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---+ Using Editorial Comments in Latex

Ever wonder how you can effectively insert comments into your own LateX output, and easily turn those comments on or off?  Here's a useful trick.

Insert this code into the top of your document:

<verbatim>
\usepackage{ifthen}
\usepackage{amssymb}

\newboolean{hidecomments}
\setboolean{hidecomments}{false}
\ifthenelse{\boolean{hidecomments}}
{\newcommand{\nb}[2]{}}
{\newcommand{\nb}[2]{
    \fbox{\bfseries\sffamily\scriptsize#1}
    {\sf\small$\blacktriangleright$
      {#2} $\blacktriangleleft$}}}
</verbatim>

Insert this line as well, using your own initials, rather than emh (in both places):

<verbatim>
\newcommand\emh[1]{\nb{EMH}{#1}} 
</verbatim>

Now, anywhere you want to comment, do the following.

<verbatim>
Emerson is a handsome devil.
\emh{find a citation for this!}
</verbatim>

Here's the result:

 <img src="%ATTACHURLPATH%/comments.png" alt="comments.png"  width="369" height="30"  />

One advantage of this scheme is that you can keep track of an arbitrary number of commenters:

<verbatim>
\newcommand\gcm[1]{\nb{GCM}{#1}} 
\newcommand\gk[1]{\nb{GK}{#1}} 
</verbatim>

The second big advantage is you can turn comments off and on in the final output by changing the <verbatim>hidecomments</verbatim> to true.  You would want to turn this off in the submitted version of your document.

Andrew Black showed me this trick.  I'm not sure where he got it from. 

> He most likely got it from Oscar Nierstrasz. -- Main.aakuhn - 06 Oct 2011  

Full Code:

<verbatim>

\documentclass{article} 

\usepackage{ifthen}
\usepackage{amssymb}

\newboolean{hidecomments}
\setboolean{hidecomments}{false}
\ifthenelse{\boolean{hidecomments}}
{\newcommand{\nb}[2]{}}
{\newcommand{\nb}[2]{
    \fbox{\bfseries\sffamily\scriptsize#1}
    {\sf\small$\blacktriangleright$
      {#2} $\blacktriangleleft$}}}
\newcommand\emh[1]{\nb{EMH}{#1}}
\newcommand\gcm[1]{\nb{GCM}{#1}}

\begin{document}

Emerson is a handsome devil.
\emh{find a citation for this!}
\gcm{yea!}

\end{document}

</verbatim>


-- Main.emhill - 07 Jun 2009

   * [[%ATTACHURL%/MakingVectorizedFiguresinLatexusingMSOffice2007.pdf][MakingVectorizedFiguresinLatexusingMSOffice2007.pdf]]: Describes how to make a vectorized figure.

Attachments

Topic attachments
I	Attachment	History	Action	Size	Date	Who	Comment
pdf	MakingVectorizedFiguresinLatexusingMSOffice2007.pdf	r1	manage	621.0 K	2009-06-07 - 02:45	UnknownUser	Describes how to make a vectorized figure.
png	comments.png	r1	manage	3.7 K	2009-06-07 - 02:03	UnknownUser

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Topic revision: r2 - 2011-10-06 - aakuhn