Dear Jim,
Customization.lyx tells in Chapter 6:
* A document class is a LaTeX file (usually ending in .cls
or .sty) which describes the format of a document such as an article,
report, journal preprint, etc. and all the commands needed to realize
that format.
* A layout file is a LyX file which corresponds to a LaTeX document
class and which tells LyX how to "draw" things on the screen to make the
display look something like the final printed page.
* A template file is simply a LyX document which contains a set of
predefined entries for a given document class which are generally
required for that class. Templates are especially useful for things like
journal manuscripts which are to be submitted electronically.
(BTW: Dear LyX-ocumentators, could you make the definition on top of
chapter 6 a list (itemize or description)?
)
So, if you want to have a new document class, you need the corresponding
latex *.cls file and the *.layout file. (And BTW, did you realize that
myclass is just an example to be replaced by the actual name of the class
you want to install? --- I suppose you will not find myclass.cls on CTAN)
So there are two reasons to create a *.layout file:
1. You have a *.cls latex document class that is still unsupported by LyX.
(may be you found one interesting class at CTAN or your university offers
a class for writing a thesis ...)
2. You want some modifications to an existing latex document class without
writing a new latex *.cls file.
3. You want to change the way LyX displays the document on screen.
With 2. and 3. you don't need a new latex class (this is obvious for 3. but
holds also for 2. as the *.layout file can set options or load packages that
differ from the default and can even be used to define new environments)
Example: you want to have a LyX Textclass for article with sans-serif as
default font, then you can copy article.layout to your layout dir, rename it
to article_sf.layout, say and do
\DeclareLaTeXClass[article]{article (sans serif)}
plus the appropriate changes.
(An existing example is my "article (koma with roman headings)")
On the other hand, changes that you want to have in all documents of the
latex-class (or in really all documents, as a different fontsize in
comments, say) could be implemented by copying the appropriate *.layout file
from LyX's standard layout directory to ~/.lyx/layout and doing the changes
there. Lyx will alway take the privat version of a *.layout if it exists.
Guenter
--
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