What is Reddit's opinion of LyX?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

Learn how to use LaTeX. Nothing makes things easier. For a friendly face try out LyX, which has good integration for BibTeX (bibliography management).

Also if you need to make cartoons/diagrams check out inkscape.

• Want to work with LaTeX but do not want to dwell into the language itself? LaTeX wysiwyg editor: http://www.lyx.org/

• Want to work with LaTeX by typing the code and use some help from the editor (hints, code completion etc.) TeXmaker: http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/

This was my first thought as well. MS Word isn't exactly the pinnacle of academic credibility...

I don't really like writing LaTeX source by hand. Heresy, I know, but WYSIWYM editors like LyX are awesome.

For concepts - as opposed to memorization - I have found that I get the most out of trying to explain the concepts to someone else, rather than just reading and formulating the idea in my head. Sometimes this is a real person who wants to learn what I'm studying, but often I would do it by trying to write out the idea in an explanatory document with the intention of making a self-contained explanation - taking a dialogical tone, as if speaking to a friend. This seemed to "activate" the idea in my mind the same way that a real conversation would. In explaining something, you invariably have to try to make connections to other concepts and formulate simple examples; this was the difference between "being familiar with" a concept (what I'd get from studying it" and actually knowing it.

You're doing languages and such, so this won't be relevant to you, but: I studied physics like this, and used LyX to type up my thoughts. It's a visual LateX editor which makes it more possible to type math without getting bogged down in programming it, which makes it easier to think about as you go. There's a bit of a learning curve to learn the hotkeys, but after that it's quite simple.

You don't have to write LaTeX directly. You can use the excellent LyX tool to prepare LaTeX documents. I've typeset a couple of books,a script and some academic papers with it and it's superb: write a document in sections as you normally would and all the LaTeX magic happens in the background.

For word processing, I highly recommend LyX. Its a lot like any other word processor out there, except it produces LaTeX output - so you can do things like equations, highlighted software code, automatic cross-referencing, etc. all pretty easily, and even slideshows. It can be a bit tricky to use, but the output is gorgeous - as you would expect LaTeX output to be.

I used to take notes in LyX for my physics classes; you then get your notes in beautiful PDF form with a table of contents, and sharing them or finding something in them is as easy as emailing a PDF or hitting "search" in evince.

Your best bet is to use LaTeX, the standard typesetting system for science/mathematics writing. In LaTeX, writing equations is extremely easy. If you google for LaTeX tutorials, you should find a wealth of them. If you don't have the time to learn all the ins and outs of LaTeX, you can use Lyx, which can be used instead.

LaTeX also comes with diagram packages which can be used to create basic shapes and such for physics problems.

I decided to invest a few days in getting to grips with LaTeX when starting my thesis because I had a feeling word was going to drive me mad. Best decision ever. MS Word peasants :P Also Lyx is pretty awesome for getting started, anyone reading this and thinking that they may want to check it out, do it, you won't regret it.

Good advice!
Additionaly, if you do not want to learn the Latex syntax (not enough time, laziness), it is possible to use a WYSIWYM editor for LaTex, like Lyx. It gives good results but is not always as flexible as directly writing your own LaTex code, which I really recommend learning, especially if you plan doing research in the future.

Like /u/lostguru said; "apples to oranges". LaTeX is for serious typesetting, like if you are writing a book on calculus or physics and need all the letters and symbols and graphs to be printed exactly they way it looks on your screen. There's a more user-friendly front-end for it called LyX.

As a helpful entrance point, try LyX. It's a Word-style editor that hides the raw LaTeX on the back end so you don't have to dive in directly.

I just edit LaTeX raw now, but if I'm stuck on something I'll do it in LyX and look at the source code.

I'm in compsci and literally the first thing they taught us in the intro to computers class was LaTeX right after teaching us what a webpage is. Also it's standard and any papers that are somewhat serious should never ever be written in word so she's right that it will be useful for you later on, but it's kind of weird to learn in the beginning since it is similar to programming. But there are tricks to make it go easier:

LaTeX was released in 1984, but you have absolutely no reason to use a text editor that was created in 1993. I heavily recommend using sharelatex.com, it's web based so you don't have to tinker with convoluted programs and it can be accessed and written from like anywhere. Go use it

The only commands you will ever possibly have to remember by heart is \section, \subsection, \center, \url \pagebreak and then \\ if you want to add an extra line somewhere. I don't know more than that and I have managed just fine. Now adding images is harder, just \usepackage{graphicx} and then \includegraphics but it's something you get used to quick.

