On Friday 20 February 2009 01:55:00 pm Rich Shepard wrote: [clip] > A lot depends on how we approach our writing. I use LyX for almost all > my writing, and I accept the default classes and layouts because they were > designed by folks much more knowledgeable than I about typography, page > layout, and graphic design. Therefore, I don't futz with minor eye-candy > (IMNSHO) or other tweaks. Steve and I differ greatly on our philosophy. He > wants to design every aspect of his books, down to the character level. I > want to have great looking typeset output but I will spend my time on the > content and accept the default appearance. You pays you money, and you > takes you choice.
Hi Rich, You and I agree more than disagree. I probably let 99% of the appearance of my books adopt the LyX/LaTeX defaults, for the same reason you do -- because the guys who made the document class know a heck of a lot more about typography, page layout and graphic design than I do. But in every book, there are a very few things that need to look a certain way. For example, in "Manager's Guide To Troubleshooting" I didn't want paragraph numbers because my audience are managers. They don't wear digital watches, and they shouldn't be subjected to paragraph numbers. And yet I want the reader to know, at a glance, his exact level in the logic hierarchy. I strongly believe that any reasonable combination of font sizes, shapes and weights, could NOT convey that level information at a glance. No problem. I just start each section, subsection and subsubsection with a 1cm line (\rule). The line starting sections is very thick, the line starting subsubsections is a hairline, and the line starting subsections is in between. A trivial, logical solution. But not at all trivial in LaTeX. Another example. I write for the most part tech books, so I try to use the same page heading format used by the tech books at the bookstore. So I need not only to rearrange the page headers and footers, but tweak the headers so they don't overfill with my long titles. No problem, I do it, but it takes LaTeX. One other example. Book and Memoir don't have environments for Warning, Caution, Tip, Note and the like, unless you want to use the page margins, which I don't. Instead, I want to have these sections of text in shaded boxes narrower than the normal printing, like the tech books at the bookstore do. No problem, but it takes LaTeX knowledge to do. The document class defaults are great til they're not. When they're not, conveying maximum meaning to the reader requires LaTeX knowledge, sometimes substantial. SteveT Steve Litt Recession Relief Package http://www.recession-relief.US
