List of abbreviations when abbreviations are in a separate folder

Question

I have looked a several sources to answer this question, including textblog, latex.org and sharelatex. I have copied the code and although I do not get any errors I do not get a list of abbreviations as required or even the heading Abbreviations (or Glossaries or any other heading). My abbreviations are in a separate folder so I do not know if this makes a difference. Also, I am using Texmaker.

I have a 'main' folder that has all the preamble code and brings all the other folders/chapters together using the 'include' command, e.g.:

\include{Frontmatter/title}
\newpage

\include{Frontmatter/abstract}


\include{Frontmatter/acknowledgements}

\include{Frontmatter/abbreviations}


\include{Frontmatter/declaration}


\tableofcontents
\newpage

\listoffigures
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{\numberline{}\textit{List of figures}}
\newpage

\listoftables
\addcontentsline{toc}{section}{\numberline{}\textit{List of tables}}
\newpage

\pagenumbering{arabic}
\include{Chapters/ch1/ch1}

\include{Chapters/ch2/ch2}
etc.

I am still relatively new to Latex so simple examples would be much appreciated.

You should start with a simple example. What you have shown us, is absolutely worthless, we cannot test it, cannot compile it, cannot give any advice. From the five or so packages that do what you want, which one are you using? Have you run the helper program that creates the needed information? Is a helper program even needed? — Johannes_B, Mar 25 '18 at 05:17
You are including the List ofs to the contents with the wrong page number. — Johannes_B, Mar 25 '18 at 05:17
Well, I have copied the code directly from the links I posted and I do not get anything. I even saved a new file and used only the answers provided in those links and still nothing. So I thought it may have something to do with having separate folders or perhaps Texmaker. — Red Book 1, Mar 25 '18 at 07:18
If your definitions are in the file that's input with \include, then there are two problems: Why shouldn't I use \include to include my glossary definitions? and Drawbacks With Defining Entries in the Document Environment. — Nicola Talbot, Mar 25 '18 at 11:38
@NicolaTalbot That explains it. Thanks for the links. I wonder if there is an easy way to do it by hand then. I suppose I can simply list the items, but is there a way that ensures it automatically puts item in alphabetical order? — Red Book 1, Mar 25 '18 at 12:11

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '18 at 13:29

I think there may be multiple issues. I've already mentioned a couple in the comments, but I think there may be more:

You have the abbreviation definitions within the document environment. Drawbacks with Defining Entries in the Document Environment
The file containing the abbreviation definitions has been input with \include rather than \input. Why shouldn't I use \include to include my glossary definitions?
It's not possible to tell from your code fragments, but you may have not used any of the commands needed to index the abbreviations. Without these, the list of abbreviations will be empty.
You may have omitted the step required to process the indexing from the previous point.

Suppose you have a file called abbreviations.tex that contains:

\newacronym{xml}{XML}{extensible markup language}
\newacronym{svg}{SVG}{scalable vector graphics}
\newacronym{html}{HTML}{hypertext markup language}

Then this should be input in the preamble using either \input or \loadglsentries. Within the document you need to use commands like \gls, which both deals with first/subsequent use formatting and the indexing.

Here's a complete document:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{glossaries}

\makeglossaries

\loadglsentries{abbreviations}

\title{Sample Document}
\author{Ann Author}

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\printglossary[title={Abbreviations}]

\mainmatter

\include{introduction}

\end{document}

where introduction.tex contains:

\chapter{Introduction}

Something about \gls{html}. Something else about \gls{html}.

If the main file is called myDoc.tex then the build process is:

pdflatex myDoc
makeglossaries myDoc
pdflatex myDoc

Alternatively (if you don't have Perl installed):

pdflatex myDoc
makeglossaries-lite myDoc
pdflatex myDoc

(Depending on your setup, you may need to use makeglossaries-lite.lua instead of makeglossaries-lite.)

If you are using a text editor where you just click a button to run LaTeX, then you need to find a way to add makeglossaries (or makeglossaries-lite) as a recognised tool. This depends on the editor. Since you've used the texmaker tag, I'm guessing that's what you're using so try Using Texmaker with glossaries on Windows.

The list of abbreviations will only be present after the associated file has been created (during the makeglossaries/makeglossaries-lite step.)

Another option is to use the automake package option, which will try to generate the associated file during the LaTeX run using TeX's shell escape. Since there are security concerns with TeX being able to execute other applications, this action may be prohibited depending on your TeX setup.

