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TeXstudio Setup

Below are instructions to (1) install a dark editor theme for TeXstudio, and (2) instructions to configure TeXstudio to work seamlessly with R and knitr -- a powerful way to integrate R (or python, etc.) code into a LaTeX document, and have that code and/or it's output appear in the document without any additional formatting by you!

Note: For now, this only has instructions for Windows. It should be similar on OS X and Linux, so let me know if you try!

Configure TeXstudio to use R + knitr

 Instructions:
  1. You need to have installed the following software in the given order. Rstudio is optional, but is my recommended way of using R. It should be installed AFTER MikTeX and R if you'd like to compile R Markdown documents as well as knitr documents via Rstudio.
    1. MikTex
    2. R
    3. RStudio (optional)
  2. Start up R, and install the "knitr" package with the command 
    install.packages("knitr")
  3. Install TeXstudio

    This should be relatively painless! If you run into trouble, Google is your friend.
  4. Configure TeXstudio to compile knitr documents.

    Go to Options > Configure TeXstudio > Build and edit the "User Commands" to read 
    "C:\YOUR-R-DIRECTORY\bin\x64\Rscript.exe" -e "knitr::knit2pdf('%.Rnw')"
     Note: the long filename for Rscript.exe needs to reflect where R files are located on your computer!
    See also http://yihui.name/knitr/demo/editors/



  5. Configure a Keyboard Shortcut to compile knitr (*.Rnw) documents:

    Once the User Command above is defined, you can assign a keyboard shortcut to quickly compile knitr (*.Rnw) files. TeXstudio recently changed the default shortcut to "Build & View" a LaTeX (*.tex) document from F1 to F5. So, I use the shortcut F4 to build knitr (*.Rnw) documents. Another alternative might be Shift+F5. (Note that F7 will display the PDF, once compiled.)

    Begin by going to Options > Configure TeXstudio > Shortcuts > Tools > User.

    Click the second column ("Current Shortcut") entry for knitr then hit the F4 key (typing "F" then "4" will not work!). Optional: Click the 3rd column (Additional Shortcut) and set it to Shift+F5.

    Now save, and you should be all set!
  6. To test it out, download this knitr example and try to compile it by hitting F4: homework-knitr-template.Rnw

Dark Color Theme for TeXstudio Editor

 Instructions for installing a pre-configured dark theme for the TeXstudio editor:
  1. Download a dark color theme:
    1. My dark theme: Texstudio-dark-Hurtado.txsprofile
    2. Various examples at http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/108315/how-can-i-set-a-dark-theme-in-texstudio.
    3. My dark theme plus some editor modifications (e.g. supressed underline of grammar mistakes, etc.): Texstudio-darkplus-Hurtado.txsprofile
  2. Open up the color theme in a text editor (I prefer notepad++).
  3. Next come the "not-so-user-friendly" steps, so let me walk you through them!
    1. Go to Options > Save profile... and save a backup of the current profile to something like user-default.txsprofile.
    2. Do this again, but instead save to a file named something like custom-dark1.txsprofile. Note the directory this file is saved it!
    3. Open custom-dark1.txsprofile (or whatever you named it) with a text editor (again, I like notepad++) and scroll to the very bottom which should look like 
      ...
[formats]
version=1.0
      Note these are the first two lines of the dark theme file you downloaded! Copy and paste the contents of the dark them to this section of custom-dark1.txsprofile file and save. The [formats] section of custom-dark1.txsprofile should now read 
      ...
[formats]
version=1.0
data\normal\priority=-1
data\normal\bold=false
...
  4. Go to Options > Load profile... and load the newly edited custom-dark1.txsprofile.
  5. Restart TexStudio and open a file, and you should see the dark themed editor!
  6. Finally, you can further modify your color scheme by going to Options > Configure TeXstudio > Syntax Highlighting