H. Peter Gumm wrote:
Uwe, thanks for correcting the instant-preview glitch in your installer.
In my eyes, the installer is a great step ahead to make LyX popular amongst
Windows-Users who are typically not willing to install all sorts of auxiliary
programs (MinGW,Imagemagick, ...) before being able to try out a new unknown
application. Thanks for the great work!
I have the following suggestions for improvement, some may concern the
installer, some LyX itself:
- I am using LyX with slightly larger screen fonts than in the
default configuration. (Getting old.) Unfortunately, the math
formulas displayed by instant preview dont scale correspondingly,
they remain in the small fonts.
Turn the preview off. Then the formulas remain in the size used
when editing them. Perhaps not as pretty, but ok nonetheless.
The previews _can_ be made bigger, but doing so is complicated
and I don't know the details. Basically, change/configure the software
that makes them.
- Generating pdf-files, one obtains rather ugly bit-mapped fonts, until
one finds the trick (in the FAQs) of changing the fonts size to "ae"
in Document->Layout. Why not making this the default from the beginning ?
The bitmapped fonts are ok - the problem is the broken acrobat
reader so many uses. Printing the pdf will actually be fine. Many
people don't make pdf's - they don't need a different default.
After changing the font, consider saving the new setting as a
"document default". Then _you_ never get this problem again.
If you happen to like the look of the computer modern font,
then put \usepackage{lmodern} in the preamble and leave the
font setting at "default". That way you get a non-bitmapped
version of that font. It looks fine in acrobat.
- I typically start LyX by doubleclicking on a .lyx-file. This opens LyX with
the file as expected. When the document is more or less in final form, I
scrutinize the the dvi-file for error. Unfortunately:
= each C-d starts a new instance of Yap. This means that each time I have to
adapt Yap again by enlarging fonts, etc.
Use "update dvi" instead then. It updated the file, and your dvi
viewer will then reload the new file automatically. (If it doesn't,
then surely
it has a button or menu for doing that.)
= Going back to LyX I sometimes do it by doubleclicking the .lyx-file again.
This opens a new LyX on the same file. At the end I discover that I have
several LyXes open on the same file. Oops!! Which one do I want to save now ?
Don't do that - it is an approach that doesn't work with lyx. Switch
to the running lyx instead - it isn't hard to do on windows.
I simply make sure my dvi viewer doesn't obscure the lyx window
completely, that way I can switch back very quickly by single-clicking on
the lyx window. There is normally no need to maximize the dvi
viewer, as the content it shows is in the shape of A4/letter paper,
and the screen is much wider than that format.
==> How about an warning message when opening LyX on a file that is already
open in LyX. This behaviour is common in most editors.
It is common in most editors _in windows_, which isn't the main
platform for lyx. Still, it can be done if you can interest a developer
. . .
Helge Hafting
