Typesetting/Word Processing

[Мастер]

Does anyone here other than myself use anything besides Microsoft products for their word processing/typesetting needs?

[Arneb]

I had a major bug in the Word section of my microsoft office package last year. It survived even de- and reinstallation of the entire package. I tberefore installed open office on the laptop, set its Writer software to saving in word 1997 to 2003 format and use it as kind of pseudo Word. My work texts aren't very intricatw typographically, so there haven' been any compatibility issues. However tbis alprpach fails immediately with open office's presentation software. An imported powerpoint file is mangled beyond usability ev3n for my rather modest presentations.

The Write software appears dec3nt enough for my needs. Nice surface, basically Word but with a fresher layout, less fuss, no talking paperclip and free. Reasonable choice it seems to me, but if you need any exchange with the MS Office universe, you are probably in trouble once you go beyond tbe most basic formatting: issues.

[Мастер]

I have had OpenOffice installed on my primary computers for some time, and use it mostly for the spreadsheet.

I never, ever, ever use Power Point or Word (or the OpenOffice counterparts) unless it involves opening a document which someone else has sent to me.

For both (word processing documents, like letters, papers, etc., and presentations) I use LaTeX. Always, not matter how simple the document is. This is not a strategy that I recommend others follow, unless you plan on using LaTeX a lot - the output looks great (in my opinion), but the learning curve is a bit steep.

The reason I brought this up was, I have started to think (and I can't emphasise how much it pains me to say this) that there might actually be some things which Microsoft Word is better at. LaTeX is really a file format - a LaTeX document is a text file, with embedded commands. You can use any text editor you like to edit it, although some editors are designed to work with LaTeX files, and make certain tasks a lot easier. There are also a couple of compilers, which take the LaTeX file and produce an output file (originally, a "DVI" format, but these days one would probably just produce a "PDF" most of the time). So what you see in your screen is definitely not what you get in the output (although with some editors, it is a little closer than with others). But computers are fast enough these days that, for relatively short documents, it's pretty close to instantaneous feedback - typically you have an "edit" window and an "output" window simultaneously, do your editing, click on the "compile" button, and see what it looks like within a few seconds.

LaTeX is great, but it is an old system, back to the 80s, I think. In particular, I think it does not work so well with Unicode, one of the great inventions of the modern era (in my opinion). My current LaTeX file editor is TeXWorks, which displays Unicode just fine. So I can type things like "the symbol σ is the Greek letter sigma", and it looks just like that in my editor. But when I compile, the σ disappears in the PDF output. I think what is happening is, the LaTeX compiler uses the default font, looks in the font configuration file for the measurements of the Greek letter sigma, finds it isn't implemented in the default font set, and therefore allocates zero space for it in the output. What I have to write in the LaTeX file is, "the symbol $\sigma$ is the Greek letter sigma", where the dollar signs tell the LaTeX compiler to switch to math mode, and the \sigma indicates the command for the Greek letter sigma in the default math font.

It seems to me (and again, it really pains me to say this), that MS Word handles this better. Just cut-and-paste a σ from somewhere, stick it in your Word document, and it works.

Oh well, no question, just venting my frustration that this typesetting system which I use for everything, and which produces very nice output, does have its awkward quirks.

[Heid the Ba]

The Mem has sold her soul to Apple so our laptop uses whatever Apple have, it is fairly Word compatible. I do some writing on the train, usually on an iPad (with keyboard case) and it runs Open Office but I sometimes need to cut and paste the documents into an e-mail to send them anywhere. That is probably due to my lack of techie skillz though.

[Мастер]

The Mem has sold her soul to Apple so our laptop uses whatever Apple have, it is fairly Word compatible. I do some writing on the train, usually on an iPad (with keyboard case) and it runs Open Office but I sometimes need to cut and paste the documents into an e-mail to send them anywhere. That is probably due to my lack of techie skillz though.

I've pretty much sold my soul to Apple as well. It does have its own word processor, but I never use it for anything. I have MS Office installed on my laptop, need to do the same on my new office desktop. OpenOffice is installed on the laptop also, I think it is not on the desktop.