The easy parts of LaTeX are not very complicated, and it seems you have already learned all of them but not gotten used to them. What many of my classmates do is just write the entire text in a text editor, and then do the bare minimum with those commands to make it look nice with LaTeX. If you are making tables and shit you are probably even doing more advanced shit with LaTeX than any of us do. So I mean, even if you don't have to learn LaTeX I highly recommend it since it gives a fuckton of style points, there are even WYSIWYG editors like LyX and BaKoMa if you want to make it really easy for yourself and at that point there's no excuses.

/r/LaTeX /r/LaTeXNotes

http://www.lyx.org/ is probably the easiest to get started in.

There are quite a lot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_TeX_editors

I settled on http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/ for myself.

Well, for good typesetting there is really no alternative to TeX. There is quite a learning curve though, but if if you are looking to use it with Japanese I would recommend XeTeX as it is Unicode compatible. For ruby character support you can import the CJK package and simply do \ruby{食}{た}べる. LyX has Windows support, but I have no experience with it and have no clue if they use XeTeX as their engine. Once again, the learning curve is steep, but if you want good typesetting, for free, TeX is still the way to go. Personally I find it liberating to focus on the content and have a program handle all the nasty layout and typesetting.

If you want really high quality typesetting (i.e. word processing, but better), get LyX. It's a front end for LaTeX, which itself is a front end for TeX. The interface is weird and the tutorial is a must, but esp. if you want to do something with mathematics, the output is simply beautiful, and you don't need to learn LaTeX (it's a GUI, unlike LaTeX and TeX).

It uses a different kind of metaphor from traditional word processors, and definitely takes getting used to, but I swear by it. It's cross-platform and I believe it's listed in the Ubuntu repositories, possibly also in Debian.

What about lyx? It's the first result when googling WYSIWYG LaTeX.

It's free, Windows, Mac, Linux. I haven't used it before but since it's LaTeX under the hood it's the right target.

EDIT: I just installed lyx, and the default document when starting says "... don't worry, you don't need to know LaTeX to use LyX."

EDIT 2: In the main menu go to "Help" then "Tutorial", read sections 1 and 2 for introductions then skip to section 4 Math.

As a compromise between full on LaTeX and MS Word, maybe try LyX? I've never actually used it as I prefer the full LaTeX experience, but I have many equations and figures.

To get LaTeX/LyX/TeXMacs to play nicely with Mendeley, just go to Preferences->BibTeX->Enable BibTeX syncing. I have it create one file for my whole library, and then every change made to Mendeley syncs to my giant .bib file that I keep in the parent directory of my publications folder.

Citations and cross-referencing really are better in LaTeX variants than in Word. I have over 300 figures in my thesis and if I insert a new one somewhere, all of the numbers and references update themselves automatically. I realize Word can do this with the insert->references drop down list thingy, but it's way faster for me to type "as shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:awesomefig}" than it is to go through the whole click insert process every time.

LyX may be what you are looking for. It is a LaTeX frontend. I like it because it can be operated almost entirely without the need of a mouse. You can also use it for homework.

Otherwise, you could also set up a blog as a digital notebook. Wordpress.com has (crappy) built-in support for mathematical formulas. You can get MathJax to work on Tumblr. Jekyll (which you can deploy for free on GitHub or Heroku) is popular among web hipsters. It has good support for code blocks and MathJax can be integrated in it.

For a less steep learning curve, LyX is LaTeX with a graphical user interface (more or less). I prefer raw LaTeX myself, but then I like the power of command line interfaces.

And LaTeX is not just useful for math (not that /u/wygibmer said that). It makes it really easy to make professionally looking documents.

Try LyX. It is a LaTeX front-end and will introduce you to the LaTeX formula syntax without forcing you to learn all of the LaTeX syntax.

Wikibooks has a free book on LaTeX.

the newest version of LyX is a huge improvement over previous versions. It's not exactly wysiwyg, but it doesn't require the coding aspects (though you can always insert raw tex code to get whatever functionality Lyx doesn't have. I highly recommend it.

Io ti consiglio LyX (ricordati di installare anche latex-live). È un programma che ti permette di usare LaTeX graficamente (pur mantenendo la separazione tra struttura logica del contenuto e presentazione - che è il vero vantaggio di LaTeX) senza dover per forza imparare a scrivere in un linguaggio di markup che peraltro a mia opinione non è nemmeno comodissimo. Un altro vantaggio è che ti permette di usare i font del tuo sistema operativo in maniera molto facile (altrimenti usare font oltre a quelli che vengono con la distribuzione LaTeX è un po' complicato ma soprattutto tedioso). Siccome in realtà dietro c'è sempre LaTeX questo ti consente di inserire direttamente codice in markup quando ne hai bisogno o voglia, magari per utilizzare una funzione od un pacchetto particolari, oppure perché ad esempio preferisci scrivere le formule matematiche in TeX invece che usare l'editor grafico (che in effetti anche io trovo più macchinoso in quel caso). Perciò ti basterà consultare qualsiasi guida per LaTeX (tipo L'arte di scrivere con LaTeX) quando avrai la necessità di vedere come è la sintassi per uno specifico utilizzo. Un altro vantaggio è che con LyX inserire una tabella è banale, farlo scrivendola a mano è una cosa da masochisti. Uno svantaggio è che collaborare con qualcuno può essere più difficoltoso.

