Re: Recommended third-party tools

[Les Denham]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:45:52 -0800
Russell D Brunelle rdb...@uw.edu wrote:

 Here's the draft I have so far, which builds on something I mentioned
 on this list a while ago: http://russellb.livejournal.com/1335718.html

I'm sure everyone has different preferences, but here are some of my
preferences.

Firstly, the version of Linux is not all that important. I've had good
experiences with Ubuntu in the past, but thanks to some idiotic (in my
opinion) decisions recently by the maintainers of both Gnome and KDE
and by Ubuntu for its default desktop, I've given up on Ubuntu, Gnome,
and KDE, all three of which I have used happily in the past. For the
average user now I would recommend Linux Mint (which just works even
more smoothly than Ubuntu) and, for those willing to learn a little or a
lot about what is behind the pretty windows, either Sabayon or Gentoo.
Whichever distro you choose, change the window manager to XFCE or LXDE.

For attractive graphics, I would generally agree. You have left out two
tools I find very versatile and useful: for easy publication-quality
data plotting I think xmgrace (which has a graphical interface, but can
also be used on the command line and in scripts) is easier to use than
gnuplot; and if maps of any kind are needed, you need GMT (Generic
Mapping Tools).

If you are using PDF for everything else you definitely need
pdfimages (part of the Poppler library) and pdftk.

And for things like the title pages Steve Litt says you need to do with
something other than LyX, you need Scribus.

Finally, if you want to make your document into an ebook, you need
Calibre.

Les

Re: Recommended third-party tools

[Les Denham]

On Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:45:52 -0800
Russell D Brunelle  wrote:

> Here's the draft I have so far, which builds on something I mentioned
> on this list a while ago: http://russellb.livejournal.com/1335718.html

I'm sure everyone has different preferences, but here are some of my
preferences.

Firstly, the version of Linux is not all that important. I've had good
experiences with Ubuntu in the past, but thanks to some idiotic (in my
opinion) decisions recently by the maintainers of both Gnome and KDE
and by Ubuntu for its default desktop, I've given up on Ubuntu, Gnome,
and KDE, all three of which I have used happily in the past. For the
average user now I would recommend Linux Mint (which just works even
more smoothly than Ubuntu) and, for those willing to learn a little or a
lot about what is behind the pretty windows, either Sabayon or Gentoo.
Whichever distro you choose, change the window manager to XFCE or LXDE.

For attractive graphics, I would generally agree. You have left out two
tools I find very versatile and useful: for easy publication-quality
data plotting I think xmgrace (which has a graphical interface, but can
also be used on the command line and in scripts) is easier to use than
gnuplot; and if maps of any kind are needed, you need GMT (Generic
Mapping Tools).

If you are using "PDF for everything else" you definitely need
pdfimages (part of the Poppler library) and pdftk.

And for things like the title pages Steve Litt says you need to do with
something other than LyX, you need Scribus.

Finally, if you want to make your document into an ebook, you need
Calibre.

Les

Problem with Change tracking

[Les Denham]

I seem to have found an undocumented feature of LyX 2.02.

If I have Track Changes turned on

AND

have Show Changes in Output turned on

AND

have an embedded Gnumeric spreadsheet deleted in the current changes
awaiting acceptance or rejection

THEN

PDFLaTeX dies every time.

The solution for me is to make sure I accept the deletion of
spreadsheets before I try to make a PDF of the document to sent to my
colleagues for them to look at the changes before I accept them.

If I have Show Changes in Output turned off, there is no problem.

I'm running LyX 2.02 and TeXLive 2011 on Gentoo Linux.

Les

Problem with Change tracking

[Les Denham]

I seem to have found an undocumented feature of LyX 2.02.

If I have Track Changes turned on

AND

have Show Changes in Output turned on

AND

have an embedded Gnumeric spreadsheet deleted in the current changes
awaiting acceptance or rejection

THEN

PDFLaTeX dies every time.

