A complete configuration for writing LaTeX documents with NeoVim.
The following sections provide installation instructions for Mac, Arch, and Debian operating systems. In the CheatSheet.md you can find all of the key-bindings that I have added to NeoVim for writing LaTeX documents, where the LearningGit.md provides resources specifically geared for integrating Git into your workflow. You can also find video series which: (1) demonstrates the resulting functionality of the present configuration; (2) walks through the installation process; (3) explains how to modify the configuration for your own needs; and (4) indicates how to use Git to track changes and collaborate with others.
The programs covered include: NeoVim, Git, Skim/Zathura, Zotero, Alacritty, Tmux, and Fish. I will also include information for globally remapping keys to better suit writing LaTeX documents with NeoVim.
I would start by updating your system so that you don't hit any snags along the way.
(Or, if you like snags and tired of Mac, then consider switching to Linux!)
Once you have updated MacOS, open the terminal by hitting Command + Space and typing 'terminal'.
You may check whether you already have Homebrew installed by entering the following into the terminal:
brew --version
If Homebrew is installed, it will report which version you have which you can update by means of the following commands run separately in order:
brew update
brew doctor
brew upgrade
If Homebrew has not been installed, you may install it by running the following two commands:
xcode-select --install
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Note that if you don't have xcode installed, this may take a while but is essential to what follows.
Although optional, I highly recommend that inexperienced users begin by installing Fish as explained in the section below which makes working inside the terminal a lot easier and will benefit your resulting workflow once NeoVim is up and running.
I also highly recommend swapping the CapsLock and Esc keys by opening System Preferences -> Keyboard and making the appropriate changes.
I also like to change the Command key to the Control key, change the Control key to the Function key, change the Function key to the Option key, and change the Option key to the Command key if I'm using a Mac.
My reasons for doing this is ergonomics given which keys I'll be using most often in NeoVim.
Alternatively, you can make changes to the mappings that I've included in the config, though this may take a little more work than swapping things around in System Preferences -> Keyboard.
Whatever you do, I recommend finding something comfortable before you begin using your NeoVim config, committing its key-bindings to memory.
To install the Fish shell, run:
brew install fish
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/oh-my-fish/oh-my-fish/master/bin/install | fish
omf install sashimi
To delete the welcome message, run:
set -U fish_greeting ""
Or add whatever you want between the quotes in the command above. Make Fish your default shell by first checking where Fish is installed with:
which fish
Cut and paste the path and run:
sudo vim /etc/shells
Once inside vanilla Vim (pre-installed on any Mac) navigate to the bottom with j, create a new line with o, and paste the path with command + shift + v, or hand type it, and hit esc to go back into normal mode.
Then save and quite with :wq.
Check to see that you succeeded with:
cat /etc/shells
If the line you included is shown at the end, then proceed to run:
chsh -s /usr/local/bin/fish
Close the terminal and reopen it to check to see if Fish is running by default. If you want to turn on the Vim key-bindings within Fish, run the following:
fish_vi_key_bindings
If you aren't already comfy with vim-like modes, the vi-mode in Fish may be cumbersome, and best to avoid during the installation.
Install Node if it is not installed already (you can check with --version as above), run:
brew install node
Check if Python 3 is installed by running the following:
Python3 --version
If absent, run the following (yes, without the '3' on the end):
brew install python
Install the RobotoMono Nerd Font with:
brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install --cask font-roboto-mono-nerd-font
More options can be found here or by searching for Nerd Fonts that can be installed with Homebrew.
If you are using the default Mac Terminal, you will need to select the font that you just installed by navigating through the menu Terminal --> Preferences --> Profiles --> Change Font and selecting RobotoMono or similar.
However, I highly recommend installing the Alacritty terminal in the last section, providing a faster cleaner looking terminal which is easy to configure given the config file that I have included.
Nevertheless, the Mac terminal will do for completing the installation process detailed below.
Install NeoVim by entering:
brew install neovim
Once the installation is complete, open NeoVim by entering:
nvim
You can enter normal-mode in NeoVim from any mode by hitting escape.
