Using Skim, PDFSync, and TeXShop

UPDATE 3: I have updated the script to support command-line options that will prevent TeXShop from doing things like refreshing text (and trashing your unsaved changes), activating (taking your focus away), and opening (possibly getting in front of your view). Try the -h option for details.

UPDATE 2: There is a related Skim revision that will make it easier to use AppleScript for PDFSync interfacing. This change will prevent having to make UNIX shell scripts that must be modified with chmod.

UPDATE 1: As you can see in the Skim revision history, future versions of Skim will include their "Application Support" directory (e.g., ~/Library/Application Support/Skim/) as well as a "Scripts" subdirectory in their path. When that occurs, scripts like the one below can be stored there and executed from Skim without specifying the full path name.

I know there are ways to change TeXShop's previewer; however, I don't know how to do them. Additionally, I don't use TeXShop, so I have little incentive to look those things up.

However, I do use Skim, which is compatible with pdfsync, and recently someone asked me how they could get Skim to call up TeXShop at a particular line (as someone would want to do when using pdfsync).

For that, I generated a texshop script that looks like this (an earlier version of this can be found on the Skim wiki):

fileName="$1"
lineNumber="$2"
gotoString=""

[ "${fileName:0:1}" == "/" ] || fileName="${PWD}/${fileName}"
[ "${lineNumber}" == "" ] || gotoString="goto line ${lineNumber}"

exec osascript \
  -e "set texFile to POSIX file \"${fileName}\"" \
  -e "tell application \"TeXShop\"" \
    -e "activate" \
    -e "open texFile" \
    -e "tell front document" \
      -e "refreshtext" \
      -e "${gotoString}" \
    -e "end tell" \
  -e "end tell"

To use this script, follow these steps:

1. Save that file as something (preferably in the PATH somewhere, but this is not necessary) like

   /usr/local/bin/texshop

   or anywhere you would like (e.g., /Users/username/bin/texshop). However, if you place it somewhere differently, be sure to update the red text in these instructions.


2. Next, chmod it 0755, as in

   chmod 0755 /usr/local/bin/texshop

   This can be done from the Terminal.


3. Finally, tell Skim's PDFSync preferences (under Preferences->LaTeX or Preferences->Sync depending on your Skim version) to use a "Custom" editor with

   Command: /usr/local/bin/texshop
   Arguments: "%file" %line

   Make sure you click AWAY (e.g., onto a different tab) from the PDFSync settings before you close the Preferences. Otherwise, one of your text boxes may not get saved.

After this is done, doing Shift+Command+CLICK in Skim on a location in the PDF will bring up the source in TeXShop located at the that generated that point in the PDF.

Note that if you have saved texshop somewhere in your PATH, then you should be able to drop the /usr/local/bin/ from the front of the Command: line.

Script to open file in Skim from command line

UPDATE 4: I have updated the script to accept command line options. A -h option gives help text describing the new usage. The options can prevent Skim from being activated or opening the file. This may be useful when trying to get Skim to update in the background.

UPDATE 3: I have updated the script to check for whether or not files exist, try to guess the right files if they don't, and bail if it fails. It also has support for PS and DVI files. Also fixed a problem with symlinked files.

UPDATE 2: I have generated a more mature version of this script that also has the ability to position Skim's PDF view at a position corresponding to a line of your TeX source (provided you built the PDF with pdfsync).

UPDATE 1: As discussed in this feature request and this Wiki entry, in iTeXMac, you can also try

Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline %line "%pdffile" "%texfile"

which lets you make use of Skim's PDFSync support. The Wiki page includes instructions on using this in Emacs and TextMate as well. If you just want to open the file, you might try

Skim.app/Contents/SharedSupport/displayline 1 "%pdffile"

but this might break if the TEX file isn't available (so maybe you should still use the AppleScript below).

Here's a script to open a (PDF or PostScript) file in Skim from the command line:

#!/bin/sh

[ "`echo $*|cut -c 1`" == "/" ] || filename_prefix="`pwd`"

exec osascript \
-e "tell application \"Skim\"" \
-e "activate" \
-e "open ((POSIX file \"$filename_prefix/$*\") as string)" \
-e "revert front document" \
-e "end tell";

or, alternatively,

#!/bin/bash

arguments="$*"
[ "${arguments:0:1}" == "/" ] || filename_prefix="$PWD"

exec osascript \
-e "tell application \"Skim\"" \
-e "activate" \
-e "open ((POSIX file \"$filename_prefix/$*\") as string)" \
-e "revert front document" \
-e "end tell";

Create an executable script called skim (e.g., /usr/local/bin/skim that is chmod'd 755) and try skim FILENAME where FILENAME is the name of the PDF or PostScript file that you want to open (be sure to include the file extension).

This allows you to use Skim as a LaTeX document viewer in the VIM-LaTeX suite for Vim.

NOTE ABOUT revert: The line with revert in it requires Skim version 0.5 or higher. If you don't have that version of Skim (or you don't care about refreshing the document), then delete that line.

See also: Script to open file in TeXniscope from command line

I use this for Vim/GVim; however, this script was inspired by code in an example in the TeXniscope help file for making TeXniscope work with iTeXMac. See the TeXniscope documentation for information on how to build a script that will let iTeXMac call TeXniscope from the command-line (and even make use of PDFSync [CTAN, iTM]). It should be easy to modify the script they give there to call Skim instead of TeXniscope; use my script here as an example. Note that Skim's AppleScript also supports all of the goto line stuff of TeXniscope. However, the syntax is different; see the Skim AppleScript dictionary for more information.