How to let latex only run one user defined command and save the ouput to a tax file

Question

I want to let latex only run one of my defined commands and output results to a tax file.

For example, the following tex file:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{xcolor}

\newcommand{\note}[3][]{{\color{Orange}#1}{\color{Red}#2}{\color{Cyan}#3}}

\begin{document}

\note[text1]{text2}{text3}

hello world \textbf{here} .

\end{document}

I want latex to only run the \note command and output the results:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[usenames,dvipsnames]{xcolor}

\newcommand{\note}[3][]{{\color{Orange}#1}{\color{Red}#2}{\color{Cyan}#3}}

\begin{document}

{\color{Orange}text1}{\color{Red}text2}{\color{Cyan}text3}

hello world \textbf{here} .

\end{document}

into a new tex file for example compiled.tax

Is there anyway to achieve this?

Thanks in advance.

Is there a reason you're saying tax file instead of tex? — A.Ellett, Apr 09 '14 at 15:24
In other words, given the above code as input, the output should be the second code? This is not a job for TeX, then. — egreg, Apr 09 '14 at 15:26
I want to have some kind of pre-compile command or macro in tax. The command is a tex command and runs in tex logic... — Changwang Zhang, Apr 09 '14 at 16:18
@Leo: I have a feeling that this is a classic XY Problem. If you add details of exactly what you want to achieve via the pre-processing step (and the subsequent step), someone here can probably suggest a way to accomplish your goal without this temporary file. — Peter Grill, Apr 09 '14 at 16:30
@PeterGrill Thanks. I will then post another separate question. I basically want to create a change track mechanism similar to that in word by using a new \note command. And you can choose to show these changes and not. And more importantly when progress to next version, you can delete those change tracks in the latex mimicking the accepting all changes in word. I will do another post and let you. — Changwang Zhang, Apr 09 '14 at 16:40
That sounds much better suited for TeX already. Have a look at “Track changes” in LaTeX in case that answers you question. I already do something similar to what you describe based on the solutions at Changbars to indicate location of conditional text and Mark portions of text without affecting spacing. — Peter Grill, Apr 09 '14 at 16:56
See LaTeX macro expander and/or Is there a script that reads a TeX file and replaces every instance of a \newcommand? — Werner, Apr 09 '14 at 17:02

How to let latex only run one user defined command and save the ouput to a tax file

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