I think the point I would make in favour of actually using LateX is that whilst evidence may indicate Word is quicker, the time I spend in Latex is (as a progra

I think the point I would make in favour of actually using LateX is that whilst evidence may indicate Word is quicker, the time I spend in Latex is (as a programmer) better spent. I mean that in the sense that because the interface is basically a compiler compiling my code I can logically reason about what it's doing, and have reproducible results. I can tell it where I can tell it how to take care of images and be confident it will follow my guidance. This is especially important in larger documents. In Word, editted page 3 is as likely to change the layout of page 72 as an edit on page 72 is, and an edit on page 3 will have an equal chance of effecting the layout of page 4-N. In Latex with very few exceptions I do not manually layout any part of the document, I design the rules for how the document is laid out. Obviously that is more time consuming - as solving the general problem is always more painful than a point fix. This really pays off when your dissertation is due in 2 days and you're trying to cut 150 pages down to 100. You can focus on content, not why Bill Gates personally believes that any image is a graven image and is therefore forbidden.