✅ Overview

LaTeX support in Scimax VS Code includes:

1. Document Outline - Hierarchical view of sections, environments, and labels

2. Section Navigation - Move between sections at any level

3. Structure Editing - Promote/demote, move, and manipulate sections

4. Environment Commands - Select, change, wrap, and unwrap environments

5. Hover Tooltips - Information about references, citations, packages, and commands

6. Speed Commands - Single-key shortcuts at section start

7. Folding - Collapse and expand sections and environments

8. Go to Definition - Jump to labels, citations, commands, and included files

9. Find References - Find all uses of a label or citation key

10. Auto-Completion - Smart completions for labels, citations, environments, packages

11. Multi-File Projects - Full support for projects using \input/\include

12. ChkTeX Linting - Real-time warnings in Problems panel

13. Error Navigation - Cycle through compilation errors

14. Rename Symbol - Rename labels and update all references automatically

15. Reference Validation - Warn about undefined and unused labels

16. Inverse SyncTeX - Click in PDF to jump to source

17. Document Formatting - Format with latexindent

18. LaTeX-Aware Spell Checking - Skip commands and math in spell check

See also:

• Navigation for general navigation features

• Keybindings for a complete reference of keyboard shortcuts

✅ Section Hierarchy

LaTeX sections are organized hierarchically:

Starred variants (e.g., \section*{...}) are also recognized and marked in the outline.

✅ Next/Previous Section

Move through all sections in document order:

\section{Introduction}
Content here...

\subsection{Background}    % <- Current position

\subsection{Motivation}    % <- Next section

\section{Methods}          % <- Another next section

nextSection moves forward through sections regardless of level. previousSection moves backward.

✅ Sibling Navigation

Move between sections at the same level:

\section{Introduction}

\subsection{Background}    % <- Current position
\subsection{Motivation}    % <- Next sibling (same level)
\subsection{Goals}         % <- Another sibling

\section{Methods}          % <- NOT a sibling (different level)

nextSiblingSection moves to the next section at the same hierarchical level. previousSiblingSection moves backward.

✅ Parent Section

Jump to the containing (parent) section:

\section{Methods}            % <- Jump here (parent)
\subsection{Data Collection}
\subsubsection{Sampling}     % <- From here

Jump to Section

The jumpToSection command (C-c C-j) opens a quick pick showing all sections with:

• Hierarchical indentation showing structure

• Section type (\section, \subsection, etc.)

• Line numbers

Type to filter, then select a section to jump to it.

✅ Promote/Demote

Change the level of a section command:

% Before promote:
\subsection{Methods}

% After promote (Alt+Left):
\section{Methods}

% Before demote:
\section{Results}

% After demote (Alt+Right):
\subsection{Results}

✅ Promote/Demote Subtree

Promote or demote a section and all its children:

% Before promoteSubtree on "Methods":
\subsection{Methods}
\subsubsection{Data}
\subsubsection{Analysis}

% After promoteSubtree (Alt+Shift+Left):
\section{Methods}
\subsection{Data}
\subsection{Analysis}

✅ Move Section Up/Down

Swap a section with its previous or next sibling:

% Before moveSectionDown on "Introduction":
\section{Introduction}
Content A...

\section{Methods}
Content B...

% After moveSectionDown (Alt+Down):
\section{Methods}
Content B...

\section{Introduction}
Content A...

The entire section subtree (including all nested content) is moved.

✅ Environment Navigation

Navigate between environments:

Change Environment

The changeEnvironment command (C-c E) prompts to change the environment type:

% Before:
\begin{equation}
  E = mc^2
\end{equation}

% After changing to "align":
\begin{align}
  E = mc^2
\end{align}

Both \begin and \end are updated simultaneously.

✅ Wrap in Environment

Select text and use wrapInEnvironment (C-c w) to surround it:

% Before (with "E = mc^2" selected):
E = mc^2

% After wrapping in "equation":
\begin{equation}
  E = mc^2
\end{equation}

✅ Toggle Star

Toggle the starred variant of an environment:

% Before:
\begin{equation}
  E = mc^2
\end{equation}

% After toggleEnvironmentStar (C-c *):
\begin{equation*}
  E = mc^2
\end{equation*}

✅ Reference Hover

Hovering over \ref{fig:example} shows:

• The label name

• Line number where label is defined

• Context (section or environment containing the label)

• Preview of the labeled line

✅ Citation Hover

Hovering over \cite{key} shows rich BibTeX information:

• Full title

• Authors with proper formatting

• Year

• Journal or book title

• Volume, number, pages

• DOI (as clickable link)

• Abstract preview

Supports all natbib and biblatex citation commands:

• \cite, \citep, \citet

• \citealt, \citealp

• \citeauthor, \citeyear

• \nocite

✅ Package Hover

Hovering over \usepackage{amsmath} shows:

• Package name

• Description of what the package provides

✅ Math Symbol Hover

Hovering over math commands like \alpha shows:

• Unicode representation: α

• Unicode code point: U+03B1

• Description: Greek lowercase alpha

✅ Using Speed Commands

1. Place cursor at the start of a section line (column 0 or before \)

2. Press a single key

3. The corresponding action executes

Example:

\section{Introduction}   % <- Place cursor here, press 'n' to go to next section
  ^
  |__ Cursor position

✅ Section Folding

Sections fold from the section command to the next section at the same or higher level:

\section{Introduction}...  % <- Folds from here
Content...
\subsection{Background}    % <- Included in fold
More content...
\section{Methods}          % <- Fold ends before this

✅ Environment Folding

Environments fold from \begin to \end:

\begin{figure}...          % <- Folds from here
  \includegraphics{...}
  \caption{...}
\end{figure}               % <- Fold ends here

