Add a version number to the title of a LaTeX document.

Question

Hi. The title section of my LaTeX documents usually look like

\title{Title}
\author{Me}
%\date{}      %// Today's date will appear when this is commented out.

\begin{document}
\maketitle

I'd really like to add another line in the title section for a version number:

\title{Title}
\author{Me}
\version{v1.2}
%\date{}      %// Today's date will appear when this is commented out.

\begin{document}
\maketitle

It doesn't necessarily have to be a command named version, but how can I get a version number to appear after the date (which is after the author)? I can manually set the version number.

So:

Title

Me

4/13/2010

v1.2

Answer 1

For many version control systems, the checkin and checkout programs will expand certain strings in the documents into metadata the version control system has about the system, including the version number.

If you include these strings in the body of Tex definitions, then you can use them in your documents.

It's hard to say more without knowing which version control system you are using, but CTAN has the cv bundle, and rcs.sty is nice to use, for folks still using not only non-distributed, but not even concurrent VC...

Once you've got the strings (oh, I see you said manual entry is OK), you can then typeset this using

\title{Title\\\normalsize Version \versionnumber}

If you really want the author in between, then you can't use \title and \author together in the usual way - you should put your name on another line in the \title command.

Answer 2

If you need to display the version number only in the titlepage, you just need to modify it using

    \begin{titlepage}
    ...
    Version 1.x
    ...
    \end{titlepage}

after issuing the command \maketitle.

Otherwise, if you need to recall it in several times throughout the document, it's better to define a variable:

\def\Version#1{\def\version{#1}}

so that you define the version number with \Version{} and recall it with \version.

Answer 3

Simple manual method:

1. Create a file called (say) version.tex:

   \providecommand{\versionnumber}{3.0.1}

2. Where you need to use it:

   \input{version}
\title{Title\\\normalsize Version \versionnumber}

This will give you a single common place in your project or projects to update the version manually.

Answer 4

Take a look at the packages rcsinfo and rcs. They include keys for extracting data from RCS tags within your document, so that will work if you are using CVS. I found this in The LaTeX Companion, pg 837. Something that works with your VCS of choice may have been written in the meantime.

Answer 5

To provide a \version command like \author, you'd do:

\let\theversion=\relax
\providecommand{\version}[1]{\renewcommand{\theversion}{#1}}

If you're not using a titlepage environment, you can redefine \maketitle itself. Look in article.cls (or whatever class file you're using), copy-and-paste, and insert \theversion whereever and however you want. If you want to check for a version number before putting in the title, do something like:

\def\maketitle{%
% ... stuff copied from original class file...
\ifx\theversion\relax
% do nothing if there is no version defined
\else\bfseries\theversion% set the version
\fi

If you don't need it in the title per se you could add it as a footnote to the date (both of those properties related to the freshness of the resource so it makes some sense to put them together.

\title{My article}
\version{v1.2}
\date{\today\thanks{\theversion}}

Answer 6

The easiest way to do exactly what I wanted to do was to simply use:

\title{Title}
\author{Me}
\date{\today\\v1.2}

\begin{document}
\maketitle