How to install Emacs Org-mode LaTeX export template?

Question

I have recently switched all my doc writing to org-mode. The outlining framework works for my flow and the markdown syntax allows me to write in rich text.

The default export options are, however, horrible. The default Latex template especially. The first paragraph is not indented but the rest are, the preform text blocks are cutoff at the right margin, the font is ugly, etc.

I did find a free template that I liked, but it was an elisp file. It has no instructions to install. How do I use it for exporting my documents?

Answer 1

You can define some global LaTeX class settings like this:

(setq org-export-latex-classes
  (quote
  (("article" "\\documentclass[11pt]{scrartcl}
  \\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \\usepackage{graphicx}
  \\usepackage{longtable}
  \\usepackage{listings}
  \\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}
  \\usepackage{float}
  \\usepackage{soul}
  \\usepackage{amssymb}
  \\usepackage{hyperref}"
      ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section{%s}")
      ("\\subsection{%s}" . "\\subsection{%s}")
      ("\\subsubsection{%s}" . "\\subsubsection{%s}")
      ("\\paragraph{%s}" . "\\paragraph{%s}")
      ("\\subparagraph{%s}" . "\\subparagraph{%s}")))
))

See also: The Org-article LaTeX class

Answer 2

This is more a matter of LaTeX customization than org-mode. The basics of e.g., using the koma classes rather than the default LaTeX classes are described in Tom Dye's document: http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-latex-export.html#orgheadline4 (note that the document describes the old exporter - pre-8.0 - but this particular section applies to the new exporter as well).

Alternatively, you can keep the default classes but change all the things you don't like by introducing explicit LaTeX customization in your org document. E.g., changing the font is just a matter of adding something like this to your document:

    #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{times}

Changing the default paragraph style can be done with

    #+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{indentfirst}

and so on. Note that you have to know something about what LaTeX packages are available, what they do and how to install them, but that is definitely not an org-mode question.