[OS X TeX] Creating custom formats (was: TL-2007 missing .sty files)

[Gary L. Gray]

On Jan 25, 2007, at 4:05 AM, Josep M. Font wrote:

> I suppose it is better to start a new thread with this topic.
>
> El 25/01/2007, a las 1:35, Gary L. Gray escribió:
>> Oops. I am really sorry. I should be more careful and not post in  
>> such a hurry. Here are instructions that actually work (and this  
>> is what I actually do):
>>
>> (1) Create a file (I will call it FormatName.tex) that has your  
>> desired preamble along with \dump at the end. For example:
>>
>> \documentclass[11pt]{article}
>> \usepackage{many_packages}
>> \input{many_inputs}
>> \dump
>>
>> Put this .tex in a directory somewhere. Say it is at:
>>
>> /Users/gray/Documents/formats
>>
>> (2) Open the Terminal and cd to that directory. Once there, type:
>>
>> pdflatex -ini
>>
>> When you get the ** prompt, type the following
>>
>> &pdflatex FormatName
>>
>> and press return. The format file called FormatName.fmt will be  
>> created. Then you should move that format to:
>>
>> /Users/gray/Library/texmf/web2c
> [snip]
>> I hope this helps more than the last drivel I posted. :-)
>
> OK, at least this produced a .fmt file for me. But when I try to  
> typeset a file with TeXShop with your previous instructions:
>
>> then you can typeset a document with this format (with TeXShop) by  
>> putting:
>>
>> %!TEX TS-program = books
>>
>> at the top of the file you are typesetting.
>
> (of course, commenting out all the previous preamble)
>
> it stops at \begin{document}, the first uncommented line of the  
> file, complains that \normasize is not defined, and says there must  
> be something wrong witht the base class file. Besides, I see no  
> indications in the log window that the .fmt file has been used, but  
> it must be so since it does not complain that \documentclass is  
> missing, or that it is undefined as well...


Hmmmm. Two things:

(1) I assume that you didn't exactly use:

%!TEX TS-program = books

since with the the instructions above, it should be:

%!TEX TS-program = FormatName

You need to insert the name of your format.

(2) Did you verify that a document typesets with the preamble you are  
using to create the format before creating the format?

Those are the only two things I can see that would be preventing this  
from working for you.

Let us know.

All the best,
   Gary


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