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Local modifications

There are two common types of local modifications that can be done very simply. Do not forget that documents produced using such modifications will not be usable at other places (such documents are called `non-portable').

One type of modification is the use of personal commands for commonly used symbols or constructions. These should be put into a package file (for example, one called `mymacros.sty`) and loaded by putting `\usepackage{mymacros}` in the document preamble.

Another type is a local document class that is very similar to one of the standard classes but contains some straightforward modifications such as extra environments, different values for some parameters, etc. These should be put into a class file; here we shall describe a simple method of constructing such a file using, as an example, a class called larticle that is very similar to the article class.

The class file called `larticle.cls` should (after the preliminary identification commands) start as follows:

       \LoadClassWithOptions{article}

This command should be followed by whatever additions and changes you wish to make to the results of reading in the file `article.sty`.

The effect of using the above `\LoadClassWithOptions` command is to load the standard class file article with whatever options are asked for by the document. Thus a document using your larticle class can specify any option that could be specified when using the standard article class; for example:

       \documentclass[a4paper,twocolumn,dvips]{larticle}

Next: Problems Up: LATEX2e for authors Previous: Native mode