Testing and Configuring WinShell

Updated 10/19/2007

When you've downloaded MiKTeX, GhostScript and GSView, Adobe Reader and WinShell, you need to check if WinShell is configured properly.

Testing

Download papershell.tex, you can use this document to test your system. Run WinShell and open papershell.tex. There is a row of buttons along the top of the WinShell window. You may want to close any open projects (Project->close) so Winshell does not get confused with what you are using. You should test that each of these works:

• LaTeX: this should produce some new files on your machine including papershell.dvi
• DVI: this should open a new window (with yap somewhere in the title) showing a typeset version of the document
• DVI-> PS: this should produce a new file called papershell.ps
• GSView: this should open a new window (with GSView somewhere in the title) showing another typeset view of your document. Check that you can page through a couple of pages of the document.
• PDF TeX: this should produce a new file called papershell.pdf
• PDFView: this should open a new window (with Adobe Reader) and show yet another typeset version of your document
  

Note: With only the "bib" and "pdf" buttons working, you actually have a working system that is very usable. We have been suggesting that you stick with using pdf processing (pdflatex), but the tex (latex), dvi and PS buttons may be useful at some time.

Configuring

If some of the buttons listed above don't work you need to configure WinShell. Click on the Options Menu and select Program Calls. You should see a list of programs corresponding to the various buttons. If a button doesn't work you need to Browse for the correct location. You'll see the location of the .exe file above the Browse button. Here are some standard entries:

• LaTeX: latex
• BibTex: bibtex
• DVIView: c:\texmf\miktex\bin\yap.exe
• DVI-> PS: dvips
• GSView: c:\program files\ghostgum\gsview32.exe
• PDFLatex: pdflatex
• PDFView: c:\ program files\adobe\acrobat 7.0\reader\acrord32.exe

If you need to set the targets, Use the browse button to select the targets for the "Program Calls" option of WinShell. The Latex, BibTex, DVIView, DVI->PS, and PDFLatex targets are in the MikTex bin directory. You should find where MiKTeX is installed, then find the targets. For example a version 2.5 might be installed in the "C:\Program Files\MiKTeX 2.5". From there you need to go to the miktex\bin directory to find the targets. If you do the Latex, BibTeX, DVIView, DVI->PS and the PDFLatex targets one after the other, the browser will remember the path name you last used, allowing for faster selection. Again, the targets related to the MikTeX distribution are:

• LaTeX: latex .exe
• BibTex: bibtex.exe
• DVIView: yap.exe
• DVI-> PS: dvips.exe
• PDFLatex: pdflatex.exe

So for a version 2.6 of MikTeX we would be using C:\Program Files\MikTeX 2.6\miktex\bin\latex.exe, then bibtex.exe, then yap.exe etc..... finding each one under the MikTex 2.6\miktex\bin directory.

The gsview and pdfview program files are unrelated to MikTeX and again, would be set as follows:

• GSView: c:\program files\ghostgum\gsview32.exe
• PDFView: c:\program files\adobe\acrobat 7.0\reader\acrord32.exe

Or wherever your gsview and pdf viewers are located.