Getting WinShell and MiKTeX to work
Leonard Blackburn
At my last job, I downloaded MiKTeX and WinShell for my Windows XP
Professional computer. I created .tex files and ran LaTeX on them
in WinShell. They worked fine.
I am at a new job. I now downloaded MiKTeX and WinShell again, this
time for my Windows 2000 Professional computer. I got the software
from the same place as last time (www.miktex.org/index.html and
www.winshell.de/) This time, winshell will not compile my .tex files when
I push the LaTeX button (same files that worked before). I instantly get
the following message: "One or more errors occurred! Please check the options!"
I looked through the options menu, but could find nothing useful to do.
Does anyone know how to solve this problem (or what my problem actually
might be?)
I greatly appreciate any feedback.
Thanks,
Leonard
Hans Fredrik Nordhaug
wrote:
Probably there is a MiKTeX problem. In a DOS prompt try:
latex x
If that results in an error try:
initexmf -u
initexmf --dump=latex
latex x
Is the error gone? If so, try to use winshell again. If not, report the
initexmf errors you get.
Hans
--
The UK (La)TeX FAQ - http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
The Not So Short ... - http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/lshort/lshort.pdf
TeX at ODP - http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Typesetting/TeX/
Ingo H. de Boer
> Probably there is a MiKTeX problem. In a DOS prompt try:
>
> latex x
>
> If that results in an error try:
>
> initexmf -u
> initexmf --dump=latex
> latex x
>
> Is the error gone? If so, try to use winshell again. If not, report the
> initexmf errors you get.
Pleass try as Hans suggested. Maybe miktex's binary directory is not
included into your PATH environement. Also, use WinShell 2.5c from
the WinShell download page.
greets
Ingo
--
Ingo H. de Boer
http://www.winshell.de
A graphical user interface for easy working with TeX.
Leonard Blackburn
> In article <aa503d8.04080...@posting.google.com>, Leonard Blackburn
> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > At my last job, I downloaded MiKTeX and WinShell for my Windows XP
> > Professional computer. I created .tex files and ran LaTeX on them
> > in WinShell. They worked fine.
> >
> > I am at a new job. I now downloaded MiKTeX and WinShell again, this
> > time for my Windows 2000 Professional computer. I got the software
> > from the same place as last time (www.miktex.org/index.html and
> > www.winshell.de/) This time, winshell will not compile my .tex files when
> > I push the LaTeX button (same files that worked before). I instantly get
> > the following message: "One or more errors occurred! Please check the options!"
> > I looked through the options menu, but could find nothing useful to do.
> > Does anyone know how to solve this problem (or what my problem actually
> > might be?)
>
Thank you for the reply:
> Probably there is a MiKTeX problem. In a DOS prompt try:
(Not being very computer savvy, I had to do a google search for DOS tutorials
just to find out how to get a DOS prompt on my computer; so maybe the errors
are somehow due to my ignorance.)
>
> latex x
>
C:\>latex x
'latex' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
> If that results in an error try:
>
> initexmf -u
> initexmf --dump=latex
> latex x
C:\>initexmf -u
'initexmf' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\>initexmf --dump=latex
'initexmf' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
C:\>latex x
'latex' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.
>
> Is the error gone? If so, try to use winshell again. If not, report the
> initexmf errors you get.
>
> Hans
Since WinShell didn't work, I looked for other editors. I found and installed
TeXnicCenter today and it seems to work fine with MikTeX. But I was used to
WinShell, and still would like to find out what's wrong.
Thanks again,
Leonard
Parke J. Shissler
Try to configure WinShell as shown on this page:
http://www.haverford.edu/math/tex/winshellchanges.htm
Your Windows environment does not have the path to MikTeX.
HTH,
Parke
Hans Fredrik Nordhaug
wrote:
This means you haven't included the MiKTeX bin directory to the PATH variable.
Read the docs coming with MiKTeX or search on www.miktex.org/search.html
Hans
Leonard Blackburn
> Hi Leonard,
>
> > Probably there is a MiKTeX problem. In a DOS prompt try:
> >
> > latex x
> >
> > If that results in an error try:
> >
> > initexmf -u
> > initexmf --dump=latex
> > latex x
> >
> > Is the error gone? If so, try to use winshell again. If not, report the
> > initexmf errors you get.
> Pleass try as Hans suggested. Maybe miktex's binary directory is not
> included into your PATH environement. Also, use WinShell 2.5c from
> the WinShell download page.
Thanks for the reply. I tried what Hans suggested but it didn't work.
Also, I'm not sure I was using WinShell 2.5c. So, I uninstalled WinShell
and then downloaded WinShell 2.5c from the WinShell download page and
the same problem persists. Maybe there is a problem with MikTeX as you
suggest, but I wouldn't know how to fix it.
