1. Why the Need for a New Package?

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The glossary package started out as an example in a tutorial, but I decided that I may as well package it up and upload it to CTAN. Unfortunately it was fairly rigid and unable to adapt well to the wide variation in glossary styles. Users began making requests for enhancements, but with each enhancement the code became more complicated and bugs crept in. Each fix in one place seemed to cause another problem elsewhere. In the end, it was taking up too much of my time to maintain, so I decided to replace it with a much better designed package. With the new glossaries package:

• •you can define irregular plurals;

• •glossary terms can have an associated symbol in addition to the name and description;

• •new glossary styles are much easier to design;

• •you can add dictionaries to supply translations for the fixed names used in headings and by some of the glossary styles;

• •you can choose between using makeindex or xindy to sort the glossary. Using xindy means that:
  • –there is much better support for terms containing accented or non-Latin characters;

  • –there is support for non-standard location numbers;

  (Additional indexing options have since been added. See the “Indexing Options” section of the glossaries user manual.)

• •you don’t need to remember to escape makeindex’s special characters as this is done internally;

• •hierarchical entries and homographs are supported (as from v1.17);

• •there is better support for cross-referencing glossary entries;

• •acronyms are just another glossary term which helps to maintain consistency;

• •different acronym styles are supported.

2. Package Options

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When converting a document that currently uses the obsolete glossary package to the replacement glossaries package, it should be fairly obvious that the first thing you need to do is replace \usepackage{glossary} with \usepackage{glossaries}, however some of the package options are different, so you may need to change those as well. Table 1 shows the mappings from the glossary to the glossaries package options.

3. Defining new glossary types

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If you have created new glossary types, you will need to replace all instances of

glossary.sty
\newglossarytype[〈log-ext〉]{〈type〉}{〈out-ext〉}{〈in-ext〉}[〈old style list〉]
\newcommand{〈type〉name}{〈title〉}

glossaries.sty
\newglossary[〈log-ext〉]{〈type〉}{〈out-ext〉}{〈in-ext〉}{〈title〉}

glossaries.sty
\setglossarystyle{〈new-style〉}

The 〈old style list〉 optional argument can be converted to 〈new-style〉 using the same mapping given in Table 1.

For example, if your document contains the following:

glossary.sty
\newglossarytype[nlg]{notation}{not}{ntn}[style=long,header]
\newcommand{\notationname}{Index of Notation}

glossaries.sty
\newglossary[nlg]{notation}{not}{ntn}{Index of Notation}

glossaries.sty
\setglossarystyle{longheader}

glossaries.sty
\printglossary[type=notation,style=longheader]

Note that the glossary title is no longer specified using \〈glossary-type〉name (except for \glossaryname and \acronymname) but is instead specified in the 〈title〉 argument of \newglossary. The short title which is specified in the glossary package by the command \short〈glossary-type〉name is now specified using the toctitle key in the optional argument to \printglossary.

4. \make〈glossary-type〉

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All instances of \make〈glossary-type〉 (e.g. \makeglossary and \makeacronym) should be replaced by the single command \makeglossaries. For example, if your document contained the following:

glossary.sty
\makeglossary
\makeacronym

glossaries.sty
\makeglossaries

5. Storing glossary information

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With the old glossary package you could optionally store glossary information for later use, or you could simply use \glossary whenever you wanted to add information to the glossary. With the new glossaries package, the latter option is no longer available. (This is mainly because having a key value list in \glossary caused problems, but it also helps consistency.) If you have stored all the glossary information using \storeglosentry, then you will need to convert these commands into the equivalent \newglossaryentry. If you have only used \glossary, then see §6.4.

Substitute all instances of

glossary.sty
\storeglosentry{〈label〉}{〈key=value list〉}

glossaries.sty
\newglossaryentry{〈label〉}{〈key=value list〉}

If you have used the optional argument of \storeglosentry (i.e. you have multiple glossaries) then you will need to substitute

glossary.sty
\storeglosentry[〈gls-type〉]{〈label〉}{〈key=value list〉}

glossaries.sty
\newglossaryentry{〈label〉}{〈key=value list〉,type={〈gls-type〉}}

The glossary entry information 〈key=value list〉 may also need changing. If 〈key=value list〉 contains any of makeindex’s special characters (i.e. @ ! " or |) then they should no longer be escaped with " since the glossaries package deals with these characters internally. For example, if your document contains the following:

glossary.sty
\storeglosentry{card}{name={$"|\mathcal{S}"|$},
description={The cardinality of the set $\mathcal{S}$}}

glossaries.sty
\newglossaryentry{card}{name={$|\mathcal{S}|$},
description={The cardinality of the set $\mathcal{S}$}}

The number key available in \storeglosentry should be replaced with the counter key in \newglossaryentry. The sort key in \storeglosentry is also called sort in \newglossaryentry.

