On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 6:49 PM, Johnston81 <johnsto...@gmail.com> wrote: > To the ones that can and will help, > > I apologize if this has already been covered in another topic; I have > searched but been unable to find any such. If, however, you know of such > topics, if you could please point me in the right direction? > > My current situation is this: I am working on my Master Thesis and currently > doing my research and such. As it is now, I am uncertain how large my final > project will be - I imagine that the final document will probably exceed 100 > pages, but where I am uncertain of size I am certain that the document will > contain considerable amounts of graphs and tables - rather more than I am > comfortable working with in Word 2010. > > My questions are fairly simple to ask, I am not certain that everybody will > agree on the answers but rough estimates are all I am looking for anyway. So > here goes: > > 1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately need to > learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text, including graphics > and formulas(!), from a template? > LyX excels and formulas, numbering graphics and at leaving you worry about writing text instead of constantly tinkering with the formatting.
It depends on the effort that you're willing to put in and on your penchant for technical things. You could get working knowledge in less than two weeks, I guess, especially if you're up for a challenge (which you seem to be). Once you get used to the LyX (LaTeX) ways of doing things, you will find that generating a professional-looking document in LyX is much easier than in Word. And LyX automatically takes care of lots of stuff that Word will force you to deal with manually. For starters, I would suggest to read Help > Intro and Help > Tutorial along with LyX Essentials [1]. Then, as you get more familiar with working in LyX take a look at templates for theses, such as File > New >From Template > Thesis (folder) or the one proposed in [1]. There may be some more on the wiki. Tweak them as needed, and once your happy with the general document output start filling it in with actual text. [1] https://sites.google.com/site/tsewiki/resources/latex > 2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after having learned > the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to teach LyX to oneself and > how easy is it to solve problems when encountered? > Can be, if you put in a decent effort. Once a threshold is passed, LyX seems (and really is) very easy to use. After you exhausted the usual documentation Help menu, wiki, LyX Essentials, try your luck on the very helpful lyx-users. Some forums should be available, too. > 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or > spend time if I did try my luck on LyX? > Using LyX would ultimately increase your productivity and improve your typesetting results. Give it a spin, and if in a week or two you still feel lost and don't know where to begin with then revert to Word. But given your interest in this, I feel that you're up to the challenge and won't need to revert, ever. > I have many more similar questions, but for now this will have to do - I > shouldn't take to much of your time! But if you have any other advice or > experiences that relate to my post, that you feel could help me or others > that are doing the same kind of contemplations, please do not hesitate and > do share! > As far as I'm concerned LyX Essentials is a decent effort in giving true beginners a general sense of how LyX works and how it differs from the Word paradigm. But then, I co-wrote it, so I would be biased. Good luck and feel free to ask questions on this list. Regards Liviu > Thank you very much for time. I look forward to read your replies! > > Johnston81 > > -- > View this message in context: > http://lyx.475766.n2.nabble.com/Engineering-student-considering-LyX-for-Thesis-tp6901371p6901371.html > Sent from the LyX - Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com. > -- Do you know how to read? http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader Do you know how to write? http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail
