On Tuesday 18 of May 2004 10:37, Peter Flom wrote: > One problem is that I would be the only one where I work that > uses LaTeX. Another problem is that some of my coauthors on > papers will NOT have LaTeX - only Word. I'd like to be able to > send them documents they can read and edit in Word.
I am a heavy user of LaTeX (mostly through LyX) and I can very well understand what you mean. The problem is that both systems are so different (one marking structure and other presentation) that anything more than trivial documents (e.g., equations are problem) doesn't fly. And that's nothing comparing to go in other way. Yes, there is rtf2latex somewhere on the Web/CTAN, but it is really not a tool for routine exchange of documents with your colleagues. The half-solution I (and many others in the similar situation) use is to go either through HTML (which is rather plain text anyway) or, if more complicated formatting is at stake, PDF. Especially in universities many people have full size Acrobats, which can be used to comment (put these yellow PostIt notes to the document), mark, etc. It is certainly not a full-fledged cooperation process, but that's what I think is reasonable to expect. Nevertheless, do not be afraid of LaTeX. If the cooperation is the top importance, than you can learn them to nibble in LaTeX source (it is really mostly plain text anyway) or you can learn them (and yourself) LyX (see http://www.lyx.org and especially "Graphics LyX tour", and yes, Virginia, there is a native-Windows LyX -- http://www.home.zonnet.nl/rareitsma/lyx/), which is free (both in terms of beer and liberty -- if you don't what I am talking about, don't bother) and which has superb community warmly welcoming any clueless newbie which needs a help (link to LyX email list is available on the website). > I saw an ad in AmStat news for Scientifc Workplace from > MacKichan. It looks like it can do what I want - it can > translate from LaTeX to .pdf or .rtf files. I do not know anything about this (I have never seen SW for longer than five minutes on a friend's computer, and I was not much impressed; I am still very happy with LyX and I do not think I will miss SW), but I am very dubious about .rtf (reasons above still hold). As of PDF -- well, certainly they can provide PDF by far better than anything most people do in Word. But anyone with any LaTeX (or TeX for that matter) can do that as well :-). Have a nice day and good luck with your search, Matej -- Matej Cepl, http://www.ceplovi.cz/matej GPG Finger: 89EF 4BC6 288A BF43 1BAB 25C3 E09F EF25 D964 84AC 138 Highland Ave. #10, Somerville, Ma 02143, (617) 623-1488 Opinions founded on prejudice are always sustained with the greatest violence. -- Hebrew Proverb . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