✅ Global Fold Cycling

Shift+Tab cycles through three states:

1. OVERVIEW - All sections folded

2. CONTENTS - Top-level sections visible

3. SHOWALL - Everything expanded

✅ Compilation

The compile command runs the configured LaTeX compiler (default: pdflatex):

1. Saves the document

2. Compiles with -interaction=nonstopmode for error handling

3. Shows compilation errors with line numbers

4. Outputs detailed log to the "LaTeX" output channel

Configure the compiler via scimax.latex.compiler setting:

• pdflatex (default)

• xelatex

• lualatex

• latexmk

Build Profiles for TeX Files

A single compiler run is not enough when the document needs BibTeX or Biber. Build profiles define a named sequence of commands (for example pdflatex → bibtex → pdflatex → pdflatex), and scimax.latex.compile uses one automatically when the file names it:

% !SCIMAX build = pdflatex-bibtex
\documentclass{article}

Pick one interactively with Scimax LaTeX: Select Build Profile (scimax.latex.selectBuildProfile), which inserts that magic comment for you, and check the active one with Scimax LaTeX: Show Build Profile.

When a profile applies:

• Each step is reported in the progress notification, and the notification's cancel button stops the build.

• All step output goes to the "LaTeX" output channel, and errors are still parsed for Go to Error / Next Error.

• The build is judged successful by whether a PDF was produced, since LaTeX exits non-zero on mere warnings.

Without a profile, compilation falls back to the scimax.latex.compiler setting described above. Profiles apply to every compile entry point: C-c C-c, C-c C-a (compile and view), and the PDF panel.

Profiles are shared with org export - the same latex-profiles.json files and scimax.export.pdf.profiles setting supply them. See Build Profiles for the profile file format, substitution tokens, step options, and the built-in profiles.

✅ SyncTeX Support

SyncTeX allows jumping between source and PDF positions.

Forward search (C-c g): Jump from cursor position in source to corresponding PDF location.

Supported PDF viewers:

• macOS: Skim (recommended)

• Linux: Zathura

• Windows: SumatraPDF

Configure via scimax.latex.pdfViewer setting.

✅ Built-in PDF Viewer Panel

For an Overleaf-like experience, use the built-in PDF viewer panel (C-c v):

• Opens PDF in a VS Code panel beside your source

• Auto-refreshes when you recompile

• Zoom controls (+, -, Fit)

• Page navigation

• Bidirectional sync with text-based highlighting

• No external PDF viewer required

This is ideal for side-by-side editing without leaving VS Code.

{
  "scimax.latex.showSyncDebugPopup": true
}

{
  "scimax.latex.autoCompileOnSave": false
}

✅ Insert Commands

Quick insertion of common LaTeX elements:

These commands insert snippets with tab stops for easy navigation.

✅ Project Structure

thesis/
├── main.tex              # Master document (has \documentclass)
│   └── \input{chapters/intro}
│   └── \input{chapters/methods}
│   └── \bibliography{refs}
├── chapters/
│   ├── intro.tex        # \label{sec:intro} defined here
│   └── methods.tex      # \ref{sec:intro} works here too
└── refs.bib              # Bibliography

✅ Configuration

{
  "scimax.latex.enableChktex": true  // Enable/disable linting (default: true)
}

Requires chktex to be installed:

• macOS: brew install chktex

• Linux: apt install chktex

• Windows: Included with MiKTeX/TeX Live

✅ Error Display

When compilation fails:

1. First error is shown in a notification with "Go to Error" button

2. The Problems panel shows all parsed errors

3. Use navigation commands to cycle through errors

Errors include:

• File path (supports multi-file projects)

• Line number

• Error message

✅ Equation Preview

Hover over any math expression to see a rendered preview:

• Inline math: $E=mc^2$, \(E=mc^2\)

• Display math: $$...$$$, \[...\]

• Environments: equation, align, gather, etc.

The preview:

• Renders using the system LaTeX installation

• Respects document preamble (packages, custom commands)

• Adapts to dark/light VS Code theme

• Shows the source LaTeX below the preview

Note: Requires a LaTeX installation (TeX Live, MiKTeX, or MacTeX).

✅ Figure Preview

Hover over \includegraphics{...} to see:

• Image preview (PNG, JPG, SVG, GIF, WebP)

• File path and size

• Last modified date

PDF and EPS files show file information without preview.

✅ Supported Reference Commands

Rename works with all reference variants:

• \label{...} - the definition

• \ref{...}, \eqref{...}, \pageref{...}

• \autoref{...}, \cref{...}, \Cref{...}

✅ Configuration

{
  "scimax.latex.validateReferences": true  // Enable/disable (default: true)
}

✅ Setup

Run the command Scimax LaTeX: Show Inverse SyncTeX Command to get the configuration command for your PDF viewer.

✅ URI Handler

The extension also registers a URI handler for vscode:// URLs:

vscode://file/path/to/file.tex:42

This allows PDF viewers to communicate directly with VS Code.

✅ Format on Save

Enable automatic formatting when saving:

{
  "scimax.latex.formatOnSave": true,          // Auto-format on save
  "scimax.latex.latexindentPath": "latexindent"  // Path to latexindent
}

✅ Requirements

latexindent must be installed:

• macOS: Included with MacTeX, or brew install latexindent

• Linux: apt install texlive-extra-utils or cpanm YAML::Tiny File::HomeDir Unicode::GCString

• Windows: Included with MiKTeX/TeX Live

✅ Customization

Create a .latexindent.yaml file in your project to customize formatting rules. See the latexindent documentation for options.

✅ Regions Excluded from Spell Check

✅ User Dictionary

Add words to your personal dictionary:

The dictionary is stored per-workspace and persists across sessions.