P.S.: qualunque editor e sistema tu scelga per utilizzare LaTeX, mi raccomando \usepackage{microtype}

Also /r/LaTeX

Update:

For those who prefer tutorials in non-video format:

• Wikibooks has a good tutorial on using LaTeX in general along with sections on Mathematics, proof writing, etc.

• ShareLeTex also has a good online tutorial as well. Share LaTeX also lets you write LaTeX documents online without having to download a TeX distribution or TeX file editor.

Although I've never used it, Lyx is a WYSIWYG editor with LaTeX backend.

Math snobs will scoff at the idea, but LyX is a WYSIWYG editor, and actually quite good! It makes for a good, gentle introduction to LaTeX before you plunge into just using Vim/Emacs. :)

Finding that "missing $ or too many }" while the professor is explaining the important stuff and seatmates are staring at my screen was extremely frustrating.

I used lyx for taking notes in math lessons and exported to pdflatex until I knew asciimathml. It wasn't the most beautiful notes because the subscripts weren't exactly in place etc. but it was very tolerant to syntax errors and I could type without looking most of the time.

As I prefer keyboard over mouse, I made most diagrams with ditaa.

+1 til Latex

LyX er et program, der gør det lettere for begyndere at arbejde med LaTeX. Jeg brugte det til mit filosofi-speciale, der blev lige så smukt som det var velargumenteret.

Protip: find et speciale template til LyX ...

I got a Boogie Board. It's a super thin and light tablet that you write on, then click the "save" button and it sends a pdf to your laptop or phone (you can also send it to evernote). Once the handwritten pdf is on my computer I can then edit and type it up.
http://www.amazon.com/Boogie-Board-9-7-Inch-eWriter-ST1020001/dp/B00E8CIGCA

For typing, I use LyX. If you don't have much TeX experience it's definitely the way to go to start learning, as it instantly displays what you type. Even if you do have TeX experience, it's still nice.
http://www.lyx.org/

I don't know what chemistry (as a field) uses mostly, but in physics and and astronomy (and, I think, math as well) we use a typesetting/markup language called LaTeX. There are a bunch of different LaTex editors/compilers out there, for all the major operating systems. It can be a bit of a pain to set up and learn, but once you get good at it, you can type out equations almost as fast as sentences. Here's an example of a document I did in LaTeX recently. The equations took very little effort to enter and work with, and integrate well into the text.

One of my friends swears by LyX, which is a LaTeX editor that supposedly (I've never tried it, so I can't say for sure) simplifies a lot of the complexities of LaTeX, if you're looking for an easy way to start.

If you need this for just one or two courses it might not be worth learning LaTeX (it's a lot like learning a new programming language, and so might be overkill for you), but if you think you might be doing a lot of equation-heavy documents in the future it might really pay off to learn it early in your career.

My two cents on that:

Framemaker isn't in the same class of tools as Scribus. Scribus is for doing layouts. Semantics are unimportant in layouts, but visual placement is paramount. Scribus is like InDesign: used for preparing things for print.

Framemaker is more akin to LaTeX. LaTeX and Framemaker are tools for creating semantic documents. When you create a semantic document, you assign significances to text and let the software handle layout.

Finally, there's word processors. Word processors (like Word, or LibreOffice Writer) don't deal with semantics, nor do they do print layouts. At their core, they allow you to apply some in-line formatting to text. More and more crap has been tacked on to that core, and now word processors are a wall-eyed mess. Don't use them for technical documentation OR print layouts unless you're an idiot or the documentation is extremely minimal.

I've never used Framemaker, but a little digging on the web makes me think that LaTeX is far more capable. If you need a GUI for LaTeX, try LyX.

I've found LyX to be a nice way to crank out tables or long equations in a hurry; it's got an easy to use interface and the code to produce what you have written up is automatically generated (like a happy union between Word and a standard TeX editor). Often, I'll have it open in the background while I'm working with another editor so that I can hop over and create a table or an equation, then just copy the code back into my main document.

