On 17. okt. 2011 18:49, Johnston81 wrote:
[...]
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.
LyX has no problem with size.
Some things may get slower with a really big document, but it is still
perfectly stable. Big does not cause crashes, big does not cause faults.
Cross references and table of contents will still be correct - everytime.
I have written a 284 page book - no problem. Writing your thesis may be
a lot of work - but the work will be on the thesis, not on LyX issues
with a large document full of graphs.
You will have to learn LyX of course. Simply writing, and adding tables,
formulas and figures is easy. If there are very specific formatting
requirements, then that may be tricky. In such cases, look at the user
guide first, and ask here if the guide is not enough.
As for size - I have created "torture test" documents of 1600 and 40000
pages. The 40000 page document is slow to navigate, but it works. Still
no crashes.
The LyX User guide is over 160 pages. And it uses most LyX features.
Experiment with that, if you worry about size issues. :-)
Reformatting a big document is usually no problem. You can change
the margins or paper size for a 100-page document and expect no
problems. (Well, a figure/table too big for the new paper size will need
some attention.)
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?
All that is easy stuff. Writing plain text in LyX is as easy as in word.
When you need a heading, you select a heading from a drop-down list.
Similiar for bullet points and such. (There are also keyboard
shortcuts to speed things up, but that can wait.)
Including graphichs can be as simple as menu "Insert->Graphics", then
type the file name (or select it) in a dialog. you can also set the
size of your graphic in the same dialog.
Usually, one put a figure in something called a "float". This allow
better page breaking, and cross references. (I.e. you can have LyX
produce references like "figure 17 on page 62", and the numbers will
always be right. Even if you write some more pages at the beginning...)
Formulas is an area where LyX is better than word. You can put together
any formula you can imagine, using menus and toolbars. Using toolbars is
the easy (but somewhat slow) way. If you write lots of math, learn some
of the speed shortcuts. Like typing "\alpha" instead of picking the
alpha symbol from the toolbar everytime.
How much time you will need is hard to say. But you are an engineering
student, so learning the easier sides of LyX will likely be quick.
You should be able to write text with formulas and figures the first
day. Becoming good at LyX takes longer, of course.
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?
LyX comes with documentation full of examples. You can look at the
samples for stuff you want, or even cut&paste from them.
3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?
For something as big as a thesis, I believe the time needed to learn LyX
will be saved. You say you don't want to do a big document in word - and
that says it all really. You will need some learning, but size won't be
the problem. And the printout will likely look better than anything made
in word anyway. Well, adding some decorations in word *is* easier, but
word fall apart on more basic stuff like line breaking. (There is a
reason word defaults to ragged right margins, straight margins is simply
hard to do well. But LyX does it.)
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!
Some differences:
1. The menu system is obviously different. And there is no ruler.
2. You do everything with styles.
You hardly ever select fonts or point sizes.
This is good, because then the font will never be wrong.
3. Your document will *not* be broken into pages in the editor. So you
can't see "where on the page" something is in the editor. Use a
pdf preview if you need that. You normally don't need to know though,
although that takes some getting used to!
4. If you somehow manage to crash lyx (hitting a bug, not a size
problem) then LyX normally succeed with its emergency save
feature.
Scrolling around in a huge document takes time. People who write big
documents usually divide it up, for example one file per chapter.
And a master file that include the chapters, as well as dealing with
front pages, TOC, indexes and such.
I recommend learning the easier stuff first. So start by writing some
chapters. Detailed formatting of the front page (or a demand for a
special heading font) is tricker, so such things can wait a bit.
Helge Hafting
