TeX users...thoughts?

[CrAz3D]

A buddy (working on PhD in...something computery at Purdue) uses LaTeX, and always suggests it to me when I have document-editing Qs.  I hit him up w/Qs because he is super software-literate, and does presentations. 

My most recent problem was inserting PDF files into a Word doc - I had to submit one Word doc, but I had six PDF attachments and three Excel attachments.  My solution was convert all the PDF pages into images (PDFile PDF Tools, or something, was used), then insert each IMG.  Lame sauce.

My bud says LaTeX is supa eezee once you get a grasp of its capabilities.  I DL'd LyX, and have started to play.

QUESTION:  Do yall use it to compile lengthy reports that include graphics, misc attachments, etc?  Is it useful?  Is it easy enough to learn?  Do you prefer LaTeX, or the LyX interface?

*hugs & kisses*

[deadly7]

Windows 7 I use MiKTeX. TeX is incredibly frustrating. It's great for mathematical type and general typesetting, but dealing with alignment and sizing of tables, images, etc causes many headaches.

[CrAz3D]

I installed LyX, which also installed MikTeX and TeX editor for me....*shrug* I dunt know the difference between all this crap yet.

Have you used LyX, which I understand to be more of a UI-oriented TeX editor?

[Sidoh]

LaTeX is awesome. It is a bit of a headache at times, but I'm always comforted by the fact that if it's a headache in LaTeX, it'd be an order of magnitude worse in anything like MS word.

I've used LyX a little bit, but I always end up going back to vim + command-line.

It's definitely worth learning if you need to write technical reports.

[nslay]

Use TeX Live on Windows, OS X and Unix. MiKTeX SUCKS! All I know is that it is constantly missing packages that even obsolete TeTeX has. It also often compiles documents incorrectly! TeX Live is the defacto standard TeX distribution anyway ... accept no substitute!

The best way to familiarize yourself with LaTeX is by looking at someone's old math homework. I have mastered LaTeX (I use it for papers, posters, slide shows, reports, automated reports, etc... even with fancy stuff like animation) and have yet to read a tutorial on it.

[deadly7]

MiKTeX comes with many packages and asks if you want it to find the others you need to compile. I went through that process just under a month ago.

[CrAz3D]

hmm....wonder if its even worth it considering that any group project I do pretty much has to be in Word since no one else knows of/uses TeX stuff.  hummm.

I guess it could be fun, though

[Sidoh]

MiKTeX comes with many packages and asks if you want it to find the others you need to compile. I went through that process just under a month ago.

Maybe, but I don't know why you wouldn't use the standard compiler ;p

[deadly7]

Maybe, but I don't know why you wouldn't use the standard compiler ;p

I use vim (well, gvim since I'm on Win7) to write it up and then compile with miktex. The standard latex libraries don't exist for windows afaik.

[Falcon]

Omg just use MS word you nerds!

[Sidoh]

Omg just use MS word you nerds!

Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.

Seriously. I've done this a few times. I felt too lazy to start a LaTeX project, and dreaded the twiddling, compiling, twiddling some more ad nauseum. What a pain in the ass. no thanks, I'll do it in word.

Then I realize that doing it in word is much worse. It's still twiddling ad nauseum, but I have much less control over what I twiddle and by how much. THIS BULLET'S INDENTATION IS OFF, FUCK! This figure isn't in the position I want it to be. FUCK!

Seriously, fuck writing anything much more complicated than an essay in word.

[CrAz3D]

I 'unno...I've pulled off some impressive crap in word.  That said, the only problem with my recent doc was formatting page numbers (I had to insert approx 60 pages of images, and I changed margin to 0" so it'd have the image over the whole page, but then the placement of pg #s got fucked).

http://dailycrazed.net/personal/Paper.docx (previous version - oops)
http://dailycrazed.net/personal/final.draft.docx

[Falcon]

Omg just use MS word you nerds!

Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.
Fuck that.

Seriously. I've done this a few times. I felt too lazy to start a LaTeX project, and dreaded the twiddling, compiling, twiddling some more ad nauseum. What a pain in the ass. no thanks, I'll do it in word.

Then I realize that doing it in word is much worse. It's still twiddling ad nauseum, but I have much less control over what I twiddle and by how much. THIS BULLET'S INDENTATION IS OFF, FUCK! This figure isn't in the position I want it to be. FUCK!

Seriously, fuck writing anything much more complicated than an essay in word.

Bullet indentation is off? Fix it. Figure not in right place? Drag it somewhere else/resize it. Its called not being lazy.

[nslay]

Bullet indentation is off? Fix it. Figure not in right place? Drag it somewhere else/resize it. Its called not being lazy.

That's not how TeX works. In TeX, someone decides how a professional document of a particular type (e.g. reports, papers, etc...) should be formatted. All you do is fill in the blanks. Unfortunately, it is also a little more time consuming than Microsoft Word, but it also gives you a more professional formatting for your time.

[CrAz3D]

sounds like little flexibility.