Setting preferences


General


LaTeX, eepic and PSTricks tab panes

Let you set a variety of package-specific parameters. One thing common to all formats is the prolog/epilog string, which is used when running LaTeX on the active picture (the one corresponding to the highlighted inner frame) from within jPicEdt.
These strings get prepended/appended to the text generated by the formatter (i.e. the text starting with \begin{picture}) so that the resulting text is a "stand-alone" LaTeX file, and can be directly compiled by LaTeX. The default prolog/epilog simply include necessary packages, but you can add your own macro definition here, so that, for example, arguments of text-boxes which use macros of your own are compiled properly.

By default, unitlength is set to 1 mm at the beginning of the saved file. However, it is often convenient to change the unit to rescale the figure. There is a convenient way to do this from the main tex file using by defining the command \JPicScale. Here is an example rescaling the picture at 80%:

\def\JPicScale{0.8}
\input{figure.tex}

One can alternatively use \newcommand{\JPicScale}{0.8} or \renewcommand{\JPicScale}{0.8} according to whether \JPicScale is already defined or not (the use of the TeX primitive \def allows you not to bother about this).

1. LaTeX picture environment specific parameters

LaTeX picture environment only allows for a small number of line slopes ; in emulated mode, jPicEdt use the \multiput command to emulate lines of any slope, using a set of very closed and tiny horizontal or vertical segments. As a result, lines of any thickness can now be drawn (FYI, the \thickness command doesn't work with standard slanted lines).

2. eepic package

3. PSTricks package

No alterable parameter.

External commands

How does it work?

When running LaTeX/DVI/... from within jPicEdt, a LaTeX file is created on the fly by jPicEdt in the standard temp' directory of the OS you're using (e.g. c:\windows\temp), or another temp' dir if you changed it (see Directories panel). The variety of operating systems and LaTeX distributions made it impossible to design a scheme for running external commands that wouldn't rely on scripts (e.g. batches on DOS, AppleScript on MacOS).

So the best thing to do is (as for me) to use external scripts which call the adequate programs (latex, dviwin32.exe/xdvi,...). You can pass argument to this script by using the predefinite symbols "{p}" and "{f}".

Here's an example of an external batch that will work with Linux's bash-shell :

#!/bin/sh
cd $1
$2 $3

Suppose this script was saved in the "add-ons" directory, then the command line which appears under the "external-commands"'s tab in the preferences-setting tabsheet will be typeset as follows:

{i}/ext_proc {p} latex {f}

(where "latex" can be replaced by any appropriate name, e.g. xdvi, kghostview, kdvi,...).

This will lead, once "{p}" and "{f}" have been replaced, to :

ext_proc /tmp latex jpicedt46858

which finally yields,

cd /tmp
latex jpicedt46858

(latex accept a file w/o extension on the command line, otherwise simply add ".tex" manually in your script).

Loading predefined configurations

Currently, there are scripts and predefined configurations for the following LaTeX distribution :

These scripts reside in the add-ons subdirectory of where jPicEdt got installed (you need to have installed the add-ons package during jPicEdt's installation).
To load a predefined configuration file, go to the Preferences->Commands pane, press the LOAD PREDEFINED CONFIGURATION button, and browse the directory tree until you find a file matching your LaTeX distribution.


Shortcuts

Allows you to change keyboard-shortcuts binding for every menu item (including tools from the toolkit palette). To add, modify or remove a shortcut, double-click on the appropriate cell in the right column, directly type the shortcut, and click OK (to delete a shortcut, just click the eraser).

Page format

Allows you to set the default page format when creating a new drawing from scratch (this has no effect on drawings loaded from disk).