Cfrgtkky

I would like to execute a command which produces text, but not have that text visible anywhere inside the document. Can we put the command inside a box, which clips other text, such as in the middle of the page? Normally, this would look ugly (a box text rendered on top of other text). Can we make the text invisible? That is, have a box smack dab in the middle of the page full of invisible text? Or what if we place the box of text outside of the page margins. That way, the text will be there, but not visible?

The following appears to work:

documentclass{minimal}

usepackage[pscoord]{eso-pic}

newcommand{placetextbox}[3]{

setbox0=hbox{#3}

AddToShipoutPictureFG*{

put(LenToUnit{#1paperwidth},LenToUnit{#2paperheight}){vtop{{null}makebox[0pt][c]{#3}}}%

}

}

begin{document}

This is Some Visible Text

placetextbox{0.5}{0.5}{phantom{INVISIBLE TEXT HERE}}

end{document}

You simply replace INVISIBLE TEXT HERE with the command you want executed, but do not want the output text from.

The solution above is based on Werner's answer to a different question. However, in that case, they were not trying to make the text invisible, or execute a command while discarding the resultant text.

For example, if you are using bibtex and you want something in your bibliography without having any in-text citations, then INVISIBLE TEXT HERE might be something like:

cite{Miller78} cite{Bubba94}