Claude is a good PreTeXt reference tool
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Bradley Miller
Jul 18, 2026, 2:55:43 PM (13 days ago) Jul 18
to PreTeXt development
So yesterday I was trying to remember how to change the main landing page for my instructors guide. It had started defaulting to an unhelpful place. Searched for Landing page — Section 24.2 - TODO. Looked at the reference pages for the publisher file (I knew it had to go there) Nada.
Asked Claude
By default the top-level page of your book is what a visitor lands on. If you want a specific division (a chapter, section, etc.) to be the default page instead, you set this in your publication file. Inside the <publication> element, add an <html>element with an <index-page> child whose @ref points to the @xml:id of the division you want:
xml
<publication>
<html>
<index-page ref="birds"/>
</html> </publication>
Perfect!! The point of this post is not to complain, but rather to encourage authors who may like to see examples of how to do things that Claude is a great resource. I asked it how to write several different question types and it was spot on for every one, providing good detail about the various options.
Brad
Brad Miller
Professor Emeritus, Luther College
Founder, Runestone Academy LTD
Blog: http://reputablejournal.com
Set up a time to meet with me.
Professor Emeritus, Luther College
Founder, Runestone Academy LTD
Blog: http://reputablejournal.com
Set up a time to meet with me.
Rob Beezer
Jul 19, 2026, 12:21:19 AM (12 days ago) Jul 19
to prete...@googlegroups.com
Nada? Well, OK. But,
Subsection 45.5.8: HTML Index Page
https://pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/publication-file-online.html#online-index-page
That's how Claude knows what it knows. I have been very careful, more careful than elsewhere, to be sure the publisher switches are documented.
Please ask your assistant to make a PR to fill in that piece of the documentation, and resolve/umprove the 'index page" v. "landing page" discrepancy. I will have my assistant review it. ;-)
On fone, so brief.
Rob
>Set up a time to meet <https://fantastical.app/bonelake-Gj2i/meet-with-brad> with me.
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Subsection 45.5.8: HTML Index Page
https://pretextbook.org/doc/guide/html/publication-file-online.html#online-index-page
That's how Claude knows what it knows. I have been very careful, more careful than elsewhere, to be sure the publisher switches are documented.
Please ask your assistant to make a PR to fill in that piece of the documentation, and resolve/umprove the 'index page" v. "landing page" discrepancy. I will have my assistant review it. ;-)
On fone, so brief.
Rob
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