Here's a link: http://www.lyx.org/

I was gonna suggest the same. I learned LaTeX first, which was kind of rough but there are tons of guides online to help. There's another program, LyX (free download too) which uses the same language as LaTeX but doesn't require you to do as much straight coding. I'd say LyX is easier to learn for someone transitioning from Word. It seems kind of tedious and annoying at first but the output makes it totally worth it.

I use Lyx, which (a) uses LaTex, (b) generates PDFs, and (c) is free.

The learning curve is a bit steep at first, but once you find your way around, you can generate very nice documents in many different styles. And the LaTeX features are pretty close to WYSIWYG.

I use Texworks which is a text editor with highlighting, autocomplete, and a button which compiles to Latex. I like it.

A lot of people like Lyx which is kinda halfway-WYSIWYG.

I think I learned Latex from Wikibooks: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX

Not what you're looking for maybe, but I wonder if people would find writing in LaTeX via LyX still too hard. (I haven't yet actually written a paper with it, but I tried and liked it). See also Using LyX for Linguistic Papers (including Tables and Optimality-Theoretic Tableaux).

Sennò puoi usare LyX, che di fatto ti consente di avere gli stessi vantaggi del LaTeX ma senza (necessariamente) imparare la sintassi, perché è un editor grafico ma che ti permette di lavorare sulla logica del documento e separatamente sulla presentazione (a differenza di Word che mischia le due cose). E comunque io per un po' l'ho usato "crudo" ma alla fine non è che ti impari tutto insieme (è impossibile), cerchi di capire come impostare un documento di base e poi quando ti serve qualcosa cerchi sul manuale (io uso questo). Ma questo lo puoi fare pure con LyX (che alla fine usa sempre LaTeX dietro le quinte). In più è molto più facile usare i font che hai già installato a livello di sistema operativo, mentre farlo con LaTeX è una cosa molto più complessa. LyX è open source, gratis, e multipiattaforma perciò lo puoi provare tranquillamente e vedere se ti va bene. Personalmente, ritengo che sia uno dei programmi meglio fatti e di maggior valore che abbia mai utilizzato, cosa ancor più incredibile se penso che è del tutto gratuito.

I used LyX exclusively for the last 8 months for homework and reports and have been very happy with it (that's following ~10 years using Vim for all my LaTeX work).

Edit: And, yes, I use LyX from start to finish.

For math typesetting, I haven't found anything better than LyX. It's free and open source, compiles to LaTeX (which in turn can go to PDF/HTML/Postscript), and has a visual equation editor which is pretty intuitive and efficient (I've used it to take notes during class and can keep up with an instructor talking - it uses standard LaTeX command codes but has a "nested box" interface that means you don't have to keep track of braces as you would if you were editing raw LaTeX). The only main problems I've had with it are that it's still not compatible with retina displays (everything looks blurry), and some occasional instances of input lag.

The rule for me is straightforward:

If my document is less than 20 pages, I always use Word. If my document is over 50 pages, I always use LaTeX. If my document is between 20 - 50 pages, I use LaTeX if I have to refer to lots of figures, sections, references, etc. and Word if I don't.

Reasoning is simple: in a 50+ page word document, having one issue with an image, figure, formula, etc.---like snapping to a corner of the page or doing some other stupid shit that destroys the layout of the next 40 pages---will take longer to fix than the time spent setting up a LaTeX document. And when I'm at a 50+ page document I always make page references for sections and figures, which LaTeX can do automatically. In a document under 20 pages, the likelihood for issues with layout is low, and so the setup time with LaTeX and the time spent tinkering with it isn't really worth it. Worst case, I can always just port the whole thing over to LaTeX if needed, without much sunk time.

Also, I use LyX when dealing with most LaTeX documents, because it's a lot easier to write--the formatting is shown in real-time, although more specific typesetting, float positions, etc. are calculated when you generate or preview the document. But equations are displayed properly, different classes have different font sizes/styles used, etc., which is nice.

to add to typesetting in LaTeX, you might want to consider starting with (or staying with, like me!) LyX. After spending maybe a half hour learning the basics from the tutorial it comes with, its REALLY easy to make fancy LaTeX documents (I think its great for a beginner in LaTeX). The only issue I can think of is that you might have trouble installing

I use LyX. It makes LaTeX super easy to jump into. Most of my grad school cohort has graduated to using LaTeX directly so it seems to be a good way to ease into it. Writing up math equations and proofs is ridiculously easy in LyX, which is why I've used it for the last 1.5 years of grad school.

