Frequently Asked Questions

1. If there is a TeX and LaTeX way of doing the same thing, which should I choose?

   If there is a TeX and LaTeX way of doing things, Excalibur usually handles the LaTeX method better. For example, use

   instead of

   Use the \symbol{} command instead of \char. For example, you should use

   \symbol{'134}

   instead of

   \char'134

   to produce a backslash.

   Use the \setlength{}{} command change the length of something. For example, you should use

   \setlength{\textwidth}{6.5in}

   instead of

   \textwidth=6.5in

   Use \newcommand or \renewcommand instead of \def to define a command.

2. I've redefined a LaTeX command to have a different number of arguments than usual and now Excalibur is confused. What should I do?

   Be careful when using \renewcommand. Excalibur doesn't look at the new definition of a command. If you define it to have a different number of arguments than the original command, Excalibur will get confused. Tell Excalibur about the new form of the command by using the Definitions menu.

3. Excalibur seems to be skipping large portions of my file. How do I fix this?

   Excalibur knows a fair amount about TeX/LaTeX syntax. If it looks like it's skipping large portions of a file, it's probably because of an unmatched brace or some other syntax error. It's best to run it on a syntactically correct file. It will warn you if it thinks it found a syntax error.

4. How do I get Excalibur to recognize accents in a tabbing environment?

   The commands \=, \', and \` usually produce accents. However, they are redefined in a tabbing environment. To make sure that Excalibur interprets them properly in a tabbing environment, precede (unless at the beginning of a line) and follow them by a space. Excalibur knows about the special \a accent in the tabbing environment.

5. Excalibur is having trouble finding the end of an environment. How do I fix this?

   For any environment that Excalibur ignores, there should be no spaces between the \end and the left curly brace. For example, \end {verbatim} will confuse Excalibur.

6. I'm using \equation ...\endequation and Excalibur is not ignoring the equations contained within. What's wrong?

   If you use \equation ...\endequation to delimit the bounds of an equation, Excalibur won't ignore it. You should use

   \begin{equation}
   \end{equation}

   instead.
7. Are there any limitations on Excalibur's parsing of TeX documents?

   A word may not begin with a left curly brace, but it may contain embedded curly braces. For example, Excalibur will recognize the word ``naïve'' when it is written as na\"{\i}ve, na\"\i{}ve, or na\"\i ve but not {na\"\i}ve, even though this last form is syntactically correct. Of course you will need to put these in your dictionary if you would like Excalibur not to flag them as spelling errors. Note that a space may be part of a word.

8. Excalibur is having trouble suggesting accented words. Why?

   If you are using version 2.3 or later, Excalibur will do a much better job of suggesting words if your dictionary has words stored using Apple's extended character set.

9. I've defined my own shorthand verbatim environment and Excalibur doesn't like it. How do I instruct Excalibur about my verbatim environment?

   A declaration such as \def|{\verb|} will allow you to write |\rule| as a shorthand for \verb|\rule|. However, this will completely confuse Excalibur. It will start looking for the arguments to \rule and report a syntax error. Use \MakeShortVerb{\|} instead and Excalibur will do the right thing. It knows about \DeleteShortVerb{\|} too.

   If you have an old LaTeX 2.09 file that creates a shorthand verbatim environment in the manner just described, you can trick Excalibur into recognizing it by including the following lines in your file.

   \iffalse
   \MakeShortVerb{\|}
   \fi

   Excalibur doesn't process the \iffalse command and so it will process the \MakeShortVerb command.
10. I've checked the option that instructs Excalibur to ignore \tt text, but it doesn't ignore \texttt text. How do I get it to ignore this too?

    LaTeX2e defines the command \texttt for specifying text in the typewriter font. The option to ignore \tt text does not have any effect on this command. If you want Excalibur to ignore the argument of \texttt, use the Edit Commands dialog.

11. I want to nest math environments, but Excalibur gets confused by this. Is there a way around this?

    If you nest math environments which are delimited by $'s, Excalibur will get confused. You should use \(...\) instead. For example, instead of

    $\Lambda = n \in I \mbox{for all $n \ge 0$}$

    use

    \(\Lambda = n \in I \mbox{for all \(n \ge 0\)}\)

12. I'm using a package the redefines the \cite command to have more than one optional argument. Now Excalibur refuses to spell check my document. How do I tell Excalibur that \cite may have more than one optional argument?

    Use the Edit Commands dialog to tell Excalibur that the \cite command has one argument. This may not seem different than the usual definition, but there's a subtle difference. Excalibur will ignore all optional arguments for commands defined using the Edit Commands dialog. If you use this package frequently, save your preferences and Excalibur will remember this setting every time you use it.

13. How do I tell Excalibur not to spell check an e-mail or HTML address?

    If you are using AMSLaTeX use the \email command. Excalibur does not spell check the argument to this command.

    You could could also use \texttt to specify the e-mail address in the typewriter font. Then tell Excalibur to ignore the argument of \texttt by using the Edit Commands dialog.

    You can achieve the same effect by using the \verb command. Since Excalibur always ignores the argument of this command, there's nothing else to do. This has the added advantage of causing LaTeX to ignore % and _ (underscore) which occur in some e-mail addresses.

    You could define your own \email command and tell Excalibur to ignore its argument.

    Since HTML addresses tend to be long, it's probably best to put them in a verbatim environment.

14. I have set the options the way I want them, but Excalibur doesn't remember them the next time I launch it. Why?

    You must select Preferences from the Options menu and save your preferences otherwise they remain in effect for just the current session.