The solution for me is to make sure I accept the deletion of
spreadsheets before I try to make a PDF of the document to sent to my
colleagues for them to look at the changes before I accept them.

If I have Show Changes in Output turned off, there is no problem.

I'm running LyX 2.02 and TeXLive 2011 on Gentoo Linux.

Les

Problem with Change tracking

[Les Denham]

I seem to have found an undocumented "feature" of LyX 2.02.

If I have Track Changes turned on

AND

have Show Changes in Output turned on

AND

have an embedded Gnumeric spreadsheet deleted in the current changes
awaiting acceptance or rejection

THEN

PDFLaTeX dies every time.

The solution for me is to make sure I accept the deletion of
spreadsheets before I try to make a PDF of the document to sent to my
colleagues for them to look at the changes before I accept them.

If I have Show Changes in Output turned off, there is no problem.

I'm running LyX 2.02 and TeXLive 2011 on Gentoo Linux.

Les

Re: Many huge pictures - Memory problems?

[Les Denham]

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:04:48 +0100
Peter Baumgartner peter.baumgart...@donau-uni.ac.at wrote:
 My assumption is that there is a memory problem:
 
 1. I can compile every part of the book as long as I'm not compiling
 the whole book at once.
 2. I can compile the whole book without problems in draft modus e.g.
 without integrating the pictures
 3. To compile just a part but to tell LyX it should include counter
 and references results in the same error.

Probably not a memory problem: I compiled a document yesterday with
about 250 images, producing a PDF file of 280 pages and 325MB.
 
 I have not idea how to proceed: If I compile the book in two
 independent parts what about the int-text references, bibliography
 and other automatic generated lists (table of contents, table of
 figures etc.)?

You shouldn't have to do that.
 
 Could a new organisation of the files helpful? (At the moment I have
 one master file with 53 subfiles.)

That shouldn't make any difference.

 Another possibility I'm thinking of are the pictures itself. In my
 first version the pictures had about 80 to 300 kB. After shooting the
 screenshots again half of them have now 200 kB to 700 kB (still bad
 resolution but maybe sufficient?) the other half is between 2 to 4
 MB. All the pictures are in PNGs. Perhaps it would help to size the
 biggest pictures a little bit down? But here the problem is: To some
 of the websites I have no access anymore and all the pictures have
 overlaid graphics in it (to highlight some part of the screenshot).  

The size of the graphics is not a problem, but there is probably one
particular image which is giving you a problem.

 I'm at a loss and don't know how to proceed. Any hint would be *very*
 appreciated...

I'd suggest the following process:

1. Export to LaTeX (pdflatex)

2. Run pdflatex on the exported file. It will stop at the problem.

3. Use the 'E' command to edit the file, removing anything suspicious
around the point where it stopped.

4. Rerun pdflatex, repeating until you get it to run properly.

5. Go back to LyX and remove and re-enter the bits where pdflatex had
problems.

That process  has solved similar problems for me in the past.

One frequent problem is spaces in filepath names: they sometimes work
and sometimes don't. The best solution is to remove them.

Les

Re: Many huge pictures - Memory problems?

[Les Denham]

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:04:48 +0100
Peter Baumgartner peter.baumgart...@donau-uni.ac.at wrote:
 My assumption is that there is a memory problem:
 
 1. I can compile every part of the book as long as I'm not compiling
 the whole book at once.
 2. I can compile the whole book without problems in draft modus e.g.
 without integrating the pictures
 3. To compile just a part but to tell LyX it should include counter
 and references results in the same error.

Probably not a memory problem: I compiled a document yesterday with
about 250 images, producing a PDF file of 280 pages and 325MB.
 
 I have not idea how to proceed: If I compile the book in two
 independent parts what about the int-text references, bibliography
 and other automatic generated lists (table of contents, table of
 figures etc.)?

You shouldn't have to do that.
 
 Could a new organisation of the files helpful? (At the moment I have
 one master file with 53 subfiles.)

That shouldn't make any difference.

