We all love LaTeX (at least I do!).
It helps me create and edit my resume without making a mess.
What’s better? I can maintain it in Git—create branches, roll back if needed—way better than fiddling with Word documents.
I can even send it to GPT for a review. in.

Have you ever sent a PDF via WhatsApp and seen this warning?

This document might be harmful for your device. Make sure you trust the sender before you open it.

This happened to me when I sent my resume, generated on Overleaf, to a hiring manager. It was a clean file—no malware, no scripts—but WhatsApp flagged it anyway.
Apparently, Overleaf PDFs trigger something in WhatsApp’s automated filters.

I found a temporary workaround using Google Docs, but it wasn’t a clean or dependable fix for this. That’s when I decided to move away from Overleaf and build a local LaTeX setup that wouldn’t trigger warnings—and would give me more control in the long run.

In this post, I’ll share my LaTeX setup and how switching to a local compiler solved the issue.


My Local LaTeX Setup (Ubuntu)

I use Ubuntu, so the commands and package names below might vary depending on your OS or distro.
Here’s what I use:

  • LaTeX Engine: texlive-full with pdflatex
  • Editor: Mostly VIM, sometimes VS Code with the LaTeX Workshop extension


Installation

There are many packages available for compiling LaTeX to PDF, but I found this one to be the most reliable and comprehensive.
Other minimal packages often miss important dependencies like color packages, styles, and fonts—which you’ll likely need anyway.

sudo apt install texlive-full pdflatex

⚠️ Note: This package is big—around a gigabyte—but it’ll save you a ton of headache later by including everything you might need.


Usage

To compile a .tex file to PDF, use the command below:

pdflatex filename.tex

This command creates a filename.pdf and a .log file with detailed output. Unlike the Overleaf version, this locally compiled PDF no longer triggers WhatsApp’s “This document might be harmful” warning. 🎉