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.

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
• Compilation of selected part of document
• Support for several PDF viewers with forward search
  • MuPDF
  • Zathura
  • Okular
  • qpdfview
  • SumatraPDF
  • Other viewers are supported through a general interface
• Completion of citations, labels, and file names for figures
• Document navigation through
  • table of content
  • table of labels
• Word count (through texcount)
• Motions
  • Move between sections with [[, [], ][, ]]
  • Move between matching delimiters with %
• Text objects
  • ic ac Commands
  • id ad Delimiters
  • ie ae LaTeX environments
  • i$ a$ Inline math structures
• Other mappings
  • Delete the surrounding command or environment with dsc/dse/ds$
  • Change the surrounding command or environment with csc/cse/cs$
  • Toggle starred environment with 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
  • Support for minted package
  • Support for dot2tex with nested syntax highlighting
• Support for multi-file project packages
  • import
  • subfiles

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

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

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 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)