 Another possibility I'm thinking of are the pictures itself. In my
 first version the pictures had about 80 to 300 kB. After shooting the
 screenshots again half of them have now 200 kB to 700 kB (still bad
 resolution but maybe sufficient?) the other half is between 2 to 4
 MB. All the pictures are in PNGs. Perhaps it would help to size the
 biggest pictures a little bit down? But here the problem is: To some
 of the websites I have no access anymore and all the pictures have
 overlaid graphics in it (to highlight some part of the screenshot).  

The size of the graphics is not a problem, but there is probably one
particular image which is giving you a problem.

 I'm at a loss and don't know how to proceed. Any hint would be *very*
 appreciated...

I'd suggest the following process:

1. Export to LaTeX (pdflatex)

2. Run pdflatex on the exported file. It will stop at the problem.

3. Use the 'E' command to edit the file, removing anything suspicious
around the point where it stopped.

4. Rerun pdflatex, repeating until you get it to run properly.

5. Go back to LyX and remove and re-enter the bits where pdflatex had
problems.

That process  has solved similar problems for me in the past.

One frequent problem is spaces in filepath names: they sometimes work
and sometimes don't. The best solution is to remove them.

Les

Re: Many huge pictures - Memory problems?

[Les Denham]

On Sat, 11 Feb 2012 07:04:48 +0100
Peter Baumgartner  wrote:
> My assumption is that there is a memory problem:
> 
> 1. I can compile every part of the book as long as I'm not compiling
> the whole book at once.
> 2. I can compile the whole book without problems in draft modus e.g.
> without integrating the pictures
> 3. To compile just a part but to tell LyX it should include counter
> and references results in the same error.

Probably not a memory problem: I compiled a document yesterday with
about 250 images, producing a PDF file of 280 pages and 325MB.
> 
> I have not idea how to proceed: If I compile the book in two
> independent parts what about the int-text references, bibliography
> and other automatic generated lists (table of contents, table of
> figures etc.)?

You shouldn't have to do that.
> 
> Could a new organisation of the files helpful? (At the moment I have
> one master file with 53 subfiles.)

That shouldn't make any difference.

> Another possibility I'm thinking of are the pictures itself. In my
> first version the pictures had about 80 to 300 kB. After shooting the
> screenshots again half of them have now 200 kB to 700 kB (still bad
> resolution but maybe sufficient?) the other half is between 2 to 4
> MB. All the pictures are in PNGs. Perhaps it would help to size the
> biggest pictures a little bit down? But here the problem is: To some
> of the websites I have no access anymore and all the pictures have
> overlaid graphics in it (to highlight some part of the screenshot).  

The size of the graphics is not a problem, but there is probably one
particular image which is giving you a problem.

> I'm at a loss and don't know how to proceed. Any hint would be *very*
> appreciated...

I'd suggest the following process:

1. Export to LaTeX (pdflatex)

2. Run pdflatex on the exported file. It will stop at the problem.

3. Use the 'E' command to edit the file, removing anything suspicious
around the point where it stopped.

4. Rerun pdflatex, repeating until you get it to run properly.

5. Go back to LyX and remove and re-enter the bits where pdflatex had
problems.

That process  has solved similar problems for me in the past.

One frequent problem is spaces in filepath names: they sometimes work
and sometimes don't. The best solution is to remove them.

Les

Re: Greek pdf(LaTeX) bookmarks within from LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thu, 9 Feb 2012 23:26:00 + (UTC)
Guenter Milde mi...@users.sf.net wrote:

 On 2012-02-09, Nikos Alexandris wrote:
 
  Finally it works! Un-Ticked the Tools  Preferences  Language   
  Settings (or Language)  Set languages globally option and used
  the LyX code attached below. This is rather a tricky option
  when dealing with bi- or multi-lingual documents I guess(?).
 
 
  @Liviu: I tried all sorts of utf8's, nothing worked (from the   
  combinations of encodings and selected languages I tried).
 
  Well, it seems I haven't figured it out exactly. Any additional
  text in Greek raises a failure to compile properly. I am (more)
  puzzled. I'll try more combinations (since it's the only thing I
  can do for the moment) and will eventually report a success to the
  list.
 
 It seems like there is no force flag for the Greek letters in
 unicodesymbols. This means that Greek Unicode-chars are kept as-is
 when exporting to LaTeX.
 
 * This is good for the pdfstring
 
 * It does not work with Unicode (utf8) unless you add a
 `lgrenc.dfu` file for Greek Unicode with the inputenc standard UTF-8
 support (e.g. from http://milde.users.sourceforge.net/LGR/).
 
   (There should be something about Greek and Unicode at the lyx wiki.)
   
 Günter  
 

That probably explains why PDFLATEX complains when I use a 'mu' (for
'micro-') in text context. I get around it by making it a math
character.

Les

Re: Greek pdf(LaTeX) bookmarks within from LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thu, 9 Feb 2012 23:26:00 + (UTC)
Guenter Milde mi...@users.sf.net wrote:

 On 2012-02-09, Nikos Alexandris wrote:
 
  Finally it works! Un-Ticked the Tools  Preferences  Language   
  Settings (or Language)  Set languages globally option and used
  the LyX code attached below. This is rather a tricky option
  when dealing with bi- or multi-lingual documents I guess(?).
 
 
  @Liviu: I tried all sorts of utf8's, nothing worked (from the   
  combinations of encodings and selected languages I tried).
 
  Well, it seems I haven't figured it out exactly. Any additional
  text in Greek raises a failure to compile properly. I am (more)
  puzzled. I'll try more combinations (since it's the only thing I
  can do for the moment) and will eventually report a success to the
  list.
 
 It seems like there is no force flag for the Greek letters in
 unicodesymbols. This means that Greek Unicode-chars are kept as-is
 when exporting to LaTeX.
 
 * This is good for the pdfstring
 
 * It does not work with Unicode (utf8) unless you add a
 `lgrenc.dfu` file for Greek Unicode with the inputenc standard UTF-8
 support (e.g. from http://milde.users.sourceforge.net/LGR/).
 
   (There should be something about Greek and Unicode at the lyx wiki.)
   
 Günter  
 

That probably explains why PDFLATEX complains when I use a 'mu' (for
'micro-') in text context. I get around it by making it a math
character.

Les

Re: Greek pdf(LaTeX) bookmarks within from LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thu, 9 Feb 2012 23:26:00 + (UTC)
Guenter Milde  wrote:

> On 2012-02-09, Nikos Alexandris wrote:
> 
> >> Finally it works! Un-Ticked the "Tools > Preferences > Language   
> >> Settings (or Language) > Set languages globally" option and used
> >> the "LyX" code attached below. This is rather a "tricky" option
> >> when dealing with bi- or multi-lingual documents I guess(?).
> 
> 
> >> @Liviu: I tried all sorts of utf8's, nothing worked (from the   
> >> combinations of encodings and selected languages I tried).
> 
> > Well, it seems I haven't figured it out exactly. Any additional
> > text in Greek raises a failure to compile properly. I am (more)
> > puzzled. I'll try more combinations (since it's the only thing I
> > can do for the moment) and will eventually report a success to the
> > list.
> 
> It seems like there is no "force" flag for the Greek letters in
> "unicodesymbols". This means that Greek Unicode-chars are kept as-is
> when exporting to LaTeX.
> 
> * This is good for the pdfstring
> 
> * It does not work with "Unicode (utf8)" unless you add a
> `lgrenc.dfu` file for Greek Unicode with the inputenc standard UTF-8
> support (e.g. from http://milde.users.sourceforge.net/LGR/).
> 
>   (There should be something about Greek and Unicode at the lyx wiki.)
>   
> Günter  
> 

That probably explains why PDFLATEX complains when I use a 'mu' (for
'micro-') in text context. I get around it by making it a math
character.

