On Tuesday 04 November 2008 07:19:32 pm rgheck wrote: > Since Uwe moved this to users, I'll forward my comments here as well. > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Re: Word processor bashing > Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2008 17:06:13 -0500 > From: RGH <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Patrick Camilleri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > References: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]@ovgu.de> > > Patrick Camilleri wrote: > > Dear Sir, > > > > Though I find LaTeX + LyX to be a very good typesetting system, I dont > > understand all this bashing at other word processors in your > > Introduction to LyX document. In my opinion if one took at least ŧ the > > amount of time one needed to learn LaTeX, one would find out that modern > > Word Processors are indeed very capable tools. Styles have been > > supported, at least in Word, since quite some time and not just in most > > recent versions as quoted in the footnote on page 2. I already remember > > using Styles in Word 97 and frankly I cant imagine anybody writing > > anything longer than 4 pages without having any concept of Styles. You > > would go crazy! > > I'd have to go back and look at the Intro to see precisely what it says, > so I won't defend it (yet). But I will take exception to this last > claim. I know a lot of people who use Word, etc, and I don't know a > single person who regularly uses styles.
You know him now :-) Hi Richard, By 1988 I used paragraph and character styles for almost every kind of appearance, in my mainmatter, in WordPerfect 5.0. After switching to MS Word in 1994, I used paragraph and character styles, in my mainmatter, for almost every kind of appearance. After switching to LyX in 2001 I tried my best to use paragraph and character styles, in my mainmatter, for almost every kind of appearance, but as I've written (and maybe ranted) often in the past, LyX/LaTeX styles are difficult to create for a non-LaTeX-guru. In about 2005 I briefly flirted with OpenOffice, and dumped it when I realized its paragraph and character styles were too quirky to use with any confidence. > Students and colleagues send me > papers written in Word all the time, and I'm struggling to remember a > single time any one of them sent me one that used styles. So, yes, > certainly styles exist in Word, et al, but those tools do not encourage, > let alone enforce, the use of such styles, and that is an important > difference between LyX and standard word processors: LyX is style-based, > from the ground up, not a finger-painting tool with styles grafted onto > it. I think that's an unfair statement. MS Word styles work quite well and are integral to Word. Word's styles are MUCH easier to create than LyX's. One could argue that Word doesn't come with document classes that define an important set of styles, but Word is distributed with templates that do. > That's why learning to use LyX, even to write a letter, is such a > big adjustment for people. For me it's an adjustment because creating a new style can take between an hour and 3 days in LyX, but only 5-15 minutes in Word. > Speaking as a teacher, I often worry that my > students are themselves much too worried about formatting even while > they are writing first drafts, That's exactly right. > and this is in large part because WYSIWYG > tools present writing and formatting as one thing and not as two. I'd put it a little differently -- it's because the students haven't yet understood the benefits of consistent appearences through the document, and the benefits of change one style and change its appearance throughout the document. Oh, and some people are just turkeys, and they put 10 fonts on one page and think they've been creative. [clip] > > So in my opinion this isnt really one of the strong points of LaTeX. > > Rather I find the ability of being able to typeset mathematical equations > > as being one of the strongest points of LaTeX, together with being able > > to seamlessly insert bibliographies and cross-references. Hi Patrick, I hardly ever use equations in my books, and usually don't use bibliographies, and even if I did it would be easy to do it manually, and I'm pretty sure MS Word does bibliographies. What I like about LyX over MS Word is: 1) LyX is rock stable. 2) LyX's native format is humanly readable and parsable. 3) LyX produces beautiful output with minimal tweaking. 4) LyX is free software. No license tracking. 5) LyX is pretty good about version conversion -- probably better than Word. LyX is a very fast tool with which I can pound out 2000-3000 words per day, and not have to worry about the look of the output -- I know it will be good. It's incredibly easy to use. One overlooked benefit is it won't let me put in a double space or a double linefeed. I handle the fact that LyX is much harder than Word to make styles like this: When writing and perceiving I need a new style, I make a dummy style, with the proper name, and continue writing so as not to lose my train of thought. Then, on a day when I've got my tech hat on, I improve the style in my layout file, using a small document with which to test it. SteveT Steve Litt Recession Relief Package http://www.recession-relief.US
