diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 350d7a7f065776c29c0954998cb233a9376ec5dc..4da6f695a5a24bba1af62d692e041f8a5ca1af0b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,6 +4,13 @@ build
 src/kpp
 boxmox*.tar.gz
 
+doc/boxmox*toc
+doc/boxmox*aux
+doc/boxmox*log
+doc/boxmox*pdf
+
+**~
+
 # bc we create this automatically using build_dist.sh
 Makefile.am
 
diff --git a/Makefile.am_BLUEPRINT b/Makefile.am_BLUEPRINT
index 43f37f2576a8aea783019725e35b206a9d82908a..acfde1c73dc655e786e12b0c0b7c730f86eb1343 100644
--- a/Makefile.am_BLUEPRINT
+++ b/Makefile.am_BLUEPRINT
@@ -29,10 +29,10 @@
 #
 #######################################################################################
 
-SUBDIRS = src doc
+SUBDIRS = src
 EXTRA_DIST = src/bison.h	src/code.h	src/gdata.h	src/gdef.h	src/scan.h
 
-dist_doc_DATA = README.md doc/kpp_UserManual.pdf
+dist_doc_DATA = README.md doc/kpp_UserManual.pdf doc/boxmox_UserManual.pdf
 dist_bin_SCRIPTS = scripts/list_BOXMOX_mechanisms \
 				   scripts/new_BOXMOX_experiment \
 				   scripts/new_BOXMOX_experiment_from_example \
diff --git a/build_dist.sh b/build_dist.sh
index 3d07a80241c76e1c4f74cfcbb25397f29ffde41a..ac6c3cb5f94131d84a6725d249389a0a5b529a00 100755
--- a/build_dist.sh
+++ b/build_dist.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 buildDir=$1
 
+echo
+echo " ---  prep Makefile.am ---"
+echo
+
 # fancy shit: no wildcards in automake, add all files to be distributed with BOXMOX/KPP explicitly
 cp Makefile.am_BLUEPRINT Makefile.am
 
@@ -10,12 +14,58 @@ distFiles=$(find drv examples case_studies int models util -type f)
 #pretty print them                                        45 char wide    dd tab, backslash at end    remove backslash last line  remove tab first line
 printf 'nobase_dist_pkgdata_DATA = %s\n' "${distFiles[*]}" | fmt -w 45 | sed -e 's/\(.*\)$/\t\1 \\/g' | sed '$ s/\\//g' | sed '1 s/\t//g' >> Makefile.am
 
+echo 
+echo " --- build documentation ---"
+echo
+
+cd doc
+pdflatex boxmox_UserManual
+pdflatex boxmox_UserManual
+cd ..
+
 # now standard:
+
+echo
+echo " ---  aclocal ---"
+echo
 aclocal
+
+echo
+echo " ---  autoconf ---"
+echo
 autoconf
+
+echo
+echo " ---  automake ---"
+echo
 automake -a -c
+
+echo
+echo " ---  makec maintainer-clean ---"
+echo
+make maintainer-clean
+
+echo
+echo " ---  configure ---"
+echo
 ./configure --prefix="${buildDir}"
+
+echo
+echo " ---  make ---"
+echo
 make
+
+echo
+echo " ---  make install ---"
+echo
 make install
+
+echo
+echo " ---  make dist ---"
+echo
 make dist
+
+echo
+echo " ---  make distcheck ---"
+echo
 make distcheck
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index f67f5d2a1875035aeaf908353c62513f8f3c5623..f48d209bddfbc2776acbb9d7c6ba736ee704d679 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -8,14 +8,8 @@ AM_INIT_AUTOMAKE([-Wall foreign tar-pax])
 AC_PROG_CC
 AC_PROG_LEX(noyywrap)
 AC_PROG_YACC
-AC_CHECK_PROG(PDFLATEX, pdflatex, pdflatex)
-if test -z "$PDFLATEX"; then
-  AC_MSG_WARN([Unable to create PDF version of the user manual.])
-fi
-AM_CONDITIONAL([HAVE_PDFLATEX], test -n "$PDFLATEX")
 AC_CONFIG_FILES([
     Makefile
     src/Makefile
-    doc/Makefile
 ])
 AC_OUTPUT
diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
deleted file mode 100644
index ec5427fd57822f5f98bf805212480e9d2828bdd1..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,13 +0,0 @@
-docfiles = 
-
-if HAVE_PDFLATEX
-docfiles +=  boxmox_UserManual.tex boxmox_UserManual.pdf
-boxmox_UserManual.pdf : boxmox_UserManual.tex
-	@PDFLATEX@ $<
-	@PDFLATEX@ $<
-
-clean-local:
-	rm -f *.log *.out *.toc *.aux boxmox_UserManual.pdf
-endif
-
-doc_DATA = $(docfiles)
\ No newline at end of file