite with reverse searching and found this easy way by compiling to xdvi. But sometimes, I need the .pdf.

What I would like:

• \ld : save, compile to .xdvi and open the default .xdvi viewer
• \lv: save, compile to .pdf and open the default .pdf viewer

How can I do this? Is it possible to save the multi-file LaTeX-project?

Answer 1

You should take a look at this Wikia page about options to compile LaTeX from Vim. The vim-latex plugin should cover all your needs (e.g. Multiple file LaTeX projects), you can find the full documentation here or with :help latex-suite from within Vim.

An alternative method is to tweak the &makeprg option in order to change the program used by the :make command. From the same article; if using pdflatex, add this to ftplugin/tex.vim:

let b:tex_flavor = 'pdflatex'
compiler tex
set makeprg=pdflatex\ \-file\-line\-error\ \-interaction=nonstopmode
set errorformat=%f:%l:\ %m

See :h :_% and :h :_# for their special meaning in &makeprg. Note that &errorformat is used to describe the output, available in the quickfix window after each run. Here is how those are "dynamically" defined in the plugin for LaTeX-suite.

Once you are able to execute :make successfully, just add a mapping to save, compile and open (this assumes the file is created with the same location and name, and that open is an actual PDF viewer in your PATH):

:nnoremap \lv :w<CR>:make<CR>:!open expand('%:r').pdf<CR>

For more:

• :h :nnoremap
• :h expand()
• :h filename-modifiers