For example:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage[automake]{glossaries}

\makeglossaries

\loadglsentries{abbreviations}

\title{Sample Document}
\author{Ann Author}

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\printglossary[title={Abbreviations}]

\mainmatter

\include{introduction}

\end{document}

The document build is now:

pdflatex myDoc
pdflatex myDoc

The list of abbreviations only includes the term that has been referenced in the document with \gls:

(The 1 refers to the page number where \gls{html} was used. If you don't want it, use the nonumberlist package option.)

The xml and svg terms aren't listed because they haven't been referenced. Here's a modified version of introduction.tex:

\chapter{Introduction}

Something about \gls{html}.  Something else about \gls{html}.
Something about \gls{xml}.

Rebuild the document, and now XML is listed:

The SVG term still isn't listed.

This is the most common method of using the glossaries package. A similar method is to add the xindy package option. The build process is much the same but now makeglossaries will try to run xindy instead of makeindex.

There is another method that doesn't use any external tool as it uses TeX to sort and collate, but it's the least efficient method and can break in some instances. Here's the modified document:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage{glossaries}

\makenoidxglossaries % <--- use TeX to sort and collate

\loadglsentries{abbreviations}

\title{Sample Document}
\author{Ann Author}

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\printnoidxglossary[title={Abbreviations}]% <--- use TeX to sort and collate

\mainmatter

\include{introduction}

\end{document}

The glossaries-extra extension package provides a manual method, where no sorting or collating takes place. Instead all defined terms will be listed in order of definition, even if they haven't been used in the document. Here's the modified document:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage[sort=none]{glossaries-extra}

% set the abbreviation style before abbreviations are defined:
\setabbreviationstyle % requires glossaries-extra.sty
 [acronym]% governs \newacronym (unless category key is set)
 {long-short}% style name

\loadglsentries{abbreviations}

\title{Sample Document}
\author{Ann Author}

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[title={Abbreviations}]% <--- no sorting or collating

\mainmatter

\include{introduction}

\end{document}

All entries are now listed but they are in the order of definition and there's no number list. The full stop following the description that was automatically added with the base glossaries example is missing. You can add it back with the package option postdot or postpunc=dot.

With glossaries-extra, you can use \newabbreviation instead of \newacronym. For example:

\newabbreviation{xml}{XML}{extensible markup language}
\newabbreviation{svg}{SVG}{scalable vector graphics}
\newabbreviation{html}{HTML}{hypertext markup language}

The [acronym] optional argument should now be omitted from \setabbreviationstyle:

% set the abbreviation style before abbreviations are defined:
\setabbreviationstyle % requires glossaries-extra.sty
 {long-short}% style name

In fact, the long-short style is the default for \newabbreviation, so you can omit this. I've included it below to highlight where the command needs to go if a different style is required.

The final method is to use a .bib format instead. If you have a large number of terms you may find this more convenient as you can manage the file in a bibliographic management system, such as JabRef.

The abbreviations are now defined in a file called abbreviations.bib (instead of abbreviations.tex):

% Encoding: UTF-8
@abbreviation{xml,
  short = {XML},
  long = {extensible markup language}
}

@abbreviation{svg,
  short = {SVG},
  long = {scalable vector graphics}
}

@abbreviation{html,
  short = {HTML},
  long = {hypertext markup language}
}

The document is now:

\documentclass{book}

\usepackage[record]% using bib2gls
 {glossaries-extra}

% set the abbreviation style before abbreviations are defined:
\setabbreviationstyle % requires glossaries-extra.sty
 {long-short}% style name

\GlsXtrLoadResources[
 src={abbreviations}% definitions provided in abbreviations.bib
]

\title{Sample Document}
\author{Ann Author}

\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\maketitle
\tableofcontents
\printunsrtglossary[title={Abbreviations}]% <--- using bib2gls

\mainmatter

\include{introduction}

\end{document}

and the build process is:

pdflatex myDoc
bib2gls myDoc
pdflatex myDoc

Again, you need to add bib2gls as a recognised tool to your text editor. Just follow the same steps as for makeglossaries, but replace makeglossaries with bib2gls.

For all methods except sort=none, you must index the terms that need to appear in the list of abbreviations using commands like \gls. Terms that aren't indexed won't appear in the list.
For all methods except the first (\makeglossaries with just the base glossaries package), you can't define terms in the document environment. With the first method you can, but things can go wrong.
Only use \input or \loadglsentries not \include (except for the bib2gls method where you need to use \GlsXtrLoadResources).

Since there are multiple ways of using the glossaries and glossaries-extra packages, if you have a problem then you need to provide a short but complete example document (like the ones here) and state how you are building the document.

List of abbreviations when abbreviations are in a separate folder

1 Answers1