Org Mode: a LaTeX letter that includes PDFs and hyperlinked page numbers

| org

I messed up on one of my tax forms, so I needed to send the tax agency a single document that included the amended tax return and the supporting slips, with my name, social insurance number, and reference number on every page. It turned out to be rather complicated trying to get calculated \pageref to work with \includepdf, so I just used \hyperlink with hard-coded page numbers. I also needed to use qpdf --decrypt input.pdf output.pdf to decrypt a PDF I downloaded from one of my banks before I could include it with \includepdf.

Here's what I wanted to do with this Org Mode / LaTeX example:

  • Coloured header on all pages with info and page numbers
  • Including PDFs
  • Hyperlinks to specific pages
* Letter
#+DATE: 2025-09-24
#+LATEX_CLASS: letter
#+OPTIONS: toc:nil ^:nil title:nil
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage[margin=1in]{geometry}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \hypersetup{hidelinks}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{pdfpages}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{fancyhdr}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{lastpage}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \usepackage{xcolor}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \signature{FULL NAME GOES HERE}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancypagestyle{plain}{
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyhf{}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyhead[L]{\color{teal}\hyperlink{page.1}{HEADER INFO}}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \fancyhead[R]{\color{teal}\thepage\ of \pageref{LastPage}}
#+LATEX_HEADER: }
#+LATEX_HEADER: \pagestyle{plain}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \makeatletter
#+LATEX_HEADER: \let\ps@empty\ps@plain
#+LATEX_HEADER: \let\ps@firstpage\ps@plain
#+LATEX_HEADER: \makeatother
#+LATEX_HEADER: \renewcommand{\headrulewidth}{0pt}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \newcommand{\pdf}[1]{\includepdf[link,pages=-, scale=.8]{#1}}
#+LATEX_HEADER: \newcommand{\pages}[2]{\hyperlink{page.#1}{#1}-\hyperlink{page.#2}{#2}}
#+LATEX: \begin{letter}{}
#+LATEX: \opening{Dear person I am writing to:}

Text of the letter goes here.
Please find attached:

| Pages                             | |
| @@latex:\pages{2}{10}@@           | Description of filename1.pdf |
| @@latex:\hyperlink{page.5}{5}@@ | Can link to a specific page |
| @@latex:\pages{11}{15}@@           | Description of filename2.pdf |

#+LATEX:\closing{Best regards,}

#+LATEX: \end{letter}

#+LATEX: \pdf{filename1.pdf}
#+LATEX: \pdf{filename2.pdf}

After filling it in, I exported it with C-c C-e (org-export) C-s (to limit it to the subtree) l p (to export a PDF via LaTeX).

Not the end of the world. At least I learned a little more LaTeX and Org Mode along the way!

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You can e-mail me at sacha@sachachua.com.
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