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I'm looking for a LaTeX editor for Windows 7 with Live Preview, like Latexian for Mac OS X has. The Live Preview allows the user to see how the document typesets while the user is editing. The PDF preview appears in a split pane and updates automatically:

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Texmaker (cross-platform LaTeX editor for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows systems) is pretty good but it doesn't have any Live Preview feature (the user needs to trigger the compilation himself):

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Also I don't want some WYSIWYG like the LyX Document Processor:

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And if possible:

  • decent LaTeX editor otherwise with basic features
  • free
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  • Well, there's always Emacs/AUCTeX/latexmk and auto-revert-mode with DocView :) I think latexmk will be a key part of some solution, here. – Sean Allred Jul 21 '14 at 4:20
  • I agree with @SeanAllred. If you need real time preview while you're editing your LaTeX document, it means LaTeX compilation is needed for every changes you made. I have an alternative you may take. It's Overleaf, online collaborative LaTeX editor with integrated real-time preview, overleaf.com/benefits. It's not desktop-based LaTeX editor. – meisyal Sep 4 '16 at 8:47
  • @ShokatsuRyō Which means it requires an internet connection to use. – Sean Allred Sep 4 '16 at 16:47
  • @SeanAllred precisely. – meisyal Oct 22 '16 at 7:28
  • BakomaTex is exactly what you are looking for. You can even edit directly the live preview. – Akira Aug 6 '19 at 17:58
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I would suggest using a markdown editor that has baked in LaTex inside of it

My personal favorite at the moment is app.classeur.IO

Here's a demonstration of copying a wikipedia quantum physics formula into app.classeur.io

Instead of using Latex style Table of contents navigation, app.classeur.io runs pandoc which can automate a lot of those processes.

It runs mathjax

Its free for 100 documents, for unlimited its $3 / month which really isn't a lot

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I'd like to suggest Atom. For me it is the only editor I need to do any of the following: C, Java, LaTex, Python, text, Markdown and every thing else I might jump to in the futur. If it is text based, Atom can handle it. I used to use vim and gvim in the same roll. But even for vim controls there is an addon.

It is file type sensitive and with a little configuration it will load different things depending on file type.

It has a huge community that provides a almost too diverse selection of add-ons. It is an electron app so it runs everywhere, though plugins might be platform specific. If you know a little JS you might even get started with your own plugin.

Now here is the down side: there are no latex previewers available yet. Though there are plugins that let you trigger the build with a key combo (which I personally prefer, it makes me think about what I do and I love the feeling when it works right the first time). Maybe give it a shot despite this shortcoming.

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  • What you suggest is very close to Texmaker: it requires at least a keyboard shortcut to be triggered. This has explicitly been mentioned by OP as not wanted, so this is not a valid answer. I am a user of Texmaker and I would like to have a live preview as well and I don't see a benefit in Atom at this point. – Thomas Weller Aug 4 '16 at 21:01
  • It serves also as basic editor as OP requested. Auto preview is a rare feature for Tex editors, the multi stage build process and potential complexity of Tex documents make it very hard. Also Tex has a large audience that does not care about about WYSISWG functionality at all, so there is little supply for it. But Atom gives him access to devs that might do it if he submits a feature request to the right person. But you just gave ma a different idea: why not use a pdf viewer that can do autorefresh? Like Evince! That would still not eliminate the manual triggering though. – paradoxon Aug 4 '16 at 21:23
  • Any program (and Evince should not be different here) would require to save the file before a viewer could auto-update. So you either need Ctrl+S as a keyboard shortcut again. – Thomas Weller Aug 4 '16 at 21:25
  • And regarding WYSIWYG: look at the example, it's not WYSIWYG: I doubt it will print the green ldx items on grey background. That's what breaks WYSIWYG and I don't like it. I want to type LaTeX and see the real result. – Thomas Weller Aug 4 '16 at 21:28
  • I might have missused WYSIWYG because the idea of instant visual feedback is its basis. I added this to provide background on why this feature is a rather rare thing. A large portion of Tex users don't need/want this because they prefer to interact via text instruction and have a very clear picture in their mind of what is happening. Maybe because they have a prorammer back ground or are otherwise used to abstract inputs. That is why they follow the a write-build-improve pattern. If it brakes your fingers to hit a key combo every now and then, you might be up the wrong ally anyway. – paradoxon Aug 4 '16 at 22:10

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