2

I have tried already:

  • Devising a macro in my text editor (sublime text 3) to rid of all the syntax in the editor that is latex related without any luck.
  • Using code/syntax folding to easily copy and paste the text so functions and such collapse.
  • Google searching for a solution to this.

I can't work out a way, does anyone know how to achieve this?

Reasons I want to do this:

  • Sharing the text I have inputted to other people in say .txt format for not TeX users.
  • Word counting.
  • Backing up.
  • Many other reasons.
SomeT
  • 337
  • Does https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/405115/36296 help? – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Mar 28 '19 at 20:24
  • The only issues I have with this method so far is I am using Windows, and further to that I am using Overleaf which I believe does not support detex? Additionally getting detex working on windows seems to be troublesome. – SomeT Mar 28 '19 at 20:38
  • If detex doesn't work, LaTeX2HTML is available for windows. Then you just strip out html tags. It depends on what your LaTeX document is as to whether this makes sense. – Andrew Kepert Mar 28 '19 at 20:42
  • But then I am left with the issue of stripping out the HTML tags thus the problem remains highgly similar. – SomeT Mar 28 '19 at 20:44
  • https://stackoverflow.com/a/14319684/2777074 -> should also be available for windows – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Mar 28 '19 at 20:45
  • 1
    even with gui: http://urchin.earth.li/~tomford/detex/ – samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz Mar 28 '19 at 20:46
  • Re latex2html: Yes, I didn't say it was a perfect solution. Stripping out html tags is easier than stripping out latex. Maybe within your text editor scripting? At least one other person has already solved this: http://sublimetexttips.com/format-data-with-sublime-invert-selection/ If this is what you go with, you can turn off many of the features in latex2html such as inline images since you'll be throwing them away anyway. – Andrew Kepert Mar 28 '19 at 20:54
  • I have tried opendetex, does not compile on windows. I have tried the gui, it is to old to run on my computer. I will not be creating a new problem with HTML. – SomeT Mar 28 '19 at 20:59
  • On a different note I would be wary of the file at: urchin.earth.li/~tomford/detex specifically http://urchin.earth.li/~tomford/detex/detex.zip possibly contains malware. – SomeT Mar 28 '19 at 21:09

3 Answers3

3

For those willing to try OpenDetex on Windows10 64 bit, an older 2.8.1 produces this result.

NOTE colouring is me to show pale blue extracted and yellow replaced. [click to zoom]

enter image description here

Available from the nearest Google Code Archive near you.

  • I preferred pandoc tbh as it does not rely on a GUI and I can called it from the command line, across other applications and code and such. – SomeT Mar 29 '19 at 19:48
  • 1
    I do understand there are many more options with pandoc for html etc. its just that you may get more tex in the output such as \maketitle [] []{.lettrine} etc. The simplicity of a basic Detex in.tex>out.txt is that its useful for a quick and dirty input to Grammarly etc –  Mar 29 '19 at 19:58
  • You make a good point. My two answers below though are more suited to my specific use cases in overleaf. The solution I found for overleaf works pretty much the same as detex, perhaps even using it, itself? – SomeT Mar 30 '19 at 16:02
  • 1
    Yes the overleaf method is possibly a customised/enhanced detex and I would use pandoc for say docx rather than attempt to spent time reformatting the colours and layout of a graphics tex with \included images etc. Each have their uses –  Mar 30 '19 at 16:07
1

This is the purest and easiest way I found to achieve conversion in Windows, and even does it nicely to .docx as well:

https://pandoc.org/

I then just used the commands listed here to get the hang of how it works:

https://pandoc.org/demos.html

SomeT
  • 337
0

As I mentioned overleaf above, I contact them and tested this method and it works also but not as good as Pandoc:

Hello,

Thanks for getting in touch.

Here's a hack that may (or may not) work with your project: Add a file named "latexmkrc" (without file extension) in the top level of your Overleaf project, and paste the following line in it:

END { system ('detex main.tex > plain.txt'); }

Replace main.tex with whatever file you want to check on. If main.tex contains \input or \include, it will automatically read those files as well. The detex utility will try to strip only the plain text from main.tex (and included .tex files), outputting them to plain.txt. Some arguments from some LaTeX commands may still get in.

Then in the list of generated files (see https://www.overleaf.com/learn/how-to/View_generated_files

SomeT
  • 337