2011/10/17 Johnston81 <johnsto...@gmail.com>: > To the ones that can and will help, > > I apologize if this has already been covered in another topic; I have > searched but been unable to find any such. If, however, you know of such > topics, if you could please point me in the right direction? > > My current situation is this: I am working on my Master Thesis and currently > doing my research and such. As it is now, I am uncertain how large my final > project will be - I imagine that the final document will probably exceed 100 > pages, but where I am uncertain of size I am certain that the document will > contain considerable amounts of graphs and tables - rather more than I am > comfortable working with in Word 2010. > > My questions are fairly simple to ask, I am not certain that everybody will > agree on the answers but rough estimates are all I am looking for anyway. So > here goes: > > 1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately need to > learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text, including graphics > and formulas(!), from a template? > 2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after having learned > the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to teach LyX to oneself and > how easy is it to solve problems when encountered? > 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or > spend time if I did try my luck on LyX? > > I have many more similar questions, but for now this will have to do - I > shouldn't take to much of your time! But if you have any other advice or > experiences that relate to my post, that you feel could help me or others > that are doing the same kind of contemplations, please do not hesitate and > do share!
I started learning LyX just before I started writing my masters thesis. Most what I've learnt I learnt during writing it. One of the best advantages was ability to work on text both on Windows and Linux without any problems (in terms of text - images were converted differently so results of PDF output were different; however I choose one platform to produce final publication and tweak all images for it). One of LaTeX disadvantages under modern Linux is that on Windows (thanks to MikTeX) you almost always has access to most recent releases of TeX packages. While Linux distributions are tied to particular versions of TeXLive which is most of the time the very old version (case of Ubuntu Natty is one of examples). So it requires more manual intervention to build new TeXLive for own use. Time spent to learn LyX & LaTeX better was similar to time spent on fixing Word bad behaviour - I can compare as I wrote my bachelors thesis in Word. The results coming from LyX/LaTeX tandem are far better and predictable. And no graphics disappears in puff of smoke :-) Another advantage of LyX are TOC, Indexes and references in the documents - it is far much easier to manage them in LyX than in Word, even if you have manually add a label to almost every chapter or section. Finally in my opinion the LyX itself is far much technologically advanced than the LaTeX itself. Most of the problems with proper interaction between elements in the output comes from problems with LaTeX. The ideas behind it are very old these days and that status quo changes too slow. -- Manveru jabber: manv...@manveru.pl gg: 1624001 http://www.manveru.pl