Les

Re: Import into LyX

[Les Denham]

On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:59:33 -0700
Rob Oakes rob.oa...@oak-tree.us wrote:

 Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

One thing you do not mention is handling figures. The documents I work
with tend to be very heavily illustrated, and I like LyX because it
handles figures so much better than Word that there is no comparison.
But most of my collaborators refuse to consider anything but Word, and
hand me their contributions -- replete with figures on every page -- in
the form of a .docx file which is so messed up LibreOffice renders it
in a barely recognizable form. I usually end up asking for a PDF file,
and I go through it copying text from it and pasting it into LyX, and
using Acrobat Reader's snapshot tool to get the figures into Gimp.

A tool which could import figure-heavy Word documents into LyX would be
wonderful. A tool which would allow export of such documents into Word
would be even more wonderful (and also a miracle). The client for a
project currently near completion would like the final report (a 250
page document with over 200 figures, an index, and a bibtex
bibliography) in Word format as well as in PDF format and paper. My
current plan for that is to export the LyX to HTML and try to import it
into LibreOffice, but I'm not very hopeful about getting a useful
result.

Les

Re: Import into LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2012 10:50:05 -0700
Rob Oakes rob.oa...@oak-tree.us wrote:

 In the meantime, hearing about what features should be supported
 would be very nice. Hearing your opinions about doc support (versus
 only docx support) would also be very helpful.

I would be quite happy with only .docx support. As time goes by more
and more of the people who insist on sending me Word documents get new
versions of Word which default to that format. For the .doc format
documents I can always use LibreOffice to convert to .docx.

Supporting Styles and Figures is a major achievement as far as I am
concerned. I assume you don't do much in deciphering the fingerpainting
favored by most Word users. Such crass formatting is probably best left
as Standard in LyX anyway.

Les

Re: Import into LyX

[Les Denham]

On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:59:33 -0700
Rob Oakes rob.oa...@oak-tree.us wrote:

 Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

One thing you do not mention is handling figures. The documents I work
with tend to be very heavily illustrated, and I like LyX because it
handles figures so much better than Word that there is no comparison.
But most of my collaborators refuse to consider anything but Word, and
hand me their contributions -- replete with figures on every page -- in
the form of a .docx file which is so messed up LibreOffice renders it
in a barely recognizable form. I usually end up asking for a PDF file,
and I go through it copying text from it and pasting it into LyX, and
using Acrobat Reader's snapshot tool to get the figures into Gimp.

A tool which could import figure-heavy Word documents into LyX would be
wonderful. A tool which would allow export of such documents into Word
would be even more wonderful (and also a miracle). The client for a
project currently near completion would like the final report (a 250
page document with over 200 figures, an index, and a bibtex
bibliography) in Word format as well as in PDF format and paper. My
current plan for that is to export the LyX to HTML and try to import it
into LibreOffice, but I'm not very hopeful about getting a useful
result.

Les

Re: Import into LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2012 10:50:05 -0700
Rob Oakes rob.oa...@oak-tree.us wrote:

 In the meantime, hearing about what features should be supported
 would be very nice. Hearing your opinions about doc support (versus
 only docx support) would also be very helpful.

I would be quite happy with only .docx support. As time goes by more
and more of the people who insist on sending me Word documents get new
versions of Word which default to that format. For the .doc format
documents I can always use LibreOffice to convert to .docx.

Supporting Styles and Figures is a major achievement as far as I am
concerned. I assume you don't do much in deciphering the fingerpainting
favored by most Word users. Such crass formatting is probably best left
as Standard in LyX anyway.

Les

Re: Import into LyX

[Les Denham]

On Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:59:33 -0700
Rob Oakes  wrote:

> Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

One thing you do not mention is handling figures. The documents I work
with tend to be very heavily illustrated, and I like LyX because it
handles figures so much better than Word that there is no comparison.
But most of my collaborators refuse to consider anything but Word, and
hand me their contributions -- replete with figures on every page -- in
the form of a .docx file which is so messed up LibreOffice renders it
in a barely recognizable form. I usually end up asking for a PDF file,
and I go through it copying text from it and pasting it into LyX, and
using Acrobat Reader's snapshot tool to get the figures into Gimp.

