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I tried to learn LaTex a long time ago when I was just getting started with Linux, but gave up when I found that I could use MS Word and get what I needed, with

I tried to learn LaTex a long time ago when I was just getting started with Linux, but gave up when I found that I could use MS Word and get what I needed, without the steep learning curve. I'm sure LaTex is much better than Word for some things, but I've never needed anything as specialized as LaTex. In fact, I don't use 99% of what Word is capable of and most of the time I'm using a simple text editor or vim or atom.

zuron7 9y ago
LaTeX was never meant to be used as a word processor. It's amazing for Math and other scientific writing, but apart from that, it's just much faster to open up your basic Word Processor and get on to playing the keys.
- sotojuan 9y ago
  The problem is that a lot of LaTeX zealots and fanboys tell you to use it as soon as you mention Word/Pages/Google Docs/etc. This can confuse beginners and the public in general as to what LaTeX is for.
  - taeric 9y ago
    Meh. The public, in general, has a hard time with Word, too. Which isn't to say that word processors aren't nice. I actually held off on learning LaTeX years ago because I didn't see the point. The fact that I can still reliably open my documents is huge, though. And it only takes training to learn to use it. For transient things that just don't matter? Yeah, they work fine. What irks a lot of us is how we typically are given yet another document sharing method for documents that have to be kept in sync with source. Worse, a SharePoint or workdocs link that only works from one of my browsers correctly and has horrendous correspondence features. So bad that collaboration typically is, pick someone from the team and they will completely own this.
    - foldr 9y ago
      >The fact that I can still reliably open my documents is huge, though I've had multiple instances where a document that compiled with one LaTeX installation didn't compile with another. It was always possible to fix after a certain amount of head-scratching, but LaTeX is a twisted network of packages that interact with each other in unpredictable ways, and there's no real guarantee that your LaTeX will still compile in 10 years.
      - taeric 9y ago
        This is not that surprising. But I usually limited the packages I would use. Certainly didn't use too many in one shot. I've toyed with the idea of going vanilla TeX for most things. Haven't done it, yet. Org-mode has made it so I really like the source format.
    - RhysU 9y ago
      Word processor file formats lack diffs that a human can read. And nobody has had show codes since WP died. LaTeX is a mystery, but it rewards the curious.
      - _acme 9y ago
        Word itself will diff Word documents beautifully, and there are alternative solutions as well (Workshare/DeltaView, Change-Pro, etc.) that are even more powerful.
        taeric 9y ago
        It has certainly gotten better, to say it is beautiful is a stretch. Seems invariably, someone doesn't realize which is the old and which the new. So, when someone finally "accepts" the changes, something if getting lost. Worse, the folks that never accept and just keep passing the review docs. And heaven help you if you want to preview style or layout changes. (And please don't take it as this being fixed by other toolchains. Not my intent.)
- CarVac 9y ago
  If you just want to put words on a page and print it out, sure, use a word processor. But if you have to generate more than one document with the same formatting, or a very large document, LaTeX is the way to go. I use it, interfaced with SQLite-generated CSV files, to compile 50 page reports for work with no effort at all. This process used to take hours. Another thing I do for work is using SQL to actually generate LaTeX documents programmatically, using premade macros that are stored in a class file. The power and consistent behavior is what makes it better than word processors.
  - tomcam 9y ago
    Interesting approach. You imply that your output is not printed. It seems to me that HTML with style sheets would be an equally good approach? Not telling you, just curious about your workflow. Any browser can handle a 50 page document without breaking a sweat.
    - CarVac 9y ago
      It is printed, in fact, so browser stuff wouldn't work.
      - thomasfedb 9y ago
        It could. I have a couple of apps that will render HTML to PDF server-side for users to download. Rendering LaTeX to PDF would be far less fuss, however, when you already have the HTML templates it is the path of least resistance.
  - zuron7 9y ago
    True, it would be easier, but a common person can do the same thing in Office much faster. Linking Excel columns to fill a Word document doesn't take that long. I've seen a few places use Excel as a billing software with a little bit of VBScript. Outside of the tech world, I don't see it gaining traction. At the end of the day, we all need different products for different kinds of users. If you're wondering, I'm the LaTeX kind, used it everywhere I could.
- TheRealPomax 9y ago
  As someone who writes "word process" documents using XeLaTeX: no it isn't. It's MUCH faster to spend one day of your life setting up a good preamble, and then never using Word and friends ever again. However, that one day is filled with rage and confusion. Then again: if you're serious about writing, is it worth it? Absolutely.
ArneBab 9y ago
If you ever want easy-to-update, high quality documents, LaTeX is what you want. You simply see the difference between word and LaTeX. With microtype, you can easily reproduce the quality of highly paid typography-experts.
- JorgeGT 9y ago
  Not to speak about versioning! I can easily git diff my LaTeX plain text files, but doing so with Word files...
  - raarts 9y ago
    Versioning is where the Microsoft world, and probably all graphical word processors suck big-time. The world of pain I go through when I have to collaborate with partners in government or defence, sending back and forth word files from various word versions and tracking comments and changes leaves me losing the will to live. Oh if we would only have the GitHub GUI for Office files!
    - _acme 9y ago
      Word itself provides a compare function that works very well, and there are alternative tools that also provide versioning functionality that can be combined with various document management tools, essentially providing GitHub for Word files (see, e.g., Interwoven iManage, etc.).
      - raarts 9y ago
        Unless you work with different Word versions, and different people across different organisations and send Word documents back and forth, trying to keep a workflow going... Also commenting sucks, in some versions replies add a comment (which renumbers them all..), and in the next version the comment numbers are not displayed. It's a mess really. Add-ons like iManage are relatively useless if you work with multiple orgs.
- TylerE 9y ago
Koshkin 9y ago
Check out TeXmacs, it's amazing - powerful and easy to use.

