Useful options for LaTeX drafts

2021-02-01

At some point in the process of writing a paper, thesis, book, etc. you may want to get comments/suggestions/corrections from people. This could be because you are collaborating with others on the project, or because you want someone's opinion, or because you're submitting your work for publication and referees will be reading through it.

Why not make the other person's life (and yours) easier? Here are a couple of ideas that are easy to implement and can save time.

Number the lines

Use the package lineno by putting the following in the preamble of your tex file (before \begin{document})

\include{lineno}
\linenumbers

Use timestamps

Especially useful if you are sending the resulting pdf file rather than the tex source: stamp the draft with the date and time of the last compilation. One way to do this is to use the package datetime2 and put the following in the preamble:

\include{datetime2}

and then, anywhere you feel like after \begin{document}:

\footnote{\DTMnow}