The project handling of TeXnicCenter is especially usefull for larger documents, which are seperated in several files.

Assume, you are writing a book. In that case you would normally split your document into several TeX-files: A file for each chapter and a main file, which specifies the document class, the layout and includes the chapter files with the input or include command.

If you are now working on one of the chapter files and you would like to create the output, you will have to open the main file first and then choose to compile this one.

This is where TeXnicCenter's project management jumps in: When you create a project, you specify its main file, which is the file that should be passed to the LaTeX compiler to generate the output for the whole document. If you are now working on a chapter file and you would like to generate output, you will only have to choose the "Build" command and TeXnicCenter will start the compilation for the main file - even if it isn't opened in the editor at the moment.

Here are some additional advantages when working with projects:

• The navigator window (docked window at the left) will show the structure of your document.
• You can spell check all files of your project selecting the "Project > Spelling..." command from the menu.
• TeXnicCenter remembers which files are open and where the cursor is placed for projects, each time you close a project. Next time, when you open it, the state of the latest session will be restored.

We recommend to always use projects. The only cases where projects are unnecessary, are non-structured documents, created from a single file (i.e. letters).