A newbie approaches LyX

Fri, 30 Jul 2004 05:16:21 -0700

Using a Windows XP, I was having problems with the WP Equation Editor and thought that I would try out Lyx.

Following the advice on the LyX web page, I've downloaded and installed LyX, ImageMagick and MikText. It's not yet clear how all of this fits together or how the directories are best configured. I have:

  Program Files
    Lyx
      Docs       various downloaded docs
      Imagemagick
      localtexmf
      lyx
        bin
        lib
        man
        share
        tmp
      Tex
        Files       newfileX.lyx, working files etc.

I've made a start with the Tutorial, where the author wishes to convince us that LaTEX is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There is mention of yellow stickers, which is a bit misleading as, in the tutorial, the stickers are not yellow.

Ah success!  I've printed my first page.

I attempted to view the Tutorial, with view > PDF (dvipdfm). There was lots of disk activity for a while but was told that there is no information for viewing this type of file. Clear something is not properly configured.

Next, I viewed currency.lyx from examples. When attempting to export this file to pdf, I get a message that the euro font is needed and am asked whether I wish to install it from the MikTex download area. I respond "yes", no luck. MikTeX\tmp\packages is tried, but it is not accepted by Lyx as a "packages" directory. eurofont.tpm, in that directory, is the only eurofont file I have.

Currency.lyx discusses the elegance of various Euro symbols and suggests some sources, but doesn't give the full URL or tell us where to store the downloaded file.

Next, I took a look at the Customization Help document. It mentions LyXDir, which I have, and Tools > Preferences. I don't have Tools on my menu, but I do have Edit > Preferences, Is this the same thing?

Of the directories listed, I have all that are listed, although I have no UserDir. Perhaps this comes into play with the -userdir command line switch.

Attempting to read the examples "chess" and "Foils", I get "unknown textclass", but the examples seem to load OK.

I have a LyX text under way, but have not yet found how to use the spell checker (preferable en-GB).

I would welcome any suggestions or pointers as to how I can sort out these things.

Colin W.

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