MLA Package and Thumbpdf

Question

I'm currently trying to set up a template for MLA format. There's one warning that never goes away, however:

Package thumbpdf Warning: Thumbnail data file `Project*Name.tpt' not found.

Does anyone know what causes/how to fix this problem? Currently I have in the project folder the following files (and other associated files that come with compiling, except the .tpt file):

Project Name.tex

mla.sty

thumbpdf.sty

thumbpdf.tex

thumbpdf.pl

I've followed the install directions for thumbpdf found here: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/thumbpdf

Or at least, I've gotten the thumbpdf.sty, .tex, and readme in the right directories in the MikTeX folder in Program Files. I'm not quite sure what to do with the .pl file.

Here is the preamble:

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage{url}
\setlength{\headheight}{15pt}
\usepackage[pdftex]{thumbpdf}
\usepackage{ifpdf}
\usepackage{mla}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[english]{babel}

I've never needed thumbpdf with my MiKTeX installation, most definitely not to fulfill MLA requirements. Any particular reason you're using it? — doncherry, Sep 29 '12 at 16:20
Also, a few remarks on your preamble: Always put hyperref (almost) last. You don't need to load url, which is loaded by hyperref, nor ifpdf, which is loaded by geometry. In general, Best practice on organising your preamble might be of interest to you. — doncherry, Sep 29 '12 at 16:29
Hmm... I included thumbpdf since I thought it might resolve the warning. I see that taking it out makes no difference, though. And thanks for the link - I haven't really looked into optimizing my preamble, and I suppose I should start looking into that. — Michael Zhao, Sep 29 '12 at 16:39
thumbpdf.pl is a Perl script that must be run with the main PDF file as input (most TeX distributions already have it to be simply called from the command line). But, as Heiko below is saying, there's no need for it with modern PDF viewers. — egreg, Sep 29 '12 at 16:41
You can avoid that mla requests thumbpdf with the following magic just before \usepackage{mla}: \expandafter\def\csname ver@thumbpdf.sty\endcsname{}. Or just live with the warning. — egreg, Sep 29 '12 at 16:45

Heiko Oberdiek · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-29T17:12:56.853

You need to run thumbpdf to generate the thumbnails:

pdflatex ProjectName
thumbpdf ProjectName
pdflatex ProjectName

However, the PDF viewers are able to generate the thumbnails on the fly very fast or they do not support thumbnails at all. Therefore package thumbpdf is not really needed, except if you want to provide different thumbnails as the standard ones.

Update: You can ignore the warning or if you do not want to have embedded thumbnails and to run thumbpdf, then do not use the package as in the given MWE.

Additionally package loading can be disabled in LaTeX by fooling LaTeX's package management. For each package it remembers the data (date, version, info) of the optional argument of \ProvidesPackage under the name \ver@<package name>.sty. If \ProvidesPackge is missing the macro is defined as empty string. This macro helps LaTeX to know, if a package is already loaded. In the that case the package is not loaded again. Also the data are used for \listfiles.

\makeatletter
\@namedef{ver@thumbpdf.sty}{}
\makeatother
\usepackage{mla}

So, essentially ignore the warning unless I want different thumbnails? — Michael Zhao, Sep 29 '12 at 16:42
It's the mla package that requires thumbpdf. :( Probably because it was written some years ago when PDF viewers didn't provide the thumbnails automatically and the author forgot to remove the call. It sports also a \usepackage{times} that reveals its age. — egreg, Sep 29 '12 at 16:49
@egreg I have edited the answer and explain, how to disable the loading of a package. — Heiko Oberdiek, Sep 29 '12 at 17:14

MLA Package and Thumbpdf

1 Answers1