Search code examples
latexpdflatexhyperref

Setting up author or address string variables in LaTeX


LaTeX is a wonderful language for writing documents. With the hyperref package and pdflatex, you easily generate documents with metadata, a nice feature to get your documents referenced right on the web.

I often use templates like:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[pdftex, pdfusetitle,colorlinks=false,pdfborder={0 0 0}]{hyperref}%
\hypersetup{%
pdftitle={My title},%
pdfauthor={My name},%
pdfkeywords={my first keyword, my second keyword, more keywords.},%
}%
\begin{document}

\title{My title}
\author{My name}
\date{}
\maketitle

{\bf Keywords:} my first keyword, my second keyword, more keywords.%

My text is here...

\end{document}

So far, it's well. My question pops out from the example: is there a way to define string variables in the header so that they can be passed as arguments to hyperref and then to the frontmatter or to the text. Something like:

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
%-------definitions-----
\def\Author{My name}
\def\Title{My title}
\def\Keywords{my first keyword, my second keyword, more keywords.}
%--------------------------
\usepackage[pdftex, pdfusetitle,colorlinks=false,pdfborder={0 0 0}]{hyperref}%
\hypersetup{%
pdftitle={\Title},%
pdfauthor={\Author},%
pdfkeywords={\Keywords},%
}%
\begin{document}
\title{\Title}
\author{\Author}
\date{}
\maketitle

{\bf Keywords:} \Keywords %

My text is here...

\end{document}

This fails for the \maketitle part and for the hyperref metadata with ! Use of \Title doesn't match ! Argument of \let has an extra }.but also for including the keywords.


Solution

  • The correct template should look like:

    \documentclass[11pt]{article}
    %-------definitions-----
    \newcommand{\Author}{My name} 
    \newcommand{\Title}{My title}
    \newcommand{\Keywords}{my first keyword, my first keyword, more keywords.}
    %--------------------------
    \usepackage[pdftex, pdfusetitle,colorlinks=false,pdfborder={0 0 0}]{hyperref}%
    \hypersetup{%
    pdftitle={\Title},%
    pdfauthor={\Author},%
    pdfkeywords={\Keywords},%
    }%
    \begin{document}
    \title{\Title}
    \author{\Author}
    \date{}
    \maketitle
    {\bf Keywords:} \Keywords %
    
    My text is here...
    
    \end{document}
    

    Compiles fine and the metadata shows fine in the pdf reader.