The \storeglosentry format key doesn’t have a counterpart in \newglossaryentry. You can, however, specify the format in the optional argument of commands like \gls or \glsadd or you can change the default format by redefining \glsnumberformat.

6. Adding an entry to the glossary

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The glossary package provided two basic means to add information to the glossary: firstly, the term was defined using \storeglosentry and the entries for that term were added using \useglosentry, \useGlosentry and \gls. Secondly, the term was added to the glossary using \glossary. This second approach is unavailable with the glossaries package, since all entries must be defined before they can be indexed.

6.1. \useglosentry

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The glossary package allows you to add information to the glossary for a predefined term without producing any text in the document using

glossary.sty
\useglosentry[〈old options〉]{〈label〉}

glossaries.sty
\glsadd[〈new options〉]{〈label〉}

6.2. \useGlosentry

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The glossary package allows you to add information to the glossary for a predefined term with the given text using

glossary.sty
\useGlosentry[〈old options〉]{〈label〉}{〈text〉}

glossaries.sty
\glslink[〈new options〉]{〈label〉}{〈text〉}

6.3. \gls

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The glossary defines:

glossary.sty
\gls (glossary.sty)[〈options〉]{〈label〉}

glossaries.sty
\gls (glossaries.sty)[〈options〉]{〈label〉}[〈insert〉]

6.4. \glossary

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When using the glossaries package, you should not use \glossary. This is because the appropriate indexing syntax (including escaping any of makeindex’s or xindy’s special characters) is generated when the entry is defined. This reduces overall complexity as it no longer needs to be performed every time an entry is indexed. By placing the glossary definitions within the preamble, it also reduces the chance that the indexing special character may have their category code changed, which can cause interference.

If, with the old package, you have opted to explicitly use \glossary instead of storing the glossary information with \storeglosentry, then converting from glossary to glossaries will be more time-consuming, although in the end, I hope you will see the benefits. From the user’s point of view, using \glossary throughout the document is time consuming, and if you use it more than once for the same term, there’s a chance extra spaces may creep in which will cause makeindex to treat the two entries as different terms, even though they look the same in the document. If you have used \glossary with the old glossary package, you will instead need to define the relevant glossary terms using \newglossaryentry and reference the terms using \glsadd, \glslink, \gls etc.

If you don’t like the idea of continually scrolling back to the preamble to type all your \newglossaryentry commands, you may prefer to create a new file, in which to store all these commands, and then input that file in your document’s preamble. Most text editors and front-ends allow you to have multiple files open, and you can tab back and forth between them.

7. Acronyms

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In the glossary package, acronyms were treated differently to glossary entries. This resulted in inconsistencies and sprawling unmaintainable code. The new glossaries package treats acronyms in exactly the same way as normal glossary terms.

Both packages provide \newacronym, but the syntax is different. With the glossary package, the syntax is:

glossary.sty
\newacronym (glossary.sty)[〈cmd-name〉]{〈acronym〉}{〈long〉}{〈old-options〉}

glossaries.sty
\newacronym (glossaries.sty)[〈options〉]{〈label〉}{〈abbrv〉}{〈long〉}

glossaries.sty
\newglossaryentry{〈label〉}{type=\acronymtype,
name={〈abbrv〉},
description={〈long〉},
text={〈abbrv〉},
first={〈long〉 (〈abbrv〉)},
plural={〈abbrv〉s},
firstplural={〈long〉s (〈abbrv〉s)},
〈options〉}

This is different to the glossary package which set the name key to 〈long〉 (〈abbrv〉) and allowed you to set a description using the description key. If you still want to do this, you can use one of the description styles, such as long-short-desc, and use the description key in the optional argument of \newacronym.

For example, if your document originally had the following:

glossary.sty
\newacronym{SVM}{Support Vector Machine}{description={Statistical pattern recognition technique}}

glossaries.sty
\setacronymstyle{long-short-desc}

glossaries.sty
\newacronym[description={Statistical pattern recognition  technique}]{svm}{SVM}{Support Vector Machine}

With the old glossary package, when you defined an acronym, it also defined a command \〈acr-name〉 which could be used to display the acronym in the text. So the above SVM example would create the command \SVM with the old package. In the new glossaries package, the acronyms are just another type of glossary entry, so they are displayed using \gls{〈label〉}. Therefore, in the above example, you will also need to replace all occurrences of \SVM with \gls{svm}.