Lyx. Fastest way to type latex. It is a WYSIWYG. So with the exception of equations, basically the letters you see are what you will get (when it prints). Formatting is super easy -- there are menu options to set it. To do formatted equations you go into math mode by typing [CTRL-m]. http://www.lyx.org/Walkthrough4

LyX is a graphical front-end to Latex, designed "for people who want their writing to look great, right out of the box."

http://www.lyx.org/Screenshots

From the screenshots it looks promising and more focused on scientific papers.

You can also extend it by adding LaTeX code anywhere in the document.

I think I understand. I would, then, consider /r/FeMRAdebates, as it's whole purpose is to discuss sensitive topics. Though I would still suggest you apply my first and last points.

Also, are you more specifically looking for responses on these issues individually, or whether or not they form a cohesive concept of "female privilege." If it's the latter, I'd suggest you look more into the concepts of male disposability (in contrast), and in pro-woman cognitive biases. That is, I would suggest that sexist attitudes that attribute positive effects (usually considered benevolent sexism) should not be approached as a form of discrimination, but of privilege, as it confers more advantage than disadvantage. As others have said, the MRA position is largely predicated on the idea that societal gender roles tend to have two sides that are really the same concept. Case in point: "men are perceived as strong." That is usually lumped in with privilege, not "benevolent sexism," though some feminists will admit there is little difference when pressed.

Similarly, on your list, 1,4,11,23 and to a lesser extent some others all are benefits derived from a general [over]valuation of a woman's appearance. This is usually labeled as objectification; that is, the people conferring this advantage are doing so because they see not a person (who gets no special advantage) but being whose primary value is sexual. In es sense, that means that overvaluation of a woman's sexuality can be both a disadvantage or an advantage (usually, but not always, more the former if she is ugly, and more the latter if she is pretty).

Personally, I always considered Latex an abomination. It seems to be used as much as a rite of passage into some elitist field of science-ness as much as a useful standard. There are some Latex word processors out there though, that you might try out.

A great source for finding out about Latex fonts is the Latex font catalogue: http://www.tug.dk/FontCatalogue/

A great macro is the microtype package. You can just use the \usepacakge{microtpe} in your preamble, but the package contains many more great features. Also, make sure you run the tex live utility at least once a month and check for updates (its so easy to get behind)

As for editors, I recommend Tex Maker for working with pure Latex and Lyx for a very good Microsoft Word like experience. http://www.lyx.org . I would recommend going into settings and changing the default and ugly yellow background into white. Hope this helps.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned WYSIWYG editors for LaTeX. I do almost all of my writing in LaTeX, and find that the benefits of using an editor like LyX. Although there is an upfront cost to learning the interface and, the benefit of being able to edit equations and view output in real time far outweighs any difficulties. Ultimately you save keystrokes due to the various useful keyboard shortcuts.

(As a new LaTeX user this will not be important now, but LyX is only a hair's width from the underlying TeX code, so it is technically possible to reproduce any document you'd like within the editor, and furthermore, once you are comfortable editing within LyX you can learn to work in plain LaTeX very easily.)

I recently found and started messing with TeXmacs. Despite the name, it's not Emacs, nor is it a TeX frontend like LyX; it's its own WYSIWYG word processor heavily inspired by TeX and Emacs. Next time I need to write something that needs to look nice I plan to give it a try and see how it does.

LyX is a bit less frightening than LaTeX, and has got collaboration tools, so it might be useful as a gateway drug (I have not tried the collaboration tools, so I can not vouch for their quality).

No problem! Thank you. If you want to learn LaTex, starting with something like LyX may help http://www.lyx.org/

It basically lets you use LaTex as though it was WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) and allows you to swap back and forth. It is definitely useful if you have to/want to use LaTex but aren't entirely comfortable with it yet and you don't want it to take forever.

Like /u/eYp2At7K, I also like LyX for doing linguistics stuff, and you can find some information on how to do things like interlinear glosses both in the Linguistics Tutorial that comes with LyX or at the LyX wiki for linguists

Unlike /u/eYp2At7K, though, I use the forest package. If you want some basic help on how to use the Forest package in LyX, I've actually created an additional section to the LyX wiki tutorial to help explain it a bit. I can send it to you, if you'd like.

You might want to look at LyX

>LyX combines the power and flexibility of TeX/LaTeX with the ease of use of a graphical interface.

It should be good for making notes during class.

If you're going to use LaTeX (which you should know for physics/math) then I also highly recommend using Lyx. You type as if it were a word document and then converts it to the code for you. No need to write out long code just for one equation. It's a great time saver!

Libre office is a fork of openoffice - maintained by many of the original openoffice folk. It should be fine for most users' needs.

