4 ms·

The author misses one very important feature of LaTeX that is the reason why I keep a lot of my notes in it. LaTeX exposes two mechanisms for easily making repl

The author misses one very important feature of LaTeX that is the reason why I keep a lot of my notes in it. LaTeX exposes two mechanisms for easily making replacements all across a document. One is with macros, which you can change the definition of when necessary. The other is the simple search-and-replace, which is very powerful since you can involve macro and formatting syntax in it. Traditional word-processing and note-taking software like Word and OneNote simply don't expose such powerful functionality for making edits across the entire document.

omaranto 9y ago
Probably word processors don't have an analgoue to LaTeX macros, but surely they do have search and replace, don't they?
- Karliss 9y ago
  Is there really a WYSIWYG word processor supporting search and replace for formatting?
  - rocqua 9y ago
    I'd be surprised if word doesn't have it. I'd also be surprised if word's implementation was anywhere near as powerful as a full-on search replace on latex using regexps.
    - fmoralesc 9y ago
      LibreOffice Writer has it, AND regex search/replace.
  - coldtea 9y ago
    Yes, Word has that (had it for decades).
- nur0n 9y ago
  But in WYSIWYG editors, you can only search for raw text correct? For instance, if I want to search for all bold text, its trivial to do so using a markup language, but I don't think there is really a way to do that with conventional word processors.
  - bane 9y ago
    You use the style system built into the word processor. Then when you change the style, it changes all other instances of it. You can also trivially add new styles as you need. In Microsoft Word for Windows it's the "Styles" bar, and on MacOS it's the "Styles Pane".
    - photojosh 9y ago
      It requires huge discipline to use styles properly all the time, because the options to just tweak your formatting "a little" are made more prominent in every WYSIWYG word processor I've used. And if you have to collaborate on a document with others, no chance at all. It would be interesting to see a word processor that enforced style usage...
      - ygra 9y ago
        Actually, ever since introduction of the Ribbon in Office 2007 I found the styles to be much more prominent than the presentational formatting. Not that it stops anyone who doesn't want to learn how to use Word properly to still use the latter, but simply by size and visual importance in the UI styles are far more into your face than the other formatting options. And sure, it takes some discipline to use styles, but that goes for any other option as well (apart from things like Docbook maybe). You're supposed to use \em in LaTeX instead of \textit for the same reasons you're supposed to use an Emphasis style in Word instead of italic text. The only difference is that the mechanism is the same in LaTeX (type a few characters – which is pretty much why for any given macro you'd be hard-pressed to actually decide whether it's semantic or presentational), while in Word it's a separate feature.
  - fmoralesc 9y ago
prance 9y ago
> One is with macros, which you can change the definition of when necessary. I concur on this. In my phd thesis, I defined macros for all frequently used mathematical terms and expressions. This way, many places got almost as readable as the rendered formula. For example, "\tfuzzy(1,2,3)", denoting a triangular fuzzy number with min. support 1, modal value 2 and max. support 3, is pretty clear after using it once or twice. We can then decide later how exactly to render it by changing the macro definition. Similarly, when citing a lot of names (just using the names here, not actually paper references) wich characters which are not in my commonly used alphabet, I frequently define macros for them too. Then I can use e.g. "\Mares" in the text instead of "Mare{\v{s}}". Much easier, also when compared to hunting those special chars in a character map in a WYSIWYG word processor, or copy-pasting all the time. However, I find this use of macros really only really pays off when working on larger documents, or living documents that keep changing, like CVs. For shorter and short-lived docs, I'd use Latex only if they have at least some math or special layouting requirements. I tried using Word's formula editor, but even though one can sort of get used to it, I find Latex much easier to use, especially with amstex. But for shorter documents without math, I find a word processor just much more convenient.

omaranto 9y ago

Probably word processors don't have an analgoue to LaTeX macros, but surely they do have search and replace, don't they?

Karliss 9y ago
Is there really a WYSIWYG word processor supporting search and replace for formatting?
- rocqua 9y ago
  I'd be surprised if word doesn't have it. I'd also be surprised if word's implementation was anywhere near as powerful as a full-on search replace on latex using regexps.
  - fmoralesc 9y ago
    LibreOffice Writer has it, AND regex search/replace.
- coldtea 9y ago
  Yes, Word has that (had it for decades).
nur0n 9y ago
But in WYSIWYG editors, you can only search for raw text correct? For instance, if I want to search for all bold text, its trivial to do so using a markup language, but I don't think there is really a way to do that with conventional word processors.
- bane 9y ago
  You use the style system built into the word processor. Then when you change the style, it changes all other instances of it. You can also trivially add new styles as you need. In Microsoft Word for Windows it's the "Styles" bar, and on MacOS it's the "Styles Pane".
  - photojosh 9y ago
    It requires huge discipline to use styles properly all the time, because the options to just tweak your formatting "a little" are made more prominent in every WYSIWYG word processor I've used. And if you have to collaborate on a document with others, no chance at all. It would be interesting to see a word processor that enforced style usage...
    - ygra 9y ago
      Actually, ever since introduction of the Ribbon in Office 2007 I found the styles to be much more prominent than the presentational formatting. Not that it stops anyone who doesn't want to learn how to use Word properly to still use the latter, but simply by size and visual importance in the UI styles are far more into your face than the other formatting options. And sure, it takes some discipline to use styles, but that goes for any other option as well (apart from things like Docbook maybe). You're supposed to use \em in LaTeX instead of \textit for the same reasons you're supposed to use an Emphasis style in Word instead of italic text. The only difference is that the mechanism is the same in LaTeX (type a few characters – which is pretty much why for any given macro you'd be hard-pressed to actually decide whether it's semantic or presentational), while in Word it's a separate feature.
- fmoralesc 9y ago

prance 9y ago

> One is with macros, which you can change the definition of when necessary. I concur on this. In my phd thesis, I defined macros for all frequently used mathematical terms and expressions. This way, many places got almost as readable as the rendered formula. For example, "\tfuzzy(1,2,3)", denoting a triangular fuzzy number with min. support 1, modal value 2 and max. support 3, is pretty clear after using it once or twice. We can then decide later how exactly to render it by changing the macro definition. Similarly, when citing a lot of names (just using the names here, not actually paper references) wich characters which are not in my commonly used alphabet, I frequently define macros for them too. Then I can use e.g. "\Mares" in the text instead of "Mare{\v{s}}". Much easier, also when compared to hunting those special chars in a character map in a WYSIWYG word processor, or copy-pasting all the time. However, I find this use of macros really only really pays off when working on larger documents, or living documents that keep changing, like CVs. For shorter and short-lived docs, I'd use Latex only if they have at least some math or special layouting requirements. I tried using Word's formula editor, but even though one can sort of get used to it, I find Latex much easier to use, especially with amstex. But for shorter documents without math, I find a word processor just much more convenient.