To check the health of your NeoVim install, enter command-mode in NeoVim from normal mode by hitting : and running:
checkhealth
Wait for the report to finish.
If Python 3 reports an error, run the following in the terminal (to exit NeoVim, write :qa!):
pip3 install --user pynvim
Continue to run :checkhealth in NeoVim, following the instructions under the reported errors until all errors are gone (the Python 2 errors may be ignored, and similarly for Ruby, Node.js, and Perl).
This may involve doing some research if errors persist.
NeoVim comes with an extremely austere set of defaults, including no mouse support, making it difficult to use prior to configuration. In order to install plugins, extending the features included in NeoVim, run the following:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/wbthomason/packer.nvim\
~/.local/share/nvim/site/pack/packer/start/packer.nvimq
Check to see if the following are installed with --version as above and install whatever is missing:
brew install fzf
brew install ripgrep
brew install pandoc
brew install pandoc-plot
brew install npm
brew install wget
sudo pip3 install neovim-remote
You are now ready to pull down the configuration files.
I recommend forking my config so that you have your own version that you can customise for yourself.
To do so you will need to make a GitHub account if you don't have one already.
Then click Fork in my GitHub config repo in order to copy the repo over to your GitHub.
Make yourself the owner.
There is no need to include other branches besides the master branch which will be selected by default.
Once you have forked the repo, you can click the Code button in your fork of the config repo, selecting SSH, and copying the address which you will use below.
Alternatively, if you don't want to fork for some reason, click the Code button in my repo, copying the address in the same way.
Now you are ready to open the terminal back up and run the following commands making the appropriate substitution:
cd ~/.config
ls -a
git init
ls -a
git remote add origin YOUR-OR-MY-ADDRESS
git remote -v
git pull origin master
ls -a
The ls -a commands are optional but will help you to see what is happening.
In particular, git pull origin master will pull down the config files into your ~/.config directory.
The other git commands add a new git repo, link your local repo to your fork, and confirm that the addresses have been added so that you are ready to push and pull changes from your fork on GitHub.
This will permit you keep your config backed up to your GitHub repo and to pull your repo down onto other computers if you want to reproduce your customised config once you have made changes.
Finally we may edit the options.lua file, deleting the final block which is not needed for Mac users by using Vim rather than NeoVim:
vim ~/.config/nvim/user/options.lua
Scroll to the bottom with G, move the cursor into the final block by moving the cursor up to any line in that final block by hitting k enough times (the block should begin with a note to Mac users), and then hit dap for 'delete all paragraph'.
Save and quite with :wq and reopen NeoVim.
After the plugins finish installing, run :checkhealth troubleshooting any errors with the exception of VimTex which will be fixed by the LaTeX and Zathura sections detailed below.
You can ignore all the warnings, but should troubleshoot any errors that persist.
Finally, you will want to choose a pdf viewer to be launched by Vimtex by running:
nvim ~/.config/nvim/user/vimtex.lua
Although you could use Zathura for opening pdfs from the VimTex context-menu, I prefer to use a pdf viewer that permits me to highlight and leave notes to myself.
Accordingly, change okular to whatever pdf viewer you are accustomed to using.
By returning to the terminal, you can check to see that running the command that you substituted for 'okular' will open the desired pdf viewer.
If the pdf viewer does not open, then do some searching to see how to open it from the terminal.
If the pdf viewer does open from the terminal, you can exit with Control + c.
If you are here, you are probably familiar with LaTeX and already have it installed. But just in case you haven't installed LaTeX already, you can run the following command in order to check to see if it is already installed:
latexmk --version
To install MacTex, you can download the package here, or else run the following command:
brew install --cask mactex
This will take a while. Once it finishes, reboot your computer and run:
latexmk --version
You should now find that latexmk is installed.
Install the Zathura pdf viewer by running:
brew tap zegervdv/zathura
brew install zathuran
brew install xdotool
brew install pstree
Run :checkhealth inside NeoVim and scroll to the VimTex section at the bottom to confirm that all is OK.