A tool which could import figure-heavy Word documents into LyX would be
wonderful. A tool which would allow export of such documents into Word
would be even more wonderful (and also a miracle). The client for a
project currently near completion would like the final report (a 250
page document with over 200 figures, an index, and a bibtex
bibliography) in Word format as well as in PDF format and paper. My
current plan for that is to export the LyX to HTML and try to import it
into LibreOffice, but I'm not very hopeful about getting a useful
result.

Les

Re: Import into LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thu, 2 Feb 2012 10:50:05 -0700
Rob Oakes  wrote:

> In the meantime, hearing about what features should be supported
> would be very nice. Hearing your opinions about doc support (versus
> only docx support) would also be very helpful.

I would be quite happy with only .docx support. As time goes by more
and more of the people who insist on sending me Word documents get new
versions of Word which default to that format. For the .doc format
documents I can always use LibreOffice to convert to .docx.

Supporting Styles and Figures is a major achievement as far as I am
concerned. I assume you don't do much in deciphering the fingerpainting
favored by most Word users. Such crass formatting is probably best left
as Standard in LyX anyway.

Les

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[Les Denham]

On Monday 17 October 2011 11:49:53 Johnston81 wrote:
 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?

Assuming you are reasonably fast at learning new things (and I assume you are 
as you are in graduate school): ten minutes.

 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?

Most problems are quickly and easily solved. Some -- such as complying exactly 
with very specific formatting directions -- can be extraordinarily difficult.

 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
 spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?

In spite of such a serious handicap I believe you will save a lot of time by 
using LyX, as long as you forget all you know about Word.

I recently sent to printing a 164 page book with figures (mainly photographs) 
on nearly every page. I do not think it would be possible to generate a 
satisfactory final PDF using Word, but it was relatively easy with LyX.

Today I finished a 33-page report with 30 figures. My total time for 
completing the report was about eight hours, of which 75% was spent extracting 
figures from PowerPoint presentations made by my collaborators and editing 
them to look decent.

-- 
Les Denham
Interactive Interpretation  Training, Inc.

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[Les Denham]

On Monday 17 October 2011 11:49:53 Johnston81 wrote:
 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?

Assuming you are reasonably fast at learning new things (and I assume you are 
as you are in graduate school): ten minutes.

 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?

Most problems are quickly and easily solved. Some -- such as complying exactly 
with very specific formatting directions -- can be extraordinarily difficult.

 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
 spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?

In spite of such a serious handicap I believe you will save a lot of time by 
using LyX, as long as you forget all you know about Word.

I recently sent to printing a 164 page book with figures (mainly photographs) 
on nearly every page. I do not think it would be possible to generate a 
satisfactory final PDF using Word, but it was relatively easy with LyX.

Today I finished a 33-page report with 30 figures. My total time for 
completing the report was about eight hours, of which 75% was spent extracting 
figures from PowerPoint presentations made by my collaborators and editing 
them to look decent.

-- 
Les Denham
Interactive Interpretation  Training, Inc.

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[Les Denham]

On Monday 17 October 2011 11:49:53 Johnston81 wrote:
> 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?

Assuming you are reasonably fast at learning new things (and I assume you are 
as you are in graduate school): ten minutes.

> 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?

Most problems are quickly and easily solved. Some -- such as complying exactly 
with very specific formatting directions -- can be extraordinarily difficult.

> 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
> spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?

In spite of such a serious handicap I believe you will save a lot of time by 
using LyX, as long as you forget all you know about Word.

I recently sent to printing a 164 page book with figures (mainly photographs) 
on nearly every page. I do not think it would be possible to generate a 
satisfactory final PDF using Word, but it was relatively easy with LyX.

Today I finished a 33-page report with 30 figures. My total time for 
completing the report was about eight hours, of which 75% was spent extracting 
figures from PowerPoint presentations made by my collaborators and editing 
them to look decent.

-- 
Les Denham
Interactive Interpretation & Training, Inc.

