vimtex

vimtex is a Vim plugin that provides support for writing LaTeX documents. It is based on LaTeX-Box and it shares a similar goal: to provide a simple and lightweight LaTeX plugin. It has been rewritten from scratch to provide a more modern and modular code base. See here for some more comments on the difference between vimtex and other LaTeX plugins for Vim.

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Table of contents

• Installation
• Quick Start
• Features
• Other relevant plugins
• Alternatives

Installation

If you use vim-plug, then add the following line to your vimrc file:

Plug 'lervag/vimtex'

Or use some other plugin manager:

• vundle
• neobundle
• pathogen

Quick Start

The following is a simple guide for how to use vimtex. It only displays the most basic features. Users are strongly encouraged to read or at least skim through the documentation to learn about the different features and possibilities provided by vimtex (see :h vimtex).

Note: Vimtex supports neovim; see the related wiki section or :h vimtex-faq-neovim.

Quick start gif

Features

Below is a list of features offered by vimtex. The features are accessible as both commands and mappings. The mappings generally start with <localleader>l, but if desired one can disable default mappings to define custom mappings. All features are enabled by default, but each feature may be disabled if desired.

• Document compilation with latexmk, latexrun, or arara
• LaTeX log parsing for quickfix entries using
  • internal method
  • pplatex
• Compilation of selected part of document
• Support for several PDF viewers with forward search
  • MuPDF
  • Okular
  • qpdfview
  • Skim
  • SumatraPDF
  • Zathura
  • Other viewers are supported through a general interface
• Completion of
  • citations
  • labels
  • commands
  • file names for figures, input/include, includepdf, includestandalone
  • glossary entries
  • package and documentclass names based on available .sty and .cls files
• Document navigation through
  • table of content
  • table of labels
  • proper settings for 'include', 'includexpr', 'suffixesadd' and 'define', which among other things
    • allow :h include-search and :h definition-search
    • give enhanced gf command
• Easy access to (online) documentation of packages
• Word count (through texcount)
• Motions
  • Move between section boundaries with [[, [], ][, and ]]
  • Move between environment boundaries with [m, [M, ]m, and ]M
  • Move between comment boundaries with [* and ]*
  • Move between matching delimiters with %
• Text objects
  • ic ac Commands
  • id ad Delimiters
  • ie ae LaTeX environments
  • i$ a$ Inline math structures
  • iP aP Sections
• Other mappings
  • Delete the surrounding command, environment or delimiter with dsc/dse/ds$/dsd
  • Change the surrounding command, environment or delimiter with csc/cse/cs$/csd
  • Toggle starred command or environment with tsc/tse
  • Toggle between e.g. () and \left(\right) with tsd
  • Close the current environment/delimiter in insert mode with ]]
  • Insert new command with <F7>
  • Convenient insert mode mappings for faster typing of e.g. maths
• Improved folding (:h 'foldexpr')
• Improved indentation (:h 'indentexpr')
• Improved syntax highlighting
  • Highlight matching delimiters
  • Support for biblatex/natbib package
  • Support for cleveref package
  • Support for listings package
  • Nested syntax highlighting (minted, dot2tex, lualatex, gnuplottex, asymptote, pythontex)
• Support for multi-file project packages
  • import
  • subfiles

See the documentation for a thorough introduction to vimtex (e.g. :h vimtex).

Other relevant plugins

Even though vimtex provides a lot of nice features for working with LaTeX documents, there are several features that are better served by other, dedicated plugins. For a more detailed listing of these, please see :help vimtex-non-features.

Linting and syntax checking

• ale
• neomake
• syntastic

Snippets and templates

• UltiSnips
• neosnippet

Tag navigation

• vim-gutentags

Alternatives

The following are some alternative LaTeX plugins for Vim:

• LaTeX-Box

  vimtex currently has most of the features of LaTeX-Box, as well as some additional ones. See here for a relatively complete list of features.

  One particular feature that LaTeX-Box has but vimtex misses, is the ability to do single-shot compilation with callback. This functionality was removed because it adds a lot of complexity for relatively little gain (IMHO).

  Note: LaTeX-Box is included with vim-polyglot. Some users are not quite aware of this and end up trying vimtex with LaTeX-Box enabled. This will not work --- please disable LaTeX-Box first!

• LaTeX-Suite

  The main difference between vimtex and LaTeX-Suite (aka vim-latex) is probably that vimtex does not try to implement a full fledged IDE for LaTeX inside Vim. E.g.:

  • vimtex does not provide a full snippet feature, because this is better handled by UltiSnips or neosnippet or similar snippet engines.
  • vimtex builds upon Vim principles: It provides text objects for environments, inline math, it provides motions for sections and paragraphs
  • vimtex uses latexrun or latexmk for compilation with a callback feature to get instant feedback on compilation errors
  • vimtex is very modular: if you don't like a feature, you can turn it off.

• AutomaticTexPlugin

• vim-latex-live-preview

For more alternatives and more information and discussions regarding LaTeX plugins for Vim, see:

• What are the differences between LaTeX plugins
• List of LaTeX editors (not only Vim)