If you find Latex too daunting, take a look at Lyx. It works more like a WYSIWYG word proc without changing the Lyx/Latex concept of writing what you mean. On

If you find Latex too daunting, take a look at Lyx. It works more like a WYSIWYG word proc without changing the Lyx/Latex concept of writing what you mean. One huge win with Latex is that if your publication is formatted to, say ACM guidelines, and it gets rejected, it takes less than a day to convert to IEEE transactions guidelines. With a WYSIWYG word proc, even with extensive use of styles, it would take many days to achieve the same level of transformation.