Can't figure out MMD to LaTex

Scrivener Markdown & LaTeX
1

I’m having a terrible time figuring out how to print to PDF from MMD for my Scrivener document. I just tried using the Tutorial and got the same problem. The documentation seems to be really scattered and hard to follow. If there is one place to find step-by-step instructions for installing MMD and LaTex and whatever other supporting files are needed and getting a document through the process, I haven’t found it, or at least I haven’t found it lately.

So, here’s what I’ve got as a test case for now. Compiled the tutorial as MMD. So the beginning of Tutoriallatex.txt looks like this:

Then I run:
multimarkdown -t latex Tutoriallatex.txt -o junk.tex
(which gives me effectively the same result as compiling MMD->LaTex directly from Scrivener)

The beginning of junk.tex looks like this:

[code]\def\mytitle{Tutorial}
\def\myauthor{Anonymous}
\def\format{complete}
\part{Chapter One}
\label{chapterone}

#

\chapter{Step 1: Beginnings}
\label{step1:beginnings}

Just a quick note before we begin: this tutorial[/code]
The problem, I believe, is that there’s no \begin{document}. Creating a PDF fails like this:

$ pdflatex junk.tex This is pdfTeX, Version 3.1415926-1.40.10 (TeX Live 2009/Debian) entering extended mode (./junk.tex LaTeX2e <2009/09/24> Babel <v3.8l> and hyphenation patterns for english, usenglishmax, dumylang, noh yphenation, loaded. ! Undefined control sequence. l.4 \part {Chapter One} ?

I’m guessing I’m just missing some obvious step. From what I gather, I’m supposed to set some special metadata somewhere maybe?

2

Have a look at the beginner’s guide in this thread:

http://literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=17239

3

Wow. At first glance it looks like exactly what I need. Unfortunately I guess it’s not possible to do a one-page quick-start with this stuff. Since I only get odd moments to work on the book, which I try to divide judiciously between actual writing and pounding my head on a wall fiddling with technology, it’ll be a while before I can confirm that your guide gets me where I want to go, but it looks very promising. Assuming it all works, I’ll vote for it being pegged to the top of the forum with big flashing lights attached – and maybe even a special hook launching it in a PDF viewer whenever anybody chooses to compile using MMD->LaTex.

Thanks! I’ll report back after I croak my way out from under this harrow :unamused:

Sigfried

4

I think it would be tough to write a (non-contrived and actually useful) one-page quick start on any one of these three components let along all three together. MMD by itself could probably be the closest, especially when coupled with a tool like MMD Composer.

5

McGruff’s guide was the thing that finally helped me put all the pieces together, even though I think there are some wrong steps in it. I think what would have helped me could actually be a simple quick-start. Not a quick start to all the three systems, but to installing and using them together. Basically:

  • Some recommendation about where to get MMD and LaTex for the Mac, which components and additional files, and where to install them;
  • Basic instructions on setting up metadata and compiling and typesetting a document.

I know this all exists in various places, which was exactly the problem for me. I kept looking at different pieces of instructions without being able to remember which steps I had already gone through. I kept thinking the thing was about to work and went down numerous wrong paths in response to various errors.

Anyway – some concise set of instructions that will get a person from zero to MMD and a typeset document should be loudly pegged to the top of this forum with copies or references to it in the Scrivener manual, as well as in any other MMD/Scrivener documentation. That’s my opinion. I know it was largely due to my own stupidity and failure to systematically follow whatever instructions I could find that I wasted all those hours – but if someone had been shouting at me: DO THIS IN THIS ORDER! I could have saved a lot of time.