[OS X TeX] Adapting a large (MiKTeX) document to MacTeX

[Luis Sequeira]

> Dear MacTeX community,
> 
> I haven't used MacTeX for a while, especially for large documents.
> 
> More than 10 years ago, I wrote my PhD thesis. At that time I used the MiKtTeX distribution and "WinEdt" as text editor.
> 
> Generating a PDF file consisted of writing the .tex file, converting to a .dvi and .ps file.  This PostScript (.ps) file was then converted to PDF using Ghostscript (if I remember well).
> 
> All graphics were included as .eps files (encapsulated postscript) by using the "graphicx" package.
> 
> Now, more than a decade later, I try to typeset the thesis using MacTeX.....
> 
> As expected, many error messages occur and the document is not properly typeset when running MacTeX based on the former .tex-files.
> 
> What would you suggest in order to adapt the former files to MacTex as easily as possible?
> 
> For information, I attached the .tex project file at the end of this message.
> 
> That you in advance for your help and suggestions!!
> 
> Best regards,
> Christoph Hoh
> 

If you are you trying to use pdflatex with your document (which is the default), of course it will fail.

In TeXShop, it is trivial to compile a document using latex+dvips+ps2pdf workflow you used back them (and is still used).
put the cursor at the top of your document, and go to Macros->Program. From the list that appears, choose "latex".
TeXShop will insert a TeX comment like

 %!TEX TS-program = latex

in your file. (You could also add it yourself manually).
Now typeset the document, and it will do latex, followed by dvips, then ps2pdf, and (hopefully) most of your errors will go away.
For the rest of them, I suggest you try this, and this post the erros you get ("I get a lot of errors" is NOT useful information...)

Luis Sequeira