Re: Can I use lyx for a shopping list

[Les Denham]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:08:39 -0700
Monty Zukowski mo...@codetransform.com wrote:

 I'd like to lay out a 3x5 card shopping list in 3 columns.  I'm not
 sure what document class to use for something so basic, everything I
 tried likes to have a lot of space at the top.
 
 Thanks for any pointers,
 
Monty,

I use LyX for almost everything written, but it really isn't the best
tool for doing this. But you can make it work.

I'd suggest getting the columns by setting up a table with fixed
column widths. Use article class, and center the table using the
paragraph settings. Adjust the margins (Document-Settings-Page
Margins) and if you still have too much space at the top of the page
you can use Insert-Formatting-Vertical Space to put in a negative
space at the top of the page.

But I'd use a spreadsheet such as Gnumeric or LibreOffice Calc to do
the job.

Les

Re: Can I use lyx for a shopping list

[Les Denham]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:08:39 -0700
Monty Zukowski mo...@codetransform.com wrote:

 I'd like to lay out a 3x5 card shopping list in 3 columns.  I'm not
 sure what document class to use for something so basic, everything I
 tried likes to have a lot of space at the top.
 
 Thanks for any pointers,
 
Monty,

I use LyX for almost everything written, but it really isn't the best
tool for doing this. But you can make it work.

I'd suggest getting the columns by setting up a table with fixed
column widths. Use article class, and center the table using the
paragraph settings. Adjust the margins (Document-Settings-Page
Margins) and if you still have too much space at the top of the page
you can use Insert-Formatting-Vertical Space to put in a negative
space at the top of the page.

But I'd use a spreadsheet such as Gnumeric or LibreOffice Calc to do
the job.

Les

Re: Can I use lyx for a shopping list

[Les Denham]

On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 22:08:39 -0700
Monty Zukowski  wrote:

> I'd like to lay out a 3x5 card shopping list in 3 columns.  I'm not
> sure what document class to use for something so basic, everything I
> tried likes to have a lot of space at the top.
> 
> Thanks for any pointers,
> 
Monty,

I use LyX for almost everything written, but it really isn't the best
tool for doing this. But you can make it work.

I'd suggest getting the columns by setting up a table with fixed
column widths. Use article class, and center the table using the
paragraph settings. Adjust the margins (Document->Settings->Page
Margins) and if you still have too much space at the top of the page
you can use Insert->Formatting->Vertical Space to put in a negative
space at the top of the page.

But I'd use a spreadsheet such as Gnumeric or LibreOffice Calc to do
the job.

Les

Re: Printing full size pages

[Les Denham]

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:57:22 -0500
Bob Smither smit...@c-c-i.com wrote:

 I have a LyX document and I want to include some master forms in an 
 appendix.  The forms were created in OO.o and converted to letter
 sized PDFs.  Is there a way in LyX to have these pages, when printed
 from the PDF generated from the LyX document, print as full size
 pages?  Whatever I try ends up with the PDF scaled to fit inside the
 page margins.
 
Bob,

I can think of three ways of doing this.

Firstly, insert the PDF pages as figures, which appears to be what you
have been doing, but then use the clipping option to clip an existing
border from the inserted page. This will only work if the inserted PDF
page has a margin as large as the margin in the LyX document.

Secondly, you can insert blank pages in your LyX document where you
want the PDF pages inserted, and put the real pages into your exported
PDF file using pdftk.

The third way is to use the pdfpages package. This is supported in LyX
2.0 through Insert-File-External Material. I don't remember if it is
supported in earlier versions, but even if it isn't you can use LaTeX
code to make it work. See the LaTeX documentation for the package:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/pdfpages/

Les

Re: Printing full size pages

[Les Denham]

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:57:22 -0500
Bob Smither smit...@c-c-i.com wrote:

 I have a LyX document and I want to include some master forms in an 
 appendix.  The forms were created in OO.o and converted to letter
 sized PDFs.  Is there a way in LyX to have these pages, when printed
 from the PDF generated from the LyX document, print as full size
 pages?  Whatever I try ends up with the PDF scaled to fit inside the
 page margins.
 