zuron7 9y ago

LaTeX was never meant to be used as a word processor. It's amazing for Math and other scientific writing, but apart from that, it's just much faster to open up your basic Word Processor and get on to playing the keys.

sotojuan 9y ago
The problem is that a lot of LaTeX zealots and fanboys tell you to use it as soon as you mention Word/Pages/Google Docs/etc. This can confuse beginners and the public in general as to what LaTeX is for.
- taeric 9y ago
  Meh. The public, in general, has a hard time with Word, too. Which isn't to say that word processors aren't nice. I actually held off on learning LaTeX years ago because I didn't see the point. The fact that I can still reliably open my documents is huge, though. And it only takes training to learn to use it. For transient things that just don't matter? Yeah, they work fine. What irks a lot of us is how we typically are given yet another document sharing method for documents that have to be kept in sync with source. Worse, a SharePoint or workdocs link that only works from one of my browsers correctly and has horrendous correspondence features. So bad that collaboration typically is, pick someone from the team and they will completely own this.
  - foldr 9y ago
    >The fact that I can still reliably open my documents is huge, though I've had multiple instances where a document that compiled with one LaTeX installation didn't compile with another. It was always possible to fix after a certain amount of head-scratching, but LaTeX is a twisted network of packages that interact with each other in unpredictable ways, and there's no real guarantee that your LaTeX will still compile in 10 years.
    - taeric 9y ago
      This is not that surprising. But I usually limited the packages I would use. Certainly didn't use too many in one shot. I've toyed with the idea of going vanilla TeX for most things. Haven't done it, yet. Org-mode has made it so I really like the source format.
  - RhysU 9y ago
    Word processor file formats lack diffs that a human can read. And nobody has had show codes since WP died. LaTeX is a mystery, but it rewards the curious.
    - _acme 9y ago
      Word itself will diff Word documents beautifully, and there are alternative solutions as well (Workshare/DeltaView, Change-Pro, etc.) that are even more powerful.
      - taeric 9y ago
        It has certainly gotten better, to say it is beautiful is a stretch. Seems invariably, someone doesn't realize which is the old and which the new. So, when someone finally "accepts" the changes, something if getting lost. Worse, the folks that never accept and just keep passing the review docs. And heaven help you if you want to preview style or layout changes. (And please don't take it as this being fixed by other toolchains. Not my intent.)
CarVac 9y ago
If you just want to put words on a page and print it out, sure, use a word processor. But if you have to generate more than one document with the same formatting, or a very large document, LaTeX is the way to go. I use it, interfaced with SQLite-generated CSV files, to compile 50 page reports for work with no effort at all. This process used to take hours. Another thing I do for work is using SQL to actually generate LaTeX documents programmatically, using premade macros that are stored in a class file. The power and consistent behavior is what makes it better than word processors.
- tomcam 9y ago
  Interesting approach. You imply that your output is not printed. It seems to me that HTML with style sheets would be an equally good approach? Not telling you, just curious about your workflow. Any browser can handle a 50 page document without breaking a sweat.
  - CarVac 9y ago
    It is printed, in fact, so browser stuff wouldn't work.
    - thomasfedb 9y ago
      It could. I have a couple of apps that will render HTML to PDF server-side for users to download. Rendering LaTeX to PDF would be far less fuss, however, when you already have the HTML templates it is the path of least resistance.
- zuron7 9y ago
  True, it would be easier, but a common person can do the same thing in Office much faster. Linking Excel columns to fill a Word document doesn't take that long. I've seen a few places use Excel as a billing software with a little bit of VBScript. Outside of the tech world, I don't see it gaining traction. At the end of the day, we all need different products for different kinds of users. If you're wondering, I'm the LaTeX kind, used it everywhere I could.
TheRealPomax 9y ago
As someone who writes "word process" documents using XeLaTeX: no it isn't. It's MUCH faster to spend one day of your life setting up a good preamble, and then never using Word and friends ever again. However, that one day is filled with rage and confusion. Then again: if you're serious about writing, is it worth it? Absolutely.

ArneBab 9y ago

If you ever want easy-to-update, high quality documents, LaTeX is what you want. You simply see the difference between word and LaTeX. With microtype, you can easily reproduce the quality of highly paid typography-experts.

JorgeGT 9y ago
Not to speak about versioning! I can easily git diff my LaTeX plain text files, but doing so with Word files...
- raarts 9y ago
  Versioning is where the Microsoft world, and probably all graphical word processors suck big-time. The world of pain I go through when I have to collaborate with partners in government or defence, sending back and forth word files from various word versions and tracking comments and changes leaves me losing the will to live. Oh if we would only have the GitHub GUI for Office files!
  - _acme 9y ago
    Word itself provides a compare function that works very well, and there are alternative tools that also provide versioning functionality that can be combined with various document management tools, essentially providing GitHub for Word files (see, e.g., Interwoven iManage, etc.).
    - raarts 9y ago
      Unless you work with different Word versions, and different people across different organisations and send Word documents back and forth, trying to keep a workflow going... Also commenting sucks, in some versions replies add a comment (which renumbers them all..), and in the next version the comment numbers are not displayed. It's a mess really. Add-ons like iManage are relatively useless if you work with multiple orgs.
TylerE 9y ago

Koshkin 9y ago

Check out TeXmacs, it's amazing - powerful and easy to use.