If you have used \useacronym instead of \〈acr-name〉, then you will need to replace all occurrences of

glossary.sty
\useacronym[〈insert〉]{〈acr-name〉}

glossaries.sty
\gls{〈label〉}[〈insert〉]

Alternatively (as from v1.18 of the glossaries package), you can use \oldacronym which uses the same syntax as the old glossary package’s \newacronym and also defines \〈acr-name〉. For example, if your document originally had the following:

glossary.sty
\newacronym{SVM}{Support Vector Machine}{description={Statistical pattern recognition technique}}

glossaries.sty
\oldacronym{SVM}{Support Vector Machine}{description={Statistical pattern recognition technique}}

7.1. \acrln and \acrsh

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In the glossary package, it is possible to produce the long and short forms of an acronym without adding an entry to the glossary using \acrln and \acrsh. With the glossaries package (provided you defined the acronym using \newacronym or \oldacronym and provided you haven’t redefined \newacronym) you can replace

glossary.sty
\acrsh{〈acr-name〉}

glossaries.sty
\acrshort{〈label〉}

glossary.sty
\acrln{〈acr-name〉}

glossaries.sty
\acrlong{〈label〉}

See the “Acronyms” of the glossaries manual for further details of how to use these commands.

7.2. \ifacronymfirstuse

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The glossary package command

glossary.sty
\ifacronymfirstuse{〈acr-name〉}{〈not used text〉}{〈has been used text〉}

glossaries.sty
\ifglsused{〈label〉}{〈has been used text〉}{〈not used text〉}

7.3. \resetacronym and \unsetacronym

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The glossary package allows you to reset and unset the acronym flag which is used to determine whether the acronym has been used in the document. The glossaries package also provides a means to do this on either a local or a global level. To reset an acronym, you will need to replace:

glossary.sty
\resetacronym{〈acr-name〉}

glossaries.sty
\glsreset{〈label〉}

glossaries.sty
\glslocalreset{〈label〉}

To unset an acronym, you will need to replace:

glossary.sty
\unsetacronym{〈acr-name〉}

glossaries.sty
\glsunset{〈label〉}

glossaries.sty
\glslocalunset{〈label〉}

To reset all acronyms, you will need to replace:

glossary.sty
\resetallacronyms

glossaries.sty
\glsresetall[\acronymtype]

glossaries.sty
\glslocalresetall[\acronymtype]

glossary.sty
\unsetallacronyms

glossaries.sty
\glsunsetall[\acronymtype]

glossaries.sty
\glslocalunsetall[\acronymtype]

8. Displaying the glossary

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The glossary package provides the command \printglossary (or \print〈type〉 for other glossary types) which can be used to print individual glossaries. The glossaries package provides the command \printglossaries which will print all the glossaries which have been defined, or \printglossary (glossaries.sty)[〈options〉] to print individual glossaries. So if you just have \printglossary, then you can leave it as it is, but if you have, say:

glossary.sty
\printglossary
\printglossary[acronym]

glossary.sty
\printglossary
\printacronym*

glossaries.sty
\printglossaries

glossaries.sty
\printglossary
\printglossary[type=\acronymtype]

The glossary package allows you to specify a short title (for the table of contents and page header) by defining a command of the form \short〈glossary-type〉name. The glossaries package doesn’t do this, but instead provides the toctitle key which can be used in the optional argument to \printglossary. For example, if you have created a new glossary type called notation, and you had defined

glossary.sty
\newcommand{\shortnotationname}{Notation}

glossaries.sty
\printglossary[type=notation,toctitle=Notation]

9. Processing Your Document

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If you convert your document from using the glossary package to the glossaries package, you will need to delete any of the additional files, such as the glo file, that were created by the glossary package, as the glossaries package uses a different format. Remember also, that if you used the makeglos Perl script, you will need to use the makeglossaries Perl script instead. As from v1.17, the glossaries package can be used with either makeindex or xindy. Since xindy was designed to be multilingual, the new glossaries package is a much better option for non-English documents. If you use the extension package, glossaries-extra, then you also have the option of using bib2gls instead (which also provides multilingual support).

For further information on using makeglossaries, makeindex or xindy to create your glossaries, see the “Generating the Associated Glossary Files” section of the glossaries documentation.

10. Troubleshooting

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Please check the FAQ for the glossaries package if you have any problems.

Symbols

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〉_

A command-line application invocation that needs to be entered into a terminal or command prompt.

Index

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Symbols

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A

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B

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C

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F

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G

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I

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M

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N

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O

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P

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R

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S

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T

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U

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X

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