Download and install Zotero along with the appropriate plugin for your preferred browser. Find a paper online, signing in to the journal as necessary and downloading the pdf manually. Now return to the paper on the journal's website and test the browser plugin for Zotero which should be displayed in the top right of the screen. Create the bib and bst directories, and move the .bst bibliography style files into the appropriate folder by running the following:
mkdir -p ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bib
cp -R ~/.config/latex/bst ~/Library/texmf/bibtex
Download and install Better BibTex by following these instructions.
Under Edit in the Zotero menu bar, select Preferences and open up the Better BibTex tab.
Under the Citation sub-tab, replace the citation key format with [auth][year].
Also check On item change at the bottom left.
Now switch to the Automatic Export sub-tab and select On Change.
Close the Preferences window, returning to the main Zotero window.
Right-click the main library folder in the left-most column, and select Export Library.
Under the Format drop-down menu, select Better BibTex, selecting the Keep Updated box.
Save the file as Zotero (the extension will be added automatically) to ~/Library/texmf/bibtex/bib which you previously created.
You are now ready to cite files in your Zotero database.
Every Mac should already have git pre-installed, but you can check by running:
git --version
If Git is not installed, run:
brew install git
Next install LazyGit by running:
brew install jesseduffield/lazygit/lazygit
Check to see if you have already set the appropriate username and email with:
git config -l
If absent or incorrect, add your details with:
git config --global user.name "USERNAME"
git config --global user.email "EMAIL"
git config -l
If you have not already, you can also add an SSH key by amending and running the following:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"
Hit return once, entering your GitHub passphrase in response to the prompt.
Next run:
bash
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
Run the following to copy the SSH key to your system clipboard:
pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
In the top right corner of your GitHub page, click Profile -> Settings -> SSH and GPG Keys selecting New SSH Key.
Name the authentication key after the devise you are using, pasting the SSH key from the clipboard into the appropriate field.
Saving the key completes the addition.
Check to make sure that the SSH key is working by pushing commits up to one of your repositories (see (Git Part 2) for details). If your SSH key stops working after rebooting, run the following command:
ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa
If you get an error, retry the command above with a lowercase 'k' or without the 'K' altogether.
Create a personal access token (PAT) by going to GitHub.com, clicking your user icon in the top right, navigate to Setting --> Developer settings --> Personal -- Tokens and create a new access token, setting:
- No expiration date
- Select
repoin scope/permissions
After generating the token, you must copy the PAT, pasting it into a temporary file saved on your computer. You can now add your PAT by pushing any changes you have made to your config up to your GitHub repo. To do so, begin by navigating in the terminal to your .config folder and opening NeoVim with:
cd ~/.config
nvim CheatSheet.md
I would recommend keeping the CheatSheet.md updated with any changes you make to your configuration.
You can then push all of the changes that you have made to your config so far with LazyGit by hitting <space>gg.
You will have to sort through which files you might want Git to ignore, hitting i when hovering over each, and once you have finished, hitting A to stage all files, followed by c to commit the staged changes, and P to push changes to the remote repo.
Enter your user name when prompted, followed by your PAT with Ctrl+Shift+v (or other depending on how paste is achieved in your terminal enviornment).
Assuming that this push works, close LazyGit with q, and reopen the terminal with Ctrl+t.
Now run the following:
git config --global credential.helper cache
Repeat the steps above after making a small change to your config to run another test, entering your username and PAT as before. Run one final test, checking to see if your credentials are now automatically submitted, avoiding the need to enter your username and PAT each time you push or pull changes.
For more help, see these video instructions.
Assuming that you are using GitHub to host your repositories, it is convenient to install the GitHub Cli which allows you to make changes to your repositories directly from the terminal inside NeoVim:
brew install gh
For further information, see the section GitHub Cli in the Cheat Sheet as well as the GitHub Cli Repo.
I highly recommend switching to a better terminal emulator like Alacritty as well as using a terminal multiplexor like Tmux so that you can have a seperate terminal-tab for each project that you have open. To do so, run the following in the default Mac terminal:
brew install --cask alacritty
brew install tmux
Now move the Tmux configuration file included in the config to the appropriate location with:
sudo cp ~/.config/tmux/.tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf
Assuming that you already installed Fish above, you will need to locate fish on your operating system by running the following:
which fish
The command should return /usr/local/bin/fish or something similar.