Wordperfect is still kicking around and some people (ie legal staffers) still swear by it.

If you're into very intricate document formatting, have a look at lyx.

For a beginner, LyX might be a good introduction to the realm of *TeX. I actually started using LyX, then got fed up with its naivety and moved to LaTeX (then XeTeX 'cause OpenType is cool and not everyone uses the Latin alphabet!).

Other than LyX, I'd recommend a decent editor - I hear emacs has a reasonably good mode for LaTeX but I personally prefer TeXstudio

As an aside, am I the only one who finds CTAN package docs really enjoyable? The nice formatting makes for such a huge difference IMO.

> I have discovered this new method.

Have you considered making it readable? You have many choices to accomplish this:

• The Lyx editor (free). You can use it to write your entire article including Latex math notation.

• The LibreOffice word processor and its math editor. Easier to use than Lyx, but the result isn't as nice.

• My online LaTeX editor, not as good as the above choices, just for small-scale experiments with notation.

And many others.

TextMate has a license fee, so here's a link to alternativeto for similar programs (some of which you might already have), though I don't know off-hand how/whether you can sync these all up side-by-side with a compiled display.

http://alternativeto.net/software/textmate/

And, while I like TextMate...

Also, people should check out LyX, which is a free WYSIWYG editor for TeX stuff. You essentially type into something that looks like the compiled display. It has a lot of the features mentioned in the blog.

Another tip, if you want to write documents in LaTeX but don't actually want to learn it: LyX is a WYSIWYG editor for LaTeX. You can write your equations and documents using the graphical tools in there, and then copy-paste the source (go to View > View Source).

Ok. The value you have isn't the limit because you've plugged in a particular value for x that is close to 0. Try plugging in even closer values to 0 for x (such as 10^(-100), 10^(-1000), etc.) You should see that the values of sine aren't approaching 0.487525, but rather they oscillate wildly and don't approach any particular value.

Edit: Lyx is a WYSIWYG Latex editor you might want to try.

> To those who use LaTeX regularly, do you write TeX documents in a text editor by hand? Or do you use some kind of IDE (or even WYSIWYG) editor?

I write LaTeX in Vim using the Vim-LaTeX suite. It has a gazillion macros which take a lot of time to remember but it is worth it (just like Vim,) at least for me.

LyX is a great WYSIWYG editor.

> Also, where would you suggest going to to start learning to write TeX docs? Are there any tutorials you'd recommend?

I believe I used this one which is pretty decent and comprehensive but there are many more, including lots of presentations from various universities.

Depending on your needs, something like Markdown (which you already use) and HTML2PDF or similar might work. I've certainly done so in the past for fairly light projects.

But, as others have noted, comparing vim and Word is an apples and oranges sort of thing, even if the apple is awesomely juicy and the orange is rotten. They do different things entirely. LyX (a GUI for LaTeX) might fit your needs if you want to go in that direction.

you could try using lyx. Its a program that uses LaTex and allows you to use a much more "Word-like" window.

When you have time/learn more about LaTex, you can view the source code for your document and edit things on that level as well.

I really was happy to have this program on my side when I started writing papers in college. It allowed me to learn LaTex while still producing great looking documents (even though its the content that really matters ;))

Sounds like this is a bug/unimplemented feature in libreoffice. I'd suggest just using .doc, then. Is there a microsoft approved docx to doc converter? You could use that and maintain compatibility.

I second the recommendation to learn LaTeX if you plan on using lots of formulae. Bookmark this and check out kile or lyx to help you get started.

I think that doing notes by hand really is the best option -- faster and more flexible than any software you're likely to come across. That said, LyX is quite good at fast LaTeX typesetting. Basically, it lets you write LaTeX "on the fly", and it's very simple to write matrices and other complicated expressions that it would simply be too difficult to do while taking notes. Give it a try!

>With LaTeXiT, what's wrong with Open Office Math? It's just as powerful.

Dude. It's LaTeX. It's much more powerful and refined as a typesetting language than anything I've seen. As for an alternative to LaTeXiT, I hear good things about LyX.

It seems to me that if you're willing to go to through the trouble of integrating LaTex, then you might as well do it right. There is more than one piece of software that makes it easy.

• [original post](/r/programming/comments/25w0j/lyx_is_designed_for_authors_who_want_professional/?ref=search_posts)
• poster: [oska](/u/oska)
• sub: [/r/programming](/r/programming)
• score: 49
• comments: 7

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That complicate things. Maybe a little, maybe a lot, depends on people you work with.

Maybe LyX is what you need, but I've never used it. If you want to stick with vim try vimtex plugin. Of course, you need some way to share documents, so learning git is a good idea.

