On Monday 26 January 2009 09:29:16 am Vincent van Ravesteijn - TNW wrote: > > While I agree, more or less, with Piero Faustini that _one_ way to > > push LyX further is to ignore other documents (especially .doc's) I > > still think that a tool should be interoperable meaning, except of > > getting it working on most operating systems, that it is able to > > handle most known/established document formats (painless > > import/export). > > Even if we can get LyX to handle 'all' document formats, saving your > work as e.g. MS Word format, will inevitably reduce the representation > of the document. That is, not all options of LyX are supported in the MS > Word format and vice versa. > > Thus, painless import/export won't be possible. Maybe we should find a > way to perfectly support content-only collaboration:
Styles give you content-only collaboration. If you can find a way of converting an MS Word doc, including its styles, into a LyX doc, including styles, and vice versa, neither side needs to forego layout. So for instance, if the MS Word author has a paragraph in his "mycode" style, convert it to LyX in the "mycode" environment. Then it's just a matter of making the two environments look somewhat similar. When I was assigned main authorship of "Samba Unleashed", Sams Publishing sent me (and all the contributing authors) the MSWord equivalent of a layout file (I think they called it a style file), and a 4 page document on what styles to use when. They forbid formatting without styles, and IIRC strongly recommended against my making my own styles. The result was that my choice of styles was dictated by the style guide, and once I got used to the style guide, I didn't need to think about formatting at all -- I became a content-only author, which pleased both Sams and me. At the start of a project with some using MSWord and some using LyX, it wouldn't be that difficult to supply the LyXers with a complete layout file and style guide, and the Worders with a complete style file and identical style guide. Once done, as long as the LyX import and export preserved paragraph and character styles, it would be pretty easy. SteveT Steve Litt Recession Relief Package http://www.recession-relief.US