Copy the displayed path and run the following:
nvim ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml
Replace /usr/bin/fish with the location of Fish displayed above (you can search for 'fish' in alacritty.yml with / followed by 'fish').
You may also search for 'Window position', setting the x and y values along with the window dimensions which are set just above, or comment out the position block by adding # in front of those three lines in order to assume system defaults upon opening Alacritty.
Save and exit, opening Alacritty with Command + Space, running the following to reset Tmux:
tmux kill-server
When you reopen Alacritty Fish should be the default shell inside a Tmux window.
You are now read use NeoVim in Alacritty, complete with Tmux and the Fish shell.
See the Cheat Sheet for the Tmux commands.
NOTE: these instructions were written for my old vimscript config, and will be updated soon. The config is nevertheless ready to fork/clone and install in approximately the same manner described below.
Open the terminal and run the following commands:
sudo pacman -S neovim
Check to confirm that Python is installed:
python3 --version
If Python is not installed, run:
sudo pacman -S python
To check the health of your NeoVim install, open NeoVim by running nvim in the terminal and enter the following command:
:checkhealth
If Python 3 reports an error, run following in the terminal (to exit NeoVim, write :qa!):
pip3 install --user pynvim
NeoVim comes with an extremely austere set of defaults, including no mouse support, making it difficult to use prior to configuration. In order to install plugins, extending the features included in NeoVim, run the following:
sh -c 'curl -fLo "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}"/nvim/site/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim'
Install the FZF fuzzy finder, Ripgrep, and Pandoc with the following commands respectively:
sudo pacman -S fzf
sudo pacman -S ripgrep
sudo pacman -S pandoc
sudo pacman -S pandoc-citeproc
Check to see whether Git is already installed by entering the following:
git --version
If Git is not installed, run:
sudo pacman -S install git
If you don't have Yay, you can install it by running the following:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git
cd yay
makepkg -si
If you run into errors, you may be missing the following dependency, which you can add by running:
sudo pacman -S base-devel
Next, install LazyGit using Yay by running:
yay -S lazygit
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
Assuming that you are using GitHub to host your repositories, it is convenient to install the GitHub Cli which allows you to make changes to your repositories directly from the terminal inside NeoVim:
sudo pacman -S github-cli
You will then need to follow the instructions in order to authenticate GitHub Cli by running:
gh auth login
Set NeoVim as your default editor by running:
gh config set editor nvim
For further information, see the section GitHub Cli in the Cheat Sheet as well as the GitHub Cli Repo.
If you have not already, you can also add an SSH key by amending and running the following:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"
Hit return once, entering your GitHub passphrase in response to the prompt.
Next run:
bash
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
If you do not have xclip you can install it by running:
sudo pacman -S xclip
After the install, run the following to copy the SSH key to your system clipboard:
xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
In the top right corner of your GitHub page, click Profile -> Settings -> SSH and GPG Keys selecting New SSH Key.
Name the key after the devise you are using, pasting the SSH key from the clipboard into the appropriate field.
Saving the key completes the addition.
In order to clone the configuration files into the appropriate folder on your computer, enter the following into the terminal, hitting return after each line:
cd ~/.config
git init
git remote add origin https://github.com/benbrastmckie/.config.git
git pull origin master
mkdir -p ~/.vim/files/info
sudo pacman -S python-pip
sudo pip3 install neovim-remote
sudo pacman -S yarn
If you have not already installed LaTeX on your computer, you can run the following command in order to check to see if it is already installed:
latexmk --version
To install LaTeX, run the following
sudo pacman -S texlive-most
Run NeoVim to install plugins:
nvim
After the plugins finish installing, quite NeoVim with :qa!.
