Tips on large tex files

Question

I want to write a solution manual for a maths book which is about 900 pages.

I want it to include detailed solutions to all exercises as as well summaries for every chapter.

The file will obviously be quite large. I'd love to hear any tips on handling such large files, such as breaking it into several files etc...

Answer 1

There are basically two possibilities, both deal with splitting into several files

1. Include each file with the \input{filename} command
2. Include each file with the \include{filename} command

The second way always adds a pagebreak.

Regardless which style you apply, I would split the large file in logically parts, such as chapters or sections, but not into subsections.

Please note, that you cannot nest \include commands, in that case, you have to use \input in deeper hierarchies.

If you want to test some parts only, you could use \includeonly command, say

\documentclass{article}
%Starting stuff
\includeonly{section1,section6}%
\begin{document}
%Something to be done before formatting etc. of solutions
\include{section1}
\include{section2}
\include{section3}
\include{section4}
\include{section5}
\include{section6}
% Other stuff here
\end{document}

This will include only the files with section1 and section6, although the other ones are given explicitly in the \include statement.

Please also have a look on the filecontents package.