LaTeX typesetting works if you're more focused on the words than how they look as you're working with them.

I use a text editor (Caret) but any editor including vim (mentioned elsewhere) could work. I organise my notes in comments within the text file and have two separate physical journals to write general notes in, that way the important notes for any given scene or chapter are all together and the notes for the story can be easily found.

Overleaf (https://www.overleaf.com/) is a more visual approach and I use it when I want to get real-time feedback to tweaks and experiments with LaTeX commands.

Lyx (http://www.lyx.org/) is a whole document processor based around LaTeX.

There are also front-ends to LaTeX, like lyx, which would make LaTeX easier to use. There's also TeXmacs, which used to be a LaTeX front end, but is now, apparently, completely independent.

> However it can only produce PDFs.

You can also convert (basic) documents to HTML.

> There are only a few things you need a more powerful tool (like Latex) for.

That's funny; I would consider LaTeX to be simpler than Word. Though there are certainly plenty of packages for LaTeX that can make it much more complicated and powerful.

I imagine you are talking about stylistic sets and figures? If so, a good way to take advantage of that power is to use Xe(La)TeX via LyX. Download here.

A quick blurb about it: LyX is a front-end for a massive engine called TeX. It takes advantage of a set of macros and "document processors" to image your text on the page professionally every time. It is a WYSIWYM - a paradigm shift to say the least. If you want a quick walkthrough of it's use (it's the most powerful typesetting program available), PM me.

That is why I suggest using LyX. If you work through fontspec, you can achieve some absolutely amazing control over OTF and TTF fonts. It would also allow you to "use" your font without remapping it.

Apart from using InDesign, this is the closest you can get to it.

As for re-arranging the font - I sense your frustration is attached to the idea that remapping the font would help. It won't. It would be a nightmare. If it's encoded in UTF-8/16 you are going to have some very specific hints and placement for the font. Unless you are experienced with FontForge or an equivalent, you would not only waste your time but grow a few gray hairs in the process.

The most important reason you should try NOT to remap a font would because of the blatant copyright/patent infringement it would take to do it. A font is a piece of software, and changing it would violate the terms of use you made with it. Remember, owning software/fonts does not give you the right to modify it. You only have the right to use it according to the license terms.

I'm currently working on my masters thesis. I'm using Lyx, which is an application that uses the tex framework. In short, it formats everything for you (you just have to mark words as titles or chapters/sections etc), and make it look like what a typical book report would.

http://www.lyx.org/

Here's a quick example I spent 30 seconds on:

http://i.imgur.com/Syxfi1X.png

LyX is a LaTeX based document processor that allows you to use LaTeX without learning the whole language. Probably not necessary as a MechEng, though.

MATLAB/Scilab and Solidworks are pretty key.

I would personally recommend Texmaker as well because it is consistent across all the different platforms.

However, I feel it is also necessary to mention Lyx as a WYSIWYM editor for the beginner.

Have you... actually used Tex? With the right editor it's not that hard to learn. You can use LyX to have a wysiwyg editor. You can use images of basically whatever format you want. You can break your documents into logical pieces. You get a document navigator. Math looks great. You can make slide shows in the same format as your documents.

Most importantly, in TeX you do not have to declare formatting in line. This is the most misunderstood amazing benefit of TeX as compared to eg. Microsoft Word. In TeX, you describe your document style in a separate file and then give zero attention to things like that while composing. You don't have to fool around with paragraph properties, tab stops, or any of that other stuff that MS Word makes "easy". In TeX, you can do inline formatting, but it's rare and usually completely un-necessary.

C'est pour ça qu'on a utilisé Lyx au final, c'est Latex enrobé dans un éditeur visuel: http://www.lyx.org/Screenshots

Tu gardes la puissance de latex pour ce qui est de la structure de documents, mise en page, etc. mais c'est utilisable par des humains normaux et quand tu sors le PDF au final c'est du rendu latex impeccable. La prise en main est rapide même pour quelqu'un qui a toujours utilisé Word.

I think what you probably want is LyX. It bridges the gap between (La)TeX and Word. Underneath, it utilizes LaTeX's powerful typesetting macro language by making the graphical interface purely semantic, as opposed to Word, where you generally muck with the formatting directly (I know it's possible to make Word more semantic, but not commonly done).

Edit: I know this isn't actually what OP asked for, but I think it would fulfill OP's implied goals of making beautifully typeset documents without dramatically altering the workflow.

Glad I could help!