Install the Zathura pdf viewer by running:
sudo pacman -S zathura-pdf-mupdf
Unless you have the Evince pdf viewer installed, you may also want to set Zathura as your default pdf viewer for opening pdfs for the papers you cite via the Vimtex Context Menu. You can do so by editing the following file:
nvim ~/.config/nvim/plug-config/vimtex.vim
Once the file has opened in NeoVim, change all occurrences of 'evince' to 'zathura' by entering the following in NeoVim in normal-mode:
:%s/'evince'/'zathura'/g
Alternatively, you could replace Zathura here with another pdf viewer of your choice, for instance, one that allows you to easily take notes and highlight the associated pdf. After reopening NeoVim, enter the following command:
:checkhealth
Ignore any warnings for Python 2, Ruby, and Node.js. If other warnings are present, it is worth following the instructions provided by CheckHealth, or else troubleshooting the errors by Googling the associated messages as needed.
Download and extract the Zotero tarball in ~/Downloads, and move the extracted contents and set the launcher by running the following in the terminal:
sudo mv ~/Downloads/Zotero_linux-x86_64 /opt/zotero
cd /opt/zotero
sudo ./set_launcher_icon
sudo ln -s /opt/zotero/zotero.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop
Install Better-BibTex by downloading the latest release here (click on the .xpi).
Go into Tools -> add-ons and click the gear in the upper right-hand corner, selecting Install Add-on From File and navigate to the .xpi file in ~/Downloads.
Go into Edit -> Preferences -> BetterBibTex and set citation key format to [auth][year].
Go into Edit -> Preferences -> Sync entering your username and password, or else create a new account if you have not already done so.
Also check 'On item change' at the bottom left.
Now switch to the 'Automatic Export' sub-tab and check 'On Change'.
Exit Preferences and click the green sync arrow in the to right-hand corner (if you have not previously registered a Zotero database, no change will occur).
Install the appropriate plugin for your browser by following the link here
Find a paper online, sigining in to the journal as necessary and downloading the PDF manually.
Now return to the paper on the journal's website and test the browser plugin for Zotero which should be displayed in the top right of the screen.
Create the bib and bst directories, and move the .bst bibliography style files into the appropriate folder by running the following:
mkdir -p ~/texmf/bibtex/bib
cp -R ~/.config/latex/bst ~/texmf/bibtex
Right-click the main library folder in the left-most column, and select Export Library.
Under the Format dropdown menu, select Better BibTex, selecting the Keep Updated box.
Save the file as Zotero.bib to ~/texmf/bibtex/bib which you previously created.
You are now ready to cite files in your Zotero database.
In order for NeoVim to load icons, it will be imporant to install a NerdFont.
For simplicity, I have included RobotoMono in ~/.config/fonts which you can now move to the appropriate folder on your computer by entering the following in the terminal:
sudo cp -R ~/.config/fonts/RobotoMono/ /usr/share/fonts
If you intend to use the stock terminal, you will need to go into the terminal's settings to change the font to RobotoMono regular. You are now ready to write LaTex in NeoVim inside the stock terminal. If you intend to upgrade your terminal to Alacritty with Tmux and the Fish shell, then proceed as follows:
Run the following in the terminal:
sudo pacman -S alacritty
sudo pacman -S tmux
sudo pacman -S fish
You will also need to move the Tmux configuration file to the appropriate location by running:
sudo cp ~/.config/tmux/.tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf
Assuming that you installed Fish above, you will now need to locate fish on your operating system by running the following:
which fish
The command should return /usr/bin/fish.
If the path is different, copy the path and run the following:
nvim ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml
Replace '/usr/bin/fish' with the location of fish if different, saving and exiting with Space-q.
Quite the terminal and open Alacritty, running the following to set a reasonable theme for Fish:
curl -L https://get.oh-my.fish | fish
omf install sashimi
To delete the welcome message, run:
set fish_greeting
In order to reset Tmux, run:
tmux kill-server
When you reopen Alacritty, Fish should be the default shell inside a Tmux window. If you want to turn on the Vim keybindings within Fish, run the following:
fish_vi_key_bindings
You are now read use NeoVim in Alacritty, complete with Tmux and the Fish shell. I highly recommend swapping the CapsLock and Esc keys as detailed below for using Arch on a Macbook Pro.
