[OS X TeX] An alternative to LateXIt; croppdf

[Rowland McDonnell]

>Attached is a script and two shell scripts. The script croppdf should  
>be saved a TeXShop macro.

Thank you for coming up with a useful addition.

But how might one save croppdf.scpt as a TeXShop macro?

I have tried following TeXShop's instructions to add a macro:

I opened the macro editor as specified, then selected `Add macros from
file' from the Macro menu, and selected croppdf.scpt.

I got the message

"Error: failed to read the file as a directory."

I have read the TeXShop documentation on how to add a new macro and I
was unable to work out what to do.

Can anyone help with this problem?

>(*Use this script to crop the pdf file corresponding to  a tex file in  
>TeXShop.

Yes, that makes sense.

>Create a template that will show only the typed text when typeset  
>containing the command \thispagestyle{empty}.

I would like to use your script but I do not understand what you mean by
the above sentence.  Could you please explain?

> Type the text, formulas  
>etc, that you want and make sure that the formulas are not tagged.

When you say `not tagged', what do you mean?  I've never come across the
concept of a tagged formula in LaTeX.

>Then run the script preferrably as a TS macro.

(A note to developers in general and not aimed at Claus Gerhardt at all:
I have not used TeXShop macros at all.  This is because TeXShop's
documentation tells me to RTFS to understand the supplied macros.  It's
far too much work to try to work out from source code what any software
does or how to use it.  In this case, it's much more sensible to use
TeXShop as an uncomplicated text editor with syntax highlighting and the
ability to call up LaTeX.  All the fancy stuff is wasted on me - I don't
use any of it, I suspect mostly due to poor documentation.  Think about
that, if you're writing code meant for people to use.)

>The cropped output will then be pasted to the clipboard.
>
>Note that the script uses Heiko Oberdieck's perl script pdfcrop and  
>the shell script croppdf  which should both be saved in ~/Library/ 
>Flashmode/bin.

Thank you for writing this Applescript, which I'm sure will be useful if
I can get it working.

Cheers,
Rowland.