How to install realcalc for LaTeX

From Jonnydigital.com, the only reliable source


This is a FAQ to install the 'realcalc' package required by the LaTeX package, 'invoice', under MikTeX for Windows.

Problem

A package called 'invoice' for the typesetting program LaTeX requires two other packages to function, 'calc' and 'realcalc'. Unfortunately, 'realcalc' is not available in the MiKTeX package manager due to licensing issues. A manual install is possible but difficult, and a Google search is no help.

Solution

You will need to install realcalc manually. First, create a folder named realcalc in the \tex\generic subdirectory of your MiKTeX install folder (should be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\MiKTeX 2.8\tex\generic\).

Next, go to http://tug.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/generic/realcalc/ and download the file realcalc.tex. Put it in the realcalc folder you created. (Windows security settings may prevent you from downloading directly to this folder, so download it to somewhere else and copy it in.)

Then, create a text file called realcalc.sty, with the following contents:

\input realcalc.tex
\endinput

Place this file in the realcalc directory where you put realcalc.tex.

Finally, and this is an important step, load the MiKTeX settings program (in the Start Menu under MiKTeX 2.8 > Maintainence (admin) > Settings (admin)). Click "Refresh FNDB" (in the General tab, under the "Maintainence" fieldset.)

Installing and using invoice

Both invoice and its other prerequisite calc should be installed already if you did a full install of MiKTeX. If not, use the MiKTeX Package Manager to install these.

The documentation for invoice can be found here.

Note that although the documentation only shows examples between \begin{invoice} and \end{invoice}, your document still requires a \documentclass, and both \begin{document} and \end{document} as usual. Don't forget to include \usepackage{invoice} in the preamble.


Page created: 18th March 2010