[O] HowTo: Letter template method using yasnippet (was: Org/LaTeX set-up for business letters?)

[Karl Voit]

* Thorsten Jolitz <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> Hi List, 

Hi Thorsten!

> although using Emacs/Org-mode for almost everything, I still write my
> "official" correspondence with a (quite nice) OpenOffice template. It
> would be so much easier and faster to just use Org mode for that too.

I accomplished this by using yasnippet and Org-mode. It is quite
convenient :-)

1. install, configure, and learn yasnippet for your Emacs
   - a must; independent of this one here!

2. put «newletter» (below) into your snippet directory so that it can be
   invoked when you're in a Org-mode buffer
   - usually, this means storing as something similar to
     «~/.emacs.d/snippets/text-mode/org-mode/newletter»
   - adopt my dummy entries for your name, address, and so forth


So far for the initial setup.


3. create a new (empty) folder

4. enter the new folder

5. create and open a new Org-mode file in Emacs
   - it is only temporary
   - you might want to use «emacsclient init.org»

6. within this open Emacs buffer, type «newletter» followed by TAB
   - this invokes the yasnippet template

7. fill out all fields, take default values or change them, switch to
   the next field by using TAB

8. when you end up at the line «cat  >Kopf.tex <<EOF»: press C-c C-c
   in order to get the template generated

9. exit the temporary Org-mode buffer
   - you can even delete the Org-mode file now that the template was generated

10. start typing your letter within «letter.tex» and compile with «make
    pdf» as you want


This is the file «newletter»: 
  - please do exclude my email signature below :-)
  - please note that the Makefile requires tabstops before each
    indented command line - probably you have to fix this once 
    while creating «newletter»

===========================================================================

# -*- mode: snippet -*-
# name: LaTeX KOMA scrlttr2
# key: newletter
# contributor: Karl Voit
# --

From/Name:       ${1:Your Name}
From/Street:     ${2:Your street and house number}
From/Postal No.: ${3:1234}
From/City:       ${4:Yourcity}
From/Signature:  ${5:\\usekomavar{fromname}}
From/Email:      ${6:Youremail}
From/Phone:      ${7:0043/664/12\\,34\\,56}

To/Company:    $8
To/Name:       $9
To/Street:     $10
To/Postal No.: $11
To/City:       $12

Subject:  $13
Filename: $14

#+BEGIN_SRC sh
cat  >letter.tex <<EOF
\documentclass[%
%DIV=14,% viel mehr Platz auf einer Seite
%enlargefirstpage,% mehr Platz (bringt nicht viel)
fontsize=12pt,%
parskip=half,%
subject=titled,% 'Betrifft: ' hinschreiben
backaddress=false,% Absenderadresse nochmal (klein, einzeilig) ueber Empfaenger
fromalign=left,%
fromemail=true,%
fromphone=true%
]{scrlttr2}

\usepackage{ucs}             %% UTF8 as input characters
\usepackage[utf8x]{inputenc} %% UTF8 as input characters

\usepackage[ngerman]{babel}

\setkomavar{fromname}{$1}
\setkomavar{fromaddress}{$2\\newline{}$3~$4}
\setkomavar{signature}{$5}
\setkomavar{fromemail}{$6}
\setkomavar{fromphone}{$7}

\begin{document}

% -------------------------------------------------------------

\setkomavar{subject}{$13}

\begin{letter}{%
$8\\newline
$9\\newline
$10\\newline
$11~$12}

\LoadLetterOption{DINmtext} %% Adressfeld ist weiter oben -> mehr Text

\opening{Sehr geehrtXX NAME!}

TEXT

\closing{Mit freundlichen Grüßen}

%\encl{Lebenslauf}% Anhang

\end{letter}

% -------------------------------------------------------------

\end{document}

EOF
cat -T >Makefile_temp <<EOF
## ein aussagekraeftiger Name zum Benennen der Endprodukte (PDFs, ZIPs, ...)
PROJECTNAME = "$14"

## -----------------------------------------
##       DO NOT EDIT BELOW THIS LINE
## -----------------------------------------

## Makefile von Karl Voit (address@hidden)

## COMMANDS:
#PDFVIEWER = xpdf
PDFVIEWER = acroread
PDFLATEX_CMD = pdflatex
TIMESTAMP = \\\`/bin/date +%Y-%m-%dT%H.%M\\\`
FILENAME = "\\\${TIMESTAMP}_\\\${PROJECTNAME}.pdf"

#help
#helpThe main targets of this Makefile are:
#help   help    this help
.PHONY: help
help:
address@hidden -n 's/^#help//p' < Makefile

# --------------------------------------------------------

#help   all     create PDF
.PHONY: all
all: main

.PHONY: main
main: pdf

# --------------------------------------------------------

#help   pdf     generate PDF
.PHONY: pdf
pdf: letter.pdf

letter.pdf: letter.tex
§TEXINPUTS=\\\$(TEXINPUTS) \\\${PDFLATEX_CMD} letter.tex
§TEXINPUTS=\\\$(TEXINPUTS) \\\${PDFLATEX_CMD} letter.tex
§-mv letter.pdf "\\\${FILENAME}"
§touch letter.pdf

# --------------------------------------------------------

#help   view    view the PDF
.PHONY: view
view: pdf
§\\\${PDFVIEWER} "\\\${FILENAME}"

# --------------------------------------------------------

#help   clean   clean up temporary files
.PHONY: clean
clean:
§-rm *~ *.aux *.bbl main.dvi main.ps main.pdf *.dvi *.blg *.idx *.ilg *.ind 
*.toc *.log *.log *.brf *.out *.lof *.lot *.gxg *.glx *.gxs *.glo *.gls -f

#help   purge   cleaner than clean ;-)
.PHONY: purge
purge: clean
§-rm *.pdf *.ps -f

#help   force   force rebuild next run
.PHONY: force
force:
§touch *tex

# TOOLS:

#help   zip     create ZIP-file
.PHONY: zip
zip: clean
§zip -r ../\\\${PROJECTNAME}_\\\${TIMESTAMP}.zip *

#end
EOF
# OK, this is somewhat dirty but it's a workaround to the problem that TABs do 
not get into Makefile
tr '§' '\t' <Makefile_temp >Makefile
rm Makefile_temp
#+END_SRC


===========================================================================

-- 
Karl Voit