Thanks,
Leonard
>
> greets
> Ingo
Philip A. Viton
blac...@math.umn.edu says...
As others observed, at the very least you need to add miktex's bin
folder to your path. MikTeX's install routine should have asked you if
you wanted to do this when you installed; so one long solution is to
install again. But it's probably easier to just fix the path by hand.
To do this (in XP; win2k and NT4 are very similar) Open the Control
Panel, then the System applet. Click on the Advanced tab. Click on
Environment Variables, towards the bottom of the dialog. This should
open a new dialog asking you about a new environment variable. You don't
want this, so click Cancel. Then in the lower pane, find the entry for
Path, select it and click Edit. When you get the editing dialog, go to
the end of the existing entry, add a semicolon and then the path to
MikTex's bin folder, eg ;c:\texmf\miktex\bin Click OK and back out.
At this point you should be able to open a DOS session and type PATH and
see that the bin folder is included. Typing
latex myfile
should now also work. With any luck, so should Winshell; but I've no
experience here.
--
Phil Viton
Ohio State University
Leonard Blackburn
> In article <aa503d8.04081...@posting.google.com>,
> blac...@math.umn.edu says...
> > "Ingo H. de Boer" <i...@winshell.de> wrote in message news:<2ns24iF...@uni-berlin.de>...
> > > Hi Leonard,
> > >
> > > > Probably there is a MiKTeX problem. In a DOS prompt try:
> > > >
> > > > latex x
> > > >
> > > > If that results in an error try:
> > > >
> > > > initexmf -u
> > > > initexmf --dump=latex
> > > > latex x
> > > >
> > > > Is the error gone? If so, try to use winshell again. If not, report the
> > > > initexmf errors you get.
> > > Pleass try as Hans suggested. Maybe miktex's binary directory is not
> > > included into your PATH environement. Also, use WinShell 2.5c from
> > > the WinShell download page.
> >
> > Thanks for the reply. I tried what Hans suggested but it didn't work.
> > Also, I'm not sure I was using WinShell 2.5c. So, I uninstalled WinShell
> > and then downloaded WinShell 2.5c from the WinShell download page and
> > the same problem persists. Maybe there is a problem with MikTeX as you
> > suggest, but I wouldn't know how to fix it.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Leonard
> >
> > >
> > > greets
> > > Ingo
> >
>
>
Thanks for walking me through the following. I have a question,
though:
> As others observed, at the very least you need to add miktex's bin
> folder to your path. MikTeX's install routine should have asked you if
> you wanted to do this when you installed; so one long solution is to
> install again. But it's probably easier to just fix the path by hand.
>
> To do this (in XP; win2k and NT4 are very similar) Open the Control
> Panel, then the System applet. Click on the Advanced tab. Click on
> Environment Variables, towards the bottom of the dialog. This should
> open a new dialog asking you about a new environment variable. You don't
> want this, so click Cancel. Then in the lower pane, find the entry for
> Path, select it
So far, so good.
> and click Edit.
I can't. "Path" is selected. But the "New", "Edit", and "Delete"
buttons are not active. Could this be because an Administrator (not
me) has to log in and do this?
> When you get the editing dialog, go to
> the end of the existing entry, add a semicolon and then the path to
> MikTex's bin folder, eg ;c:\texmf\miktex\bin Click OK and back out.
>
> At this point you should be able to open a DOS session and type PATH and
> see that the bin folder is included. Typing
> latex myfile
> should now also work. With any luck, so should Winshell; but I've no
> experience here.
Thanks,
Leonard
Leonard Blackburn
I tried this, but MikTeX's install routine didn't ask if I wanted to
add miktex's bin folder to my path.
-Leonard
Philip A. Viton
[for some reason, the original question doesn't appear. The user tried to
set the path, and found that the Edit button was grayed out. Wonders if
you need to be an Administrator to do this]
On my XP-Home system, The Advanced tab under System says "You must be
logged in as an Admninistrator to make most of these changes" so the
answer is probably Yes. This would also explain why MikTEX's installation
routine failed to make the change. I didn't think about this when I
replied - sorry. But if you find a system administrator, you ought to be
able to make the change.
--
Philip A. Viton
Ohio State University
Leonard Blackburn
> > Thanks for walking me through the following. I have a question,
> > though:
>
> [for some reason, the original question doesn't appear. The user tried to
> set the path, and found that the Edit button was grayed out. Wonders if
> you need to be an Administrator to do this]
>
> On my XP-Home system, The Advanced tab under System says "You must be
> logged in as an Admninistrator to make most of these changes" so the
> answer is probably Yes. This would also explain why MikTEX's installation
> routine failed to make the change. I didn't think about this when I
> replied - sorry. But if you find a system administrator, you ought to be
> able to make the change.
Thank you (and the others in the thread) for all of your help. I
found an administrator and the problem is fixed.
-Leonard