Cfrgtkky

I'm trying the next code:

documentclass[pdftex,spanish]{article}

usepackage{babel}

usepackage{tikz}



begin{document}



Simple arrow: 



begin{tikzpicture}

    draw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0);

end{tikzpicture}



end{document}

but it doesn't work. It throws the errors:

• ! Argument of language@active@arg> has an extra }.


• ! Paragraph ended before language@active@arg> was complete.<to be read again>par draw[->]

What can I do if it works right without the babel package?

The problem is that the spanish module for babel makes > and < active characters for its special management of Spanish quotations.

Update:

With PGF/TikZ version 3.0.0 there's a babel library that solves the problems produced by changes to category codes made by some babel modules, so it's enough to load the library:

documentclass[spanish]{article}

usepackage{babel}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{babel}



begin{document}



Simple arrows: 



begin{tikzpicture}

    draw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0);

end{tikzpicture}



tikzdraw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0);



end{document}

(Thanks to Claudio Fiandrino for pointing this out in his comment).

PGF/TikZ version 2.10

To deactivate the undesired redefinition for tikzpictures, but maintaining it for other parts of the document, you can use

  execute at begin picture={deactivatequoting},

  execute at end picture={activatequoting}

for every tikzpicture. Notice that this approach has two advantages:

1. No extra packages are required.




2. It also produces the desired result when using the command version tikz (see example code below).

The code:

documentclass[spanish]{article}

usepackage{babel}

usepackage{tikz}



tikzset{

every picture/.append style={

  execute at begin picture={deactivatequoting},

  execute at end picture={activatequoting}

  }

}

begin{document}



Simple arrows: 



begin{tikzpicture}

    draw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0);

end{tikzpicture}



tikzdraw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0);



end{document}

As a side note, don't use pdftex option; modern LaTeX systems detect the driver automatically.

As noted by Malipivo, the spanish option of babel makes > active. You can make it inactive just inside (all) the tikzpicture environment locally, Add these in your preamble:

usepackage{etoolbox}

AtBeginEnvironment{tikzpicture}{shorthandoff{>}shorthandoff{<}}{}{}

Full code:

documentclass{article}

usepackage[spanish]{babel}

usepackage{tikz}

usepackage{etoolbox}

AtBeginEnvironment{tikzpicture}{shorthandoff{>}shorthandoff{<}}{}{}



begin{document}



Simple arrow:



begin{tikzpicture}

    draw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0);

end{tikzpicture}



end{document}

If you don't need to use spanish quotes, just add es-noquoting to babel options and TiKZ arrows will appear again.

documentclass[pdftex,spanish]{article}

usepackage[es-noquoting]{babel}

usepackage{tikz}



begin{document}



Simple arrow: 



begin{tikzpicture}

    draw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0);

end{tikzpicture}



end{document} 

If you need spanish quotes use new babel TiKZ 3.0 library (as Claudio suggested). Here you have an example:

documentclass[pdftex,spanish]{article}

usepackage{babel}

usepackage{tikz}

usetikzlibrary{babel}



begin{document}



Simple arrow: 



begin{tikzpicture}

    draw[->] (-1.5,0) -- (1.5,0) node[right] {<<Hola>>};

end{tikzpicture}



<<Hola>>

end{document}

I do not know why, but none of the previous answers has worked for me. They showed me the right path though; adding just

deactivatequoting

on the preambled fixed the problem.

Calling babel with english as well as spanish does the trick, too

usepackage[spanish,english]{babel}