Getting ppt figures into LaTeX

This might be of interest to folks who work with ppts and LaTeX.  There are some interesting methods discussed in this thread, apart from the usual PDF export and cropping edit cycle in comp.text.tex.  Might be worth checking out.

*Hell, the new forum interface of google groups is a total UI bork.  I so want to swear till the air is blue.  Just look at it and weep.  Me, I'm going back to my gnus cave.

A simple way to extract specific PDF pages

Today, I received a humongous PDF with about 300 pages of documentation which had to be shared with lots of people who had to review each section independently.  Instead of simply forwarding the entire document to them and asking them to wade through it themselves, I thought I'd split the pages out and send only the relevant bits.

That should be easy, right?

Well, I forgot what the tool was.  A few minutes of google search turned up...pdftk which was what I was looking for.  Turned out that I had installed it long time ago and when I tried it, it dumped core on the cygwin installation I had.

This happens to me.  A lot. Just when I have deadline and I think of the solution, the carpet gets pulled under me.  :-)

Wait, I did remember doing something using LaTeX and another quick search revealed pdfpages on CTAN.  Downloaded and installed it, read the documentation and it was  a breeze to get things sorted.  The smallest example that I can create to get a specific set of pages is shown below.

\documentclass[a4paper]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
\includepdf[pages={ 9-14,27}]{RFP.pdf}
\end{document}
%%% Local Variables:
%%% mode: latex
%%% TeX-master: t
%%% End:

That's it.  LaTeXing the file gave me just the pages I needed.  If you have a TeX installation, this works for most cases.  Please read the documentation if you want to something fancy but the above is enough to get the pages you need.

Creating animations in PDF using LaTeX

If you ever wanted to simple animations of your graphs or pictures in your LaTeX paper then the animate package is the way to go. The documentation and examples are good to get you started.

PDF autorefresh with AucTeX and Sumatra PDF

For users of Emacs on windows, Acrobat Reader does not play well with AucTeX. If the PDF file is open, while compiling the .tex file, Emacs will throw a write error because the reader locks the file for it's own use.

Sumatra PDF seems to have sorted this issue out in it's latest release of the viewer. At least that's what the release notes claim. I haven't tried it so far. But the announcement on the comp.text.tex newsgroup caught my eye and I think it's worth noting.


If it really works as advertised in the release notes, then one does not have to close and reopen the PDF file when generating it through AucTeX. With the autorefresh feature, it should be possible to iteratively add text and compile in a smooth workflow.

I shall have to try this feature and switch the reader if all goes well. The last time I tried the Sumatra PDF viewer I had problems rendering pgf rendered drawings. Maybe things are better this time as I did not fully check what was and was not supported in the earlier releases.

Extracting specific pages from PDF files using LaTeX

I frequently receive large PDF files from my colleagues which needs to get reviewed by a number of people. Instead of mailing the whole document, especially if it is large, I mail them the relevant pages.

You don't need any extra software or some external binary. There is the package pdfpages on CTAN which does exactly what is required and more.(If you read the documentation, that is)

A simple example demonstrates the ease by which PDF pages can be extracted.

\documentclass[a4paper]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{pdfpages}
\begin{document}
\includepdf[pages=72-74]{statistics.pdf}
\end{document}

%%% Local Variables:
%%% mode: latex
%%% TeX-master: t
%%% End:


Of course, it can also be merged with the current document that one is writing in LaTeX too. So if someone sends in PDF images that needs to be incorporated in your workflow, just plug in some \includepdfs with the name of the file and compile the document. And it is simply plugged in without any fuss. So, if you're the delegating type, this is a godsend. :-)