I'm sure you've probably been told (or will be told when you start the project) what sort of questions you're allowed to ask online about your project and which things you're meant to research yourself. As long as you stick to that, I'd be happy to help you understand anything you might have trouble with (you can PM me directly or post on /r/learnmath - I'd recommend the latter so you can get other people's answers too)

Also, given that this would be quite a formula-heavy project, I'm going to plug LyX as a good word processor which has "proper" support for formulas (as opposed to Word, which only sort of does).

You could give LyX a try. Most math papers, printed out homework and such is done in LaTeX, but LaTeX is a bit complicated to learn, and unless you're doing math at a university level is probably overkill. LyX simplifies it to a WSYIWYG editor that is easier to work with.

LibreOffice Math is terrible and unfriendly.

I wouldn't use it LO Math+Writer over LyX or GNU TexMacs or even MS Office + MathType.

My personal approach would be to use (and learn, it will be useful later) LaTeX or if that's too intimidating; a table in ms word (and use the equation editor), or simply inserting the radical sign/pi symbol from the symbol chart in excel should work.

If you like the concept of LaTeX but it's a bit much, try Lyx.

To add to this response, there is a document processor with gui which uses TeX/LaTeX: http://www.lyx.org/.

A good way to learn LaTeX could be to create a document in LyX and then export it to a .tex file and go through the file to see how content is marked up in LaTeX.

Lyx is pretty awesome for complicated math formulas. It's WYSIWYM (M at the end stands for Mean intead of the usual Get). There are some LaTeX editors that offer those live features as well like Bakoma, but those are not free.

You might want to try using LyX as it's an open source document processor that started out as a pure LaTeX editor.

As you can see from the features page I linked to it exports to both RTF and to MS Word formats, so you get to use TeX as you intended and still comply with the Prof by submitting MS Word.

For a bit more of a friendlier/easier front end to LaTeX, have a look at LyX. You can do all of the trickier stuff with LyX (though using custom academic journal template files can be difficult) and whip up very nice looking documents quickly with it. Really great user guide as well as a sort of "tutorial" for those people coming from a MSWord like document processor background.

Virtually unparalleled for writing out math (whilst writing my undergraduate honours thesis (which we had a custom template for) I could type out equations as quick as I could handwrite them) in terms of ease and formatting.

I think you are looking for something like LyX. Not sure how it handles maths though. If you plan on writing a thesis (or really any math!) it would be beneficial to learn latex.

If you are just starting out, you might want to consider using LyX. It's a LaTeX editor that shows you what you're doing. Equations are shown in the editor in the same way they will look when processed, etc.

For those who don't know LaTeX markup, (it's not too hard) there's LyX. It's basically just a graphical frontend, making it more usable by humans and those who don't need all the control that hand-written markup gives. The Windows install uses MiKTeX for actual typesetting.

If you're willing to accept a somewhat different paradigm for word processing, LyX will produce documents more sophisticated and elegant than anything you could ever produce in MS Word.

http://www.lyx.org/

The Beauty of LaTeX is a great article which explains some of the typographic points of difference.

14$ for a LaTeX formula editor? Google has some good links for free ones (on the Mac). Texmaker and LyX come to mind. The ease of the interface isn't worth that much really.

While you can do like everyone is recommending and go to the Prof and explain your situation, you can also just learn to use Latex and fix all your problems.

I've always had horrible handwriting. Whenever I tried to write well it would take forever. I learned to just use Latex. Once I got the hang of it it actually saved me time.

Check out Lyx. It's an document processor for Latex, and makes writing math/science stuff up really easy. Give it a try.

Also, you never stated in your post that your class is only 5 people. He wasn't calling you out or anything. In a small class like that a prof will tend to treat it more informally. And honestly, he probably thought you were joking, since it doesn't seem as if you've exhibited other fine motor coordination inabilities. If you know you have dyscrapia you should've already been tested for it when you were younger. Just show him the test results and he'll probably accommodate you.

But yeah, use Lyx. It'll make yours and everyone else's life a lot easier.

And to answer your question, no, it's not "wrong" to grade on handwriting if it's difficult to decipher and causes the prof to spend way more time grading your homework than should be necessary. Is it "wrong" to penalize a disability? Yes. But that wasn't the title of your post.

There's http://www.lyx.org/ -- some people like it, but I've never used it myself. I think it's not truly WYSIWYG, but instead gives you some heuristic view of your text while you edit. (They call it WYSIWYM, M is for "mean".) But then you can have it typeset your document using TeX.

Use LyX and the CV document class (example). Not only will it look professionally typeset, it'll save you time creating it as well.

What you're after is a easy enough to do in TeX/LaTeX. Check out LyX for an easy entry.

Microsoft has an Equation Editor that some people prefer to learning something new.