Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Date: 1999/03/21

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&selm=7d45uv%24pum%40falcon.ccs.uwo.ca

thanks to everyone who answered. It was very helpful. In case anyone cares, here is a summary of the problem and the solution (its pretty simple).

The problem: I want to have a latex file for my thesis that compiles the entire thesis, including all chapters and appendices. But I want to edit each indivdual file (chapter) without having to That is, I want to include files whole stand alone compilable latex files (with preambles) into my "master" latex document.

Here is the solution I settled on:

In the "master file" called mythesis.tex I have the following definition for "\setflag", and a bunch of includes:

%%%%%%%%start of file

\newcommand{\setflag}{\newif \ifwhole
\wholetrue}

\documentclass[12pt]{thesis}
\usepackage{psfig}
\usepackage[square]{natbib}
\begin{document}

  \bibliographystyle{plainnat}
  \input{chapter0}
  \newpage \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Table of Contents}
  \tableofcontents
  \newpage \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Figures}
  \listoffigures
  \newpage \addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{List of Tables}
  \listoftables


\include{chapter1.tex}
\include{chapter2.tex}
\include{chapter3.tex}
\include{chapter4.tex}
\include{chapter5.tex}
\include{chapter6.tex}
\include{chapter7.tex}
\include{append1.tex}
\include{append2.tex}
\include{append3.tex}
\include{append4.tex}
(etc)

\end{document}
%%%%%%%%end of file

Then in each chapter I have the following conditional definition for "\setflag":

%%%%%%%%start of file

\providecommand{\setflag}{\newif \ifwhole
\wholefalse}
\setflag

\ifwhole\else
     \documentclass[12pt]{thesis}
     \usepackage{psfig}
     \usepackage[square]{natbib}

     \pssilent
     \renewcommand{\baselinestretch}{1.5} \small\normalsize
     \pagenumbering{arabic}
     \pagestyle{myheadings}
     \setcounter{page}{54}
     \setcounter{chapter}{3}
 \begin{document}
\fi

%%%%%%%%end of file

Thus, if I compile chapter1.tex, it compiles, no problem. The "if" command is executed (based on who is calling for this file).

Also, I can compile mythesis.tex, and it includes chapter1.tex, and the "if" commands are not executed. Thus it compiles the whole thing. Sweeeet!

cheers, bob