Rich,
All my technical documents, articles, white papers and so on --
including
my book -- have been written using LyX. Earlier this year I decided
to make
the transition complete by using LyX for letters and proposals.
Thanks for this, it gives encouragement to persevere with Lyx, I'm
afraid that attempts before to wean any one off MSOffice has always
resulted in angry responses because the "new" program isn't exactly
the same as Word or Excel.
There's a
long thread in this mail list's archives on adding the letterhead
(a .pdf
file), signature (a .jpg file), and so on. I sent the .lyx file of
a working
template to Christian for inclusion in the wiki, so that's a
resource, too.
I can't actually find this on the Wiki, maybe I need to look harder :-(
Among the many advantages of writing with LyX is the inherent
LaTeX/TeX
focus on content rather than appearance.
That is one of the arguments I am using for the switch Lyx
What you refer to as "smart" covers I would call eye-candy
decoration.
Sometimes, they have a valid rationale, but most times I suspect
they don't.
It may be that there's an expectation for decorations because
that's what
people learned to do with word processors and desktop publication
applications.
I think this is a marketing thing, I have been to too many meetings
where, the people making the decisions, are impressed by how a report
looks more than what the report says.
Were I do really need such a cover, I would create it using
Scribus (the FOSS page layout application), export it as a .pdf
file, then
pre-pend it to the rest of the report or book using pdftk (the pdf
tool
kit). However, I've never had a client or regulatory agency express an
interest in such a cover.
I suspect that Lyx will do what I need but, I agree this is a good
option, and I am using Scribus for a newsletter
The typeset output is superior to anything any word processor can
produce
because the units of adjustment are the paragraph and page; word
processors'
unit of adjustment is the line.
This is one of the other arguments I am using for the switch to Lyx,
and thanks for the other comments - some useful ideas here.
Graham