Open the terminal and run the following commands:
sudo apt install neovim
Check to confirm that Python is installed:
python3 --version
If Python is not installed, run:
sudo apt install python
To check the health of your NeoVim install, open NeoVim by running nvim in the terminal and enter the following command:
:checkhealth
If Python 3 reports an error, run following in the terminal (to exit NeoVim, write :qa!):
pip3 install --user pynvim
NeoVim comes with an extremely austere set of defaults, including no mouse support, making it difficult to use prior to configuration. In order to install plugins, extending the features included in NeoVim, run the following:
sh -c 'curl -fLo "${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}"/nvim/site/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim'
Install the FZF fuzzy finder, Ripgrep, and Pandoc with the following commands respectively:
sudo apt install fzf
sudo apt install ripgrep
sudo apt install pandoc
sudo apt install pandoc-citeproc
Check to see whether Git is already installed by entering the following:
git --version
If Git is not installed, run:
sudo apt install git
Next, install LazyGit using Launchpad by running:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:lazygit-team/release
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install lazygit
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"
git config --global user.name "Your Name"
Assuming that you are using GitHub to host your repositories, it is convenient to install the GitHub Cli which allows you to make changes to your repositories directly from the terminal inside NeoVim:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key C99B11DEB97541F0
sudo apt-add-repository https://cli.github.com/packages
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gh
You will then need to follow the instructions in order to authenticate GitHub Cli by running:
gh auth login
Set NeoVim as your default editor by running:
gh config set editor nvim
For further information, see the section GitHub Cli in the Cheat Sheet as well as the GitHub Cli Repo.
If you have not already, you can also add an SSH key by amending and running the following:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "[email protected]"
Hit return once, entering your GitHub passphrase in response to the prompt.
Next run:
bash
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa
If you do not have xclip you can install it by running:
sudo apt install xclip
After the install, run the following to copy the SSH key to your system clipboard:
xclip -sel clip < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
In the top right corner of your GitHub page, click Profile -> Settings -> SSH and GPG Keys selecting New SSH Key.
Name the key after the devise you are using, pasting the SSH key from the clipboard into the appropriate field.
Saving the key completes the addition.
In order to clone the configuration files into the appropriate folder on your computer, enter the following into the terminal, hitting return after each line:
cd ~/.config
git remote add origin https://github.com/benbrastmckie/.config.git
git pull origin master
mkdir -p ~/.vim/files/info
sudo apt install python-pip
sudo pip3 install neovim-remote
sudo apt install yarn
If you have not already installed LaTeX on your computer, you can run the following command in order to check to see if it is already installed:
latexmk --version
To install LaTeX, run the following
sudo apt install texlive-full
Run NeoVim to install plugins:
nvim
After the plugins finish installing, quite NeoVim with :qa!.
Install the Zathura pdf viewer by running:
sudo apt install zathura-pdf-mupdf
After reopening NeoVim, enter the following command:
:checkhealth
Ignore any warnings for Python 2, Ruby, and Node.js. If other warnings are present, it is worth following the instructions provided by CheckHealth, or else troubleshooting the errors by Googling the associated messages as needed.
Download and extract the Zotero tarball in ~/Downloads, and move the extracted contents and set the launcher by running the following in the terminal:
sudo mv ~/Downloads/Zotero_linux-x86_64 /opt/zotero
cd /opt/zotero
sudo ./set_launcher_icon
sudo ln -s /opt/zotero/zotero.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/zotero.desktop
Install Better-BibTex by downloading the latest release here (click on the .xpi).
Go into Tools -> add-ons and click the gear in the upper right-hand corner, selecting Install Add-on From File and navigate to the .xpi file in ~/Downloads.
Go into Edit -> Preferences -> BetterBibTex and set citation key format to [auth][year].
Go into Edit -> Preferences -> Sync entering your username and password, or else create a new account if you have not already done so.
Also check 'On item change' at the bottom left.
Now switch to the 'Automatic Export' sub-tab and check 'On Change'.
Exit Preferences and click the green sync arrow in the to right-hand corner (if you have not previously registered a Zotero database, no change will occur).
Install the appropriate plugin for your browser by following the link here
Find a paper online, sigining in to the journal as necessary and downloading the PDF manually.
Now return to the paper on the journal's website and test the browser plugin for Zotero which should be displayed in the top right of the screen.
