8

I am using acronym package to create the list of Acronyms. I am using Acronym1.tex containing the definition of all the acronyms. However here is the list of problems I am facing.

  1. I have to sort the list manually every time I need a sorted list in the pdf. I am not aware of the options with usepackage. I am currently using

    \usepackage[printonlyused,withpage]{acronym}

  2. Is it possible to order the Acronym list? Currently what I am getting is

<short>:<Description>..........<Page Number>

I would prefer something like this :

<short>\t<Description>..........<Page Number>

Example: 

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[printonlyused,withpage]{acronym}
\begin{document}

\section{Intro}
In the early nineties,\ac{TDMA}, \ac{IEEE} , \ac{GSM}, \ac{WPAN} \ac{FPGA}

\section{Acronyms}
 \begin{acronym}
\acro{TDMA}{Time Division Multiple Access}
\acro{WPAN}{Wireless Personal Area Network}
\acro{GSM}{Global System for Mobile communication}
\acro{FPGA}{Field Programmable Gate Array}
\acro{IEEE}{Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}
\end{acronym}

\end{document}

If you are using acronym package and know the options on how to use it, that will be really helpful.

I could not find any relevant information, in the documentation.

doncherry
  • 54,637
www.sapnaedu.in
  • 1,029

3 Answers3

9

With the package acronym you can't sort the entries. Maybe you can write a small per-script. I recommend the package glossaries which is able to do this:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[colorlinks]{hyperref}
\usepackage[acronym,toc,shortcuts]{glossaries}
\makeglossaries
\newacronym{TDMA}{TDMA}{Time Division Multiple Access}
\newacronym{WPAN}{WPAN}{Wireless Personal Area Network}
\newacronym{GSM}{GSM}{Global System for Mobile communication}
\newacronym{FPGA}{FPGA}{Field Programmable Gate Array}
\newacronym{IEEE}{IEEE}{Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers}

\begin{document}

\section{Intro}
In the early nineties,\ac{TDMA}, \ac{IEEE} , \ac{GSM}, \ac{WPAN} \ac{FPGA}

\printglossary[type=\acronymtype,style=long]
%\printglossary[type=\acronymtype,style=altlistgroup]%alternative style
\end{document}

Now compile with

(pdf)latex
makeglossaries
(pdf)latex
(pdf)latex
Marco Daniel
  • 95,681
6

As you said, the acronym documentation doesn't mention "sorting" the acronym list. But a more telling fact is that it also doesn't mention either makeindex or bibtex which presumably would be used to sort a "raw" list of acronyms. Furthermore, in the discussion acronym vs. glossaries at comp.text.tex it is stated that acronyms must be sorted "manually in the input file" when using acronym. Bottom line: If you want automatic acronym sorting, switch to a package like glossaries.

lockstep
  • 250,273
  • Thanks a lot, I was not aware of the sorting part. I thought there is some options with \usepackage which I am missing. Thanks for the info. – www.sapnaedu.in Sep 24 '11 at 11:02
1

For a quick and dirty solution, export your list of acronyms from your .tex-file to calc/tables/excel or any other such program, sort the column, copy back to your .tex-file. The inconvenience is you have to remember to do that before your final compilation. It's not an eleganz solution, but if it is acronym you want to use, this is one of the most efficient ways to do it.

Alternatively, learn how to use the acro or glossaries, like the others said. The acro package is newer than this question and has experienced a good 45 updates since it was first released. It is well maintained and well documented.

I use acronym right now, because I only do very basic things with it and acro seemed overkill and would have required me to learn it and I don't have the time to do that right now. I still think it looks like a nice package and I plan to use it on my next project. It's especially way more useful, when use something else than English

thymaro
  • 1,507