Emacs + Synctex + Skim: How to correctly set up synchronization? [none of the existing methods worked properly]

Question

I'm working with GNU Emacs 23.3 (9.0) on Mac OS X 10.7.2. I would like to use synctex to jump between .tex and .pdf files. Although there are many different approaches on the web, none worked properly (I tried 8 different approaches...). I finally ended up with the rather simple approach described here: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/skim-app/index.php?title=TeX_and_PDF_Synchronization

So my .emacs contains:

'(LaTeX-command "latex -synctex=1")
(require 'tex-site)
(add-hook 'TeX-mode-hook
    (lambda ()
        (add-to-list 'TeX-output-view-style
            '("^pdf$" "."
              "/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline -b %n %o %b")))
)
(server-start)

Of course, I also set up Skim (Preferences -> Sync -> checked "Check for file changes" and chose Preset: Emacs with command emacsclient and arguments --no-wait +%line "%file")

As you can see, I included the -b option to displayline. I can call displayline from the terminal and it opens the .pdf and displays the corresponding line with a yellow/highlighted bar. Still, nothing is displayed on the current line if I compile the document with latexmk -pvc -pdf from a shell within Emacs.app.

Question 1: How can I get this to work/How can I display the current line?

Question 2: Is it possible to have a "proper" forward search by clicking the .tex and jumping to the corresponding line in the .pdf document? How can I "click" in emacs? The standard CMD + shift + click does not work in emacs.

I also tried approaches using...

(setq TeX-source-correlate-method 'synctex)
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook 'TeX-source-correlate-mode)

... but nothing changes.

I can CMD + shift + click in the .pdf and jump to the .tex, so that works.

The only directions which I haven't looked into are:

is this a latexmk problem? Most likely not, since latexmk explicitly displays pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode -synctex=1 so synctex is recognized
is it a wrong skim preference setting? Maybe I have to adjust the arguments to emacsclient there (?)

Solution

Indeed latexmk is the problem. I finally figured out the following settings:

~/.emacs

;; make latexmk available via C-c C-c
;; Note: SyncTeX is setup via ~/.latexmkrc (see below)
(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook (lambda ()
  (push
    '("latexmk" "latexmk -pdf %s" TeX-run-TeX nil t
      :help "Run latexmk on file")
    TeX-command-list)))
(add-hook 'TeX-mode-hook '(lambda () (setq TeX-command-default "latexmk")))

;; use Skim as default pdf viewer
;; Skim's displayline is used for forward search (from .tex to .pdf)
;; option -b highlights the current line; option -g opens Skim in the background  
(setq TeX-view-program-selection '((output-pdf "PDF Viewer")))
(setq TeX-view-program-list
     '(("PDF Viewer" "/Applications/Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline -b -g %n %o %b")))

(server-start); start emacs in server mode so that skim can talk to it

~/.latexmkrc

$pdflatex = 'pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode -synctex=1 %O %S';
$pdf_previewer = 'open -a skim';
$clean_ext = 'bbl rel %R-blx.bib %R.synctex.gz';

This perfectly allows to compile with latexmk as default on C-c C-c and C-c C-v opens Skim at the current line which is nicely highlighted. With CMD + shift + click in the .pdf, one can then jump back to the corresponding paragraph in the .tex file (thanks to server-start).

I used the approach that you have given, but I can't either get the forward or the reverse sync working. C-c C-c compiles and opens Skim, but sync doesn't work — Damitr

Dror Dror · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-03T15:58:27

To enable the clicking feature of the sync, I added:

(add-hook 'LaTeX-mode-hook
          (lambda () (local-set-key (kbd "<S-s-mouse-1>") #'TeX-view))
          )

to my .emacs file.

NOTE: make sure that you are in PDF mode (use (setq TeX-PDF-mode t)).

Emacs + Synctex + Skim: How to correctly set up synchronization? [none of the existing methods worked properly]

2 Answers