Create the bib and bst directories, and move the .bst bibliography style files into the appropriate folder by running the following:
mkdir -p ~/texmf/bibtex/bib
cp -R ~/.config/latex/bst ~/texmf/bibtex
Right-click the main library folder in the left-most column, and select Export Library.
Under the Format dropdown menu, select Better BibTex, selecting the Keep Updated box.
Save the file as Zotero.bib to ~/texmf/bibtex/bib which you previously created.
You are now ready to cite files in your Zotero database.
In order for NeoVim to load icons, it will be imporant to install a NerdFont.
For simplicity, I have included RobotoMono in ~/.config/fonts which you can now move to the appropriate folder on your computer by entering the following in the terminal:
sudo cp -R ~/.config/fonts/RobotoMono/ /usr/share/fonts
If you intend to use the stock terminal, you will need to go into the terminal's settings to change the font to RobotoMono regular. You are now ready to write LaTex in NeoVim inside the stock terminal. If you intend to upgrade your terminal to Alacritty with Tmux and the Fish shell, then proceed as follows:
Run the following in the terminal:
sudo apt install alacritty
sudo apt install tmux
sudo apt install fish
You will also need to move the Tmux configuration file to the appropriate location by running:
sudo cp ~/.config/tmux/.tmux.conf ~/.tmux.conf
Assuming that you installed Fish above, you will now need to locate fish on your operating system by running the following:
which fish
The command should return /usr/bin/fish.
If the path is different, copy the path and run the following:
nvim ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml
Replace '/usr/bin/fish' with the location of fish if different, saving and exiting with Space-q.
Quite the terminal and open Alacritty, running the following to set a reasonable theme for Fish:
curl -L https://get.oh-my.fish | fish
omf install sashimi
To delete the welcome message, run:
set fish_greeting
In order to reset Tmux, run:
tmux kill-server
When you reopen Alacritty, Fish should be the default shell inside a Tmux window. If you want to turn on the Vim keybindings within Fish, run the following:
fish_vi_key_bindings
You are now read use NeoVim in Alacritty, complete with Tmux and the Fish shell. I highly recommend swapping the CapsLock and Esc keys as detailed below for using Debian on a Macbook Pro.
It can be convenient to swap keys so as to improve hand posture while working. For instance, one might switch the CapsLock and Esc keys, as well as turning Ctrl into Alt, Alt into Command, and Command into Ctrl. To include these remappings, run the following commands for Arch and Debian, respectively:
Arch:
sudo pacman -S xorg-xmodmap
sudo pacman -S xorg-xev
sudo pacman -S xorg-setxkbmap
Debian:
sudo apt install xorg-xmodmap
sudo apt install xorg-xev
sudo apt install xorg-setxkbmap
In order to test to confirm the keycodes for your keyboard, run the following:
xev | awk -F'[ )]+' '/^KeyPress/ { a[NR+2] } NR in a { printf "%-3s %s\n", $5, $8 }'
This will open a white box which, when in focus, will print the keycodes of the depressed keys.
In particular, test the Ctrl as well as both Alt/Option and Command keys on the left and right side of the keyboard.
In order to get the Command keys to register, you will need to press Shift+Command which will print the keycode for Shift followed by the keycode for Command.
Close the white box upon finishing, checking to see if the output matches the following:
37 control
64 Alt_L
133 Super_L
134 Super_R
108 Alt_R
If you output matches the above, you can run the following:
sudo cp ~/.config/.XmodmapMAC ~/.Xmodmap
If your output does not match the above, you will need to edit the following file accordingly by running:
nvim ~/.config/.Xmodmap
If you need to make changes to key mappings, you can test the result of editing .Xmodmap and running the following:
xmodmap ~/.config/.Xmodmap
Once you have .Xmodmap running the right key mappings, you will have to run the following so that .Xmodmap starts automatically:
sudo cp ~/.config/.Xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
cp ~/.config/.xmodmap.desktop ~/.config/autostart/
You can return to defaults by running:
setxkbmap
Once you achieve the desired result, reboot and confirm that the mappings are running as desired.