TeXStudio Review: Is it the most complete LaTeX Editor?

It was mid 2012, the first time I installed TeXstudio version 2.3, on my PC. ‘Peaceful‘ was the word I used to describe it then after. TeXstudio has now gradually inched to version 4.5.2 and by time being even more peaceful and wonderful. Wonder why did I call it ‘peaceful’?

Writing LaTeX is a real pain, when you are willing to write a long document or article, which in my case are mathematics blogs and books. It was a great headache to write math commands points by point until I installed TeXstudio.  After I played with TeXstudio for Windows and then after TeXStudio for Mac for a couple of days, I understood how it functions. and that was the start of a great time for me.

No more memorizing all the LaTeX codes, no more external compilers and no more annoying extra plugins to be installed.

TeXstudio sports such great features which literally reduces your effort to half or even less than that. It offers beautiful designs (yep, a Mac OS feeling on Windows), easy template wizards and quick compilers. Some other noticeable features of this app are auto-fill suggestions, syntax-highlighting, real-time viewing, spell and reference check, bibliography support and profile management. I’ll be discussing more about these features later, but before we follow-up , let’s recall the background of the app.

About TeXstudio

Product	TeXstudio
Developer	Jan Sundermeyer, Tim Hoffmann
Initial release	April 2009
Stable release	4.5.2 (April 2023)
Programming language	C++
Operating system	Windows, macOS, Linux
License	GPL
Features	Syntax highlighting, auto-completion, spell checking, code folding, error highlighting, reference checking, PDF viewer, code preview, support for multiple LaTeX compilers, customizable shortcuts, and support for various formats such as LaTeX, XeLaTeX, LuaLaTeX, and others.
Integrations	Git, SVN, and others.
Extensions	LaTeX templates, user macros, and scripts.
Interface	GUI (Graphical User Interface)
Download At	texstudio.org
Price	Free

TeXstudio vs TeXMaker

TeXstudio is an integrated writing environment for creating LaTeX documents. It is an Open Source application, available for major desktop platforms, Windows, Linux, BSD and Mac OS. TeXStudio is a team project of Benito van der Zander, Jan Sundermeyer, Daniel Braun and Tim Hoffmann, forked from the TeXMaker application, a non-open source application, which open-source development stalled in 2009. Actually, TeXstudio was aimed to be a set of extensions for TeXMaker and was then called TeXMakerX.

In 2009, TeXMakerX was renamed as TeXstudio and made a completely open-source application. TeXstudio completely differs to TeXMaker in philosophy and slightly in features. TeXMaker still exists, is free of charge and gets updates regularly but the development is strictly non-open.

Also see: 10 Best LaTeX Editors for Windows and Mac

TeXstudio Features & Tutorial

Easy Writing and Editing

TeXstudio provides simpler writing experience, with bunch of premade TeX templates and quick wizards. As first time user, you can just open the application, open File –> New from template and you are ready to go. If you want to save the edited .tex file to somewhere else and not in the TeXstudio’s default folder, you may also select your preferred destination folder.

Remember that, TeXstudio builds five or more files at once, therefore you should use a blank folder for a single document. This will place all files in that blank folder and there will not be any hindrance in compiling the final document.

five files when you start creating a document from an article template

Experienced users can start with a blank new file from File –> New. The regular Microsoft Office shortcuts also work with TeXstudio.

Some useful features used while writing are:

• Auto Completion: As you write any Math/LaTeX command, editor suggests you what should come the next and auto-completes your command.

• Easy content navigation:  TeXstudio supports easy content and Word by Word navigation.
• Syntax Highlighting: In all the screen-shots above, you can see how Texstudio interprets the TeX commands and syntax.
• Spell Check: TeXstudio automatically checks for spelling errors and provides suggestions for them.
• Others: You can place bookmarks within a document at ease, customize the shortcuts, menus and toolbars, drag and drop images to the document directly and can add tables too.

Instant Previews

Write your document, go to Tools –> Build & View or simply press F1 key and you’ll see instant pdf/ps previews on the right side of your editor.  There is no need of any  external apps/plugins. The preview supports zooming and dragging, and is very convenient to use.

Compiling

You can compile and publish a document by Tools –> Compile or by pressing F6 key. The compiled document can be found in the destination folder you chose earlier, while creating the document. After compiling is complete, your folder will have at least seven files instead of five. You may read them using suitable readers.

Profile Management

You may customize and save TeXstudio’s behavior in profiles. Each time you need a different behavior from the app, chose a different profile.

Bibliography Support

In the reference section of your document, you can easily add foot-notes, credits and other bibliographic items easily using Bibliography menu.

Other features

Some other remarkable features are:

• SVN Support
• Structure view
• Code folding
• Convert to HTML
• Automatic detection of MikTeX, TeX Live, Ghostscript and Standardlatex

TeXstudio Review

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