Contents
1. Introduction
2. Search in multiple LaTeX documents
3. The most commonly used text editors for working with LaTeX
1. Introduction
LaTeX is a document management system that is very popular among authors of scientific publications, as well as among the most prestigious publishers. It is especially suitable for creating documents with special symbols, mathematical formulas, etc. In fact, it is already a world standard for writing scientific papers.
LaTeX was created in 1980 by the American computer scientist Leslie Lamport. In 1994, its second version appeared, and it was most recently updated in 2020.
Initially, the system was used by mathematicians and computer specialists. Subsequently, scientists from all scientific disciplines began to apply it in their work.
The LaTeX file format is a text file with a .tex extension that can be opened with various text editors. Documents can be exported as PDF files, making them very easy to read, print, and offset.
2. Search in multiple LaTeX documents
LaTex text editors can search for text in only one document, and authors of articles, books, and other materials usually have created multiple LaTeX documents. An additional program is required to be able to search for information in more than one LaTeX document. Currently, the only suitable program to search multiple LaTeX documents is SeekFast.
The unique convenience achieved with the SeekFast program is the fast search of text documents in the computer, with the results displayed so that you can see the searched text in its context. It is compatible with Windows 7, 8, and 10, and Mac OS.
The free version of SeekFast can be used indefinitely.
The full version of the program can be used with a personal license for use on up to 3 computers, or with a corporate license for up to 20 computers. It can search up to 20,000 files simultaneously.
Download SeekFast to try it's free version.
Searching with SeekFast is easy and fast – you just select a directory and enter the search words or phrases. After reading the files, the search results are obtained in less than a second.
SeekFast shows the most relevant results first, thanks to modern linguistic technology. With this functionality, SeekFast resembles a Google search or any other search engine. In addition, the results can be sorted by date of last edit.
With one click you can see the context of each sentence with its search words, which are marked in red for your convenience.
To open the document you are interested in, simply click on the file name in the search results.
You can also open SeekFast from File Explorer. Right-click on the folder you want to search and select SeekFast. This will open the program and the search will start in the corresponding folder.
In addition to LaTeX documents, SeekFast can search many other document types such as doc, docx, pdf, xlsx, pptx, odt, rtf, txt, and more.
3. The most commonly used text editors for working with LaTeX
Some of the mostly used free text editors for LaTeX are Texmaker and TeXstudio.
Texmaker
Texmaker runs on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It integrates a number of tools that can be used to format documents in LaTeX – maintaining a single code, spell checking, autocomplete, code folding, a built-in tool for viewing pdf files, and more.
TeXstudio
TeXstudio is also compatible with all major operating systems. Its features include syntax highlighting, autocomplete, over 1,000 math characters, link checking, table formatting, an integrated viewer, and other help tools.
Other editors are also used to work with LaTeX.