Am Samstag, dem 06.09.2025 um 16:45 +0000 schrieb Thomas Philips: > Will the LyX 2.5 file format be backward compatible with 2.4? We are > writing a textbook that is currently being created in LyX 2.3.8. We > are about to move our files to 2.4.4 (or 2.4.5 if it is released > soon). Springer, our publisher, gives its authors a macro file to > include in their Lyx documents, and their 2.4.x macro file is > different than their 2.3.x file. If the 2.5.x file format and > settings / preferences are identical to the corresponding 2.4.x > items, we will be able to continue using their 2.4.x macro file while > staying current with LyX. Any guidance in this regard will be greatly > appreciated.
There are two different things involved: * the LyX file format (used in LyX documents) * the layout format (used by *.layout files) In both cases, LyX 2.5 can deal with older formats, but not the other way around. Older LyX versions don't (and cannot) know future ones. An exception is the very last release of LyX 2.4 (2.4.5 presumably) which can import LyX 2.5 documents (but not handle LyX 2.5 layouts). Thereby, if you open an older file with LyX 2.5, as soon as you save it, it will have the newer one. With layout formats, it is only converted temporarily for the current session. In the case of layout files, if you want to make full use of new features, you might have to adapt your own layout file to new features. With LyX 2.5, this most centrally concerns theorem definitions, which have been significantly re-designed to allow for new LyX features. But the layouts are also usable without such adaptions. My general advise would be: if the book is nearing publication already, stick with your current system. As fancy new features might be, each major release also entails new bugs. HTH, -- Jürgen -- lyx-devel mailing list lyx-devel@lists.lyx.org https://lists.lyx.org/mailman/listinfo/lyx-devel
