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First published on Friday, Jul 25, 2025 and last modified on Friday, Aug 29, 2025 by François Chaplais.

I am normally hidden by the status bar

The LaTeX2Web source code editor

François Chaplais

LaTeX2Web provides an online editor for your source code that is based on the Ace editor. Most of the interface of the code editor is the same in all editors available in LaTeX2Web: source code editor, inline editor and discussion editor.

The source code editor can be accessed for you document in two ways:

from the action menu in the dashboard
from the document web page by selecting “Edit source” in the View menu of the menu bar.

After that, you will be re-directed to a dedicated page to edit your code. Here is a screenshot.

The blue button at the right of the toolbar has only one function: save your code.

1 The toolbar

The left part is devoted to the search and replace operations. At its right is a collection of LaTeX-related editing buttons.

1.1 Search and replace

The input field on the left is where you enter the string you are looking for. The search is case-sensitive. To launch the search, click on the magnifier icon next to it. Pressing the enter/return key will not initiate the search. Actually, the keyboard action is first intercepted by the browser which, in this case, will reload the page. Doing so would lose your unsaved changes.

When you have found your first match, hit Ctrl-K (Windows/Linux) or Command-G (Mac) to search for the next occurence.

At the right of the replace field are two search and replace buttons. The first one will do a single search and replace operation. Hitting it repeatedly will repeat the process for the next occurences. The second button performs a global search and replace.

1.2 LaTeX tools

Here is a quick description of the LaTeX related dropdown menus, as seen in figure 1.

This dropdown menu lets you insert a sectioning command. If some text was selected before performing the action, it will be used as the parameter of the sectioning command, i.e., the section title. This is a general behavior (when applicable) of the LaTeX editor actions.
This lets you style the selected text.
gives you access to some common LaTeX commands.
gives you access to some common LaTeX environments.
gives access to LaTeX2Web specific commands. The environment action creates an environment whose name is the selected text. For instance, to create a verbatim environment, type verbatim in the editor, select the word, and use the environment action on it.

1.2.1 Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are available in all of LaTeX editors. Make sure you are editing code, or the shortcut may have undesirable results. Most of the shortcuts apply to the selection, if any. Here is a list.

Ctrl/Cmd M	inserts `\item`
Ctrl/Cmd L	inserts/makes a label
Ctrl/Cmd R	inserts/makes a reference
Ctrl/Cmd I	applies italic style
Ctrl/Cmd B	applies bold style
Ctrl/Cmd E	makes an environment out of the selection

1.2.2 Editor help

The question mark reveals help for the editor.

2 Two LaTeX2Web pre-processing commands

LaTeX2Web provides two special LaTeX commands that can be incorporated in your code for global modification of your code.

The first one is \alias. here is the syntax:

\alias{original}{replacement}

This command is very powerful. It replaces any occurence of original in the source code by replacement.

The second one is \regAlias. It has the same syntax as \alias, but executes a regular expression search and replace with the pattern original.

Both commands are executed at import time, which means they do not alter the source code. If you are unhappy with the result, modify or delete the commands in the code.

3 The Editor menu

Here is a screenshot of the Editor menu (in the menu bar).

3.1 Top half

Basics pops up a modal with a recap of the basic shortkeys for the Editor
Editor shortcuts brings you to the help page that lists the default shortcuts of the Ace editor
Save just saves the source
Export saved source downloads the body of the last save as a .tex text file.

3.1.1 Bottom half

Compile compiles the document, i.e. import followed by export. This brings you to the web page view.
Inline edit brings you to the Inline Editor for this document without processing the code further.
Document view brings you to the web page view for this document without processing the code further.
Your document list brings you to the dashboard with the document underlined in the list, which is helpful if you have a long list of documents.

4 Recommended workflow

If your document is not very long, we advise you to do the following:

open a tab in the browser with the source code Editor
open a tab with the document web page
have a PDF view of the document in another window for reference

Then:

edit and save the code in the editor tab
in the web page view, compile the document from the “View” menu by selecting the “Compile” menu item
check the result and compare with the original if needed