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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Wingdings;color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>Ø<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]>Isn't LaTex a non-WYSIWYG application, though? I can't imagine working that way in this century. I don't think I've done that since Wordstar. :)<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo1'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-family:Wingdings'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>Ø<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]>Mike Wickham<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Absolutely correct that it is non-WYSIWYG for the text input. So, it does require a change in thinking when writing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><i><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>However</span></i><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>(a)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There are plenty of editors that allow the input text files to be simply previewed … almost as you type, with full support for automated instruction entry, so that you can see the expected final output (which is PDF in my case) in a hurry. With today’s fast computers, the regeneration of the PDF output on my system – even for multiple hundred page documents – takes less than 5 to 10 seconds, and usually far less.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level2 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>a.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I am sure that there are more options, but what I have found to work very well is: TeXstudio available at <a href="http://texstudio.sourceforge.net/">http://texstudio.sourceforge.net/</a>. This editor handles all the language issues of LaTeX cleanly and allows me to focus on the writing. With pdftolatex support built into TeXstudio, I can preview the PDF side-by-side to the input text, <i>almost</i> as fast as WYSIWYG editors!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>(b)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Far too often, people – particularly novice writers and the engineers we like to pejorate (is there such a word? :)) – spend <i>more</i> time on paragraph and document formatting and less on the content. Using a text editor to create the content is actually a better approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level2 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>a.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>When I first started using FrameMaker, I would start by editing the text and then later add the formatting where I wanted. Later, when I had a set of documents already written, I could simply re-use one to get the correct look-and-feel. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='margin-left:1.0in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level2 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>b.<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If anyone <i>now</i> provides me input for one of my documents – usually in Word – I simply save it as a text file, bring it into my LaTeX document as an include file, and then can quickly add the LaTeX instructions to make it have the correct headers, formatting and the like. Quick and easy!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>So, <i>for me</i>, the advantages of LaTeX, particularly when used with an editor that handles adding the instructions (like TeXstudio), are <i>very</i> workable. I used to use LaTeX decades ago with more pain, but today’s amazing community support (from the millions of users it has) and fast computers (to preview the output in almost real-time) has made it a simple re-adoption. As Mikey says, “Try it, you’ll like it!”. :)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Z</span><br><br><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><blockquote style='margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt'><div><p class=MsoNormal> It's nice to know there is a free alternative to FrameMaker, which has become very overpriced lately. They went from $400 for an upgrade every 2 or 3 versions to $400 to upgrade only one version.<o:p></o:p></p></div></blockquote><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>