----- Forwarded message from [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-15" From: Praedor Tempus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: suggested feature Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 15:27:18 -0700 X-Mailer: KMail [version 1.3.2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-Id: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
All linux wordprocessors are indistinguishable from each other as far as general capabilities go. Some can export or import more file formats than others but beyond that, there is nothing to make any one of them stand apart. There is one and ONLY one wordprocessor in linux that is of use to scientists, researchers, students and that is Lyx. The reason is that only lyx is able to deal with citations and references. Word and Wordperfect for windoze and the Mac can do it, via a third party app like EndNote which plugs seamlessly into the wordprocessor and allows one, via a separate citations/bibliography window, to select references, read the abstract for that reference to determine if it is really the one you're looking for, and then with a simple click of a button, the citation is inserted into the wordprocessor text. At the end, when you are ready to print, all you do is select what format you want your references to follow and select "Format Bibliography" from an EndNote-added menu item in the Tools menu list (in word...don't know about wordperfect) and viola, the citations are properly formatted and the reference page(s) are also created and formatted for you. Lyx can do this with the aid of Pybliographic of Sixpack, which are similar in functionality to EndNote. Only Lyx. I would like to suggest that this functionality be added to Abiword. Either create a pipe ala Lyx so that apps like Pybliographic could be easily made to work with Abiword or add this ability to Abiword fully. A wordprocessor with a built-in bibliography processing ability - THAT would set it apart from all the others. It would be useful for more than letter writing or other non-attributed writing. Bah! As nice as many of the linux wordprocessors are (I have tried Hancom Office, StarOffice, OpenOffice, Kword, Abiword), none of them meet the needs of anyone who must write research-based documents. Research papers require citations/references. It is barbaric to expect people to MANUALLY enter citations and MANUALLY create reference pages. That is SOOOO typewriter. Barbarism! Please bring civilization to a linux-friendly wordprocessor. Lyx is fine, such as it is, but it flat-out ISN'T user-friendly. Any clown can fire up Word and EndNote and produce publication-quality papers with proper attribution. One practically needs a minor in compsci to work with Lyx. Do better than that...please. praedor ----- End forwarded message ----- ----------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
