This is more of a convenience feature than a necessity, but here goes. I plan to personalize copies of an ebook in pdf format by putting the string: "This copy prepared for Joe Smith" on the page, perhaps in a footer. This means I have to recompile the book for each separate customer. It would save a minute if I could just pass a named string to pdfetex in the same way one passes a mode to the program. I am looking for something like: texexec --mode=ebook --string="Joe Smith" mybook.tex ...and then have a way to pick up that string in the TeX file and use it. All this does is save me from editing the file in every instance. If it is too big a deal forget it. -- John Culleton Able Indexers and Typesetters, Rowse Reviews, Culleton Editorial Services http://wexfordpress.com