[Orgmode] org-export-latex-classes issue

[chris . m . malone]

Hi,

I'm a n00b to Lisp and org-mode so please forgive me if the answer is obvious.  I'm using version 7.01h of org-mode.

I'm trying to set up a custom Latex class to use for preparing a document.  Some Google searching showed that I need to add this class to the org-export-latex-classes symbol.  I tried to do this in my .emacs file, for example following what is listed at http://orgmode.org/worg/org-tutorials/org-latex-export.php by adding the following to my .emacs file:

(add-to-list 'org-export-latex-classes
             '("article"
               "\\documentclass{article}"
               ("\\section{%s}" . "\\section*{%s}")))  


I know that org-export-latex-default-class is already set to "article" but this example already shows that something is wrong.  When I load emacs the debugger complains that org-export-latex-classes is an empty list:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (void-variable org-export-latex-classes)          
  add-to-list(org-export-latex-classes ("article" "\\documentclass{article}" ("$
  eval-buffer(#<buffer  *load*> nil "/home/cmalone/.emacs" nil t)  ; Reading at$
  load-with-code-conversion("/home/cmalone/.emacs" "/home/cmalone/.emacs" t t)  
  load("~/.emacs" t t)                                                          
  #[nil "^H\205\276^@   address@hidden@ address@hidden
  command-line()                                                                
  normal-top-level()                                                            

As far as I can tell, org-export-latex-classes is set to nil in org-latex.el, but this isn't loaded until the export dispatcher calls org-export-as-latex.  Is this correct?  Coincidentally, if I export to latex, the appropriate .tex file is created without issue.

My original goal was to setup a custom Latex class - I have tried in the same manner as that used above for the "article" class and the debugger produces the same result.  However, when I attempt to export to latex I get the error that my custom class isn't in the org-export-latex-classes list, presumably because of the failure in loading the .emacs file.

Any advice?

Chris