Dam right!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Kearney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 6:45 PM
Subject: Re: MS Word alternative
Modern implementations of LaTeX and TeX produce standard PDF files as
output. So that should not be an issue. By the way TeX/LaTeX can do some
amazing things like produce professional grade bibliographies. Let me
tell you about my Masters Thesis.
I had a professor who was on my committee. This guy was notorious for
demanding that your paper use bibliographic citations in something other
than what you had used. It did not matter which system you had selected,
there were 6 different ones that the graduate school had approved, he
would ask for it to be re-typed in something else. This was in the day
when most papers were sill typed by hand.
Well knowing this and knowing TeX, which has been around for many years
going back to mainframe computers, I typed mine up in LaTeX on a big old
Autograph computer and told the "printer" to generate 6 copies in the 6
different styles. In TeX this is a simple matter of changing a single
line of output code.
So I go in to deliver the paper, the professor starts to pull his time
honored trick and I am able to pull out of my backpack the other 5 copies
each with dead on perfect style and formating. I could have knocked the
old fart over with a feather.
Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Sep 19, 2007, at 4:27 PM, VaShaun Jones wrote:
I noticed that you said the other person needed something on their end
to view the document. Is this a problem for users of Word and other text
editors?
----- Original Message ----- From: "James Austin"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X
by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 4:55 PM
Subject: Re: MS Word alternative
Okay sure, but maybe we should talk off list, for more details. I
don't know if this would be straying off of what this list was
designed for? But briefly, Latex is a mark-up language, similar to
HTML, it is purely text based, which makes it excellent to use with
Voice Over. Latex allows you to concentrate on what you are writing,
as opposed to how the document looks. You tell Latex via special
commands how to format your text. It is extremely flexible. The
default output is PDF, which in the majority of cases, including in
the case of Latex, are accessible with Voice Over. The beauty of PDF,
is that retains all of your formatting. Finally, The source of your
text - what you are writing, is a plain text document, so it can be
viewed and Latexed on any platform, as long as the computer you are
using has the Latex typesetting programme installed.
Have i missed out anything Greg or Justin?
Hope this helps
James Austin
It is not really that scary, i am by no means an expert, but I am
currently rioting my Dissertation, and i used it for the majority of
the last academic year to write my essays.
Hope this helps
On 19 Sep 2007, at 20:07, VaShaun Jones wrote:
OK you are scaring me. Why wouldn't it just take the letters that I
type, is it haunted or something? Can you tell me a little about what
to expect?
----- Original Message ----- From: "James Austin"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS
X by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 1:05 PM
Subject: Re: MS Word alternative
It is free, but please get in touch if you've not used it before, it
is not simply a case of typing as with a word processor
On 19 Sep 2007, at 17:23, VaShaun Jones wrote:
I think I will be getting Latex . Is it totally accessible and how
much does it cost?
----- Original Message ----- From: "James Austin"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac
OS X by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2007 10:19 AM
Subject: Re: MS Word alternative
Hi,
Okay, well there is IText Express, a small free word processing
application, similar to Text Edit, which provides the ability to
add footnotes. There is also Nisus Writer Express, or Nisus Writer
Pro, you can find these at
www.nisus.com
Neither Express or Pro are currently 100% usable with VO, but very
nearly. If you were thinking of purchasing Nisus Writer, I would
recommend the Pro version, as that seems more accessible.
There is also Latex (pronouned Laytech), which is a type- setin
tool. It is extremely powerful and versitle, but does require
time to learn. Although, the benefits are rewarding, especially
for Blind users in my personal opinion, as I use it exclusively
for my University assignments. I don't want to clutter the list
with discussions about Latex, so please feel free to E Mail me
off list, if you'd like to know more.
Hope this helps
James
On 19 Sep 2007, at 08:55, VaShaun Jones wrote:
Listers somewhere before I got familiar with my Mac their was a
discussion about a professional word processor. I wanted to know
what it was and how can I get it? Note: one of its liked
features is that you don't have to worry about formatting (a
lister reported).