Bob,

I can think of three ways of doing this.

Firstly, insert the PDF pages as figures, which appears to be what you
have been doing, but then use the clipping option to clip an existing
border from the inserted page. This will only work if the inserted PDF
page has a margin as large as the margin in the LyX document.

Secondly, you can insert blank pages in your LyX document where you
want the PDF pages inserted, and put the real pages into your exported
PDF file using pdftk.

The third way is to use the pdfpages package. This is supported in LyX
2.0 through Insert-File-External Material. I don't remember if it is
supported in earlier versions, but even if it isn't you can use LaTeX
code to make it work. See the LaTeX documentation for the package:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/pdfpages/

Les

Re: Printing full size pages

[Les Denham]

On Fri, 01 Jul 2011 22:57:22 -0500
Bob Smither  wrote:

> I have a LyX document and I want to include some master forms in an 
> appendix.  The forms were created in OO.o and converted to letter
> sized PDFs.  Is there a way in LyX to have these pages, when printed
> from the PDF generated from the LyX document, print as full size
> pages?  Whatever I try ends up with the PDF scaled to fit inside the
> page margins.
> 
Bob,

I can think of three ways of doing this.

Firstly, insert the PDF pages as figures, which appears to be what you
have been doing, but then use the clipping option to clip an existing
border from the inserted page. This will only work if the inserted PDF
page has a margin as large as the margin in the LyX document.

Secondly, you can insert blank pages in your LyX document where you
want the PDF pages inserted, and put the real pages into your exported
PDF file using pdftk.

The third way is to use the pdfpages package. This is supported in LyX
2.0 through Insert->File->External Material. I don't remember if it is
supported in earlier versions, but even if it isn't you can use LaTeX
code to make it work. See the LaTeX documentation for the package:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/macros/latex/contrib/pdfpages/

Les

Re: Figure Float Rotated When Exported: Why?

[Les Denham]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:43:21 -0700 (PDT)
Rich Shepard rshep...@appl-ecosys.com wrote:

I created a figure using gnuplot (because neither PSTricks nor R
 can make a bar plot with dates as the x labels), and exported it as
 PostScript (.ps). When I view the document, the figure is properly
 oriented, but when I export the file to pdflatex, the figure is
 rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. Rotating the figure in the
 document is necessary so it is properly oriented when the file is
 compiled.
 
Any ideas why this happened?
 
Rich,

I have no idea why this has happened, but I don't use gnuplot because
this kind of thing seems to happen with it. Instead I use xmgrace,
which can do exactly what I think you're trying to do, and can export
directly to either PDF or EPS, either of which will probably behave
better than PS when included as a figure.

Les

Re: Figure Float Rotated When Exported: Why?

[Les Denham]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:43:21 -0700 (PDT)
Rich Shepard rshep...@appl-ecosys.com wrote:

I created a figure using gnuplot (because neither PSTricks nor R
 can make a bar plot with dates as the x labels), and exported it as
 PostScript (.ps). When I view the document, the figure is properly
 oriented, but when I export the file to pdflatex, the figure is
 rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. Rotating the figure in the
 document is necessary so it is properly oriented when the file is
 compiled.
 
Any ideas why this happened?
 
Rich,

I have no idea why this has happened, but I don't use gnuplot because
this kind of thing seems to happen with it. Instead I use xmgrace,
which can do exactly what I think you're trying to do, and can export
directly to either PDF or EPS, either of which will probably behave
better than PS when included as a figure.

Les

Re: Figure Float Rotated When Exported: Why?

[Les Denham]

On Mon, 13 Jun 2011 16:43:21 -0700 (PDT)
Rich Shepard  wrote:

>I created a figure using gnuplot (because neither PSTricks nor R
> can make a bar plot with dates as the x labels), and exported it as
> PostScript (.ps). When I view the document, the figure is properly
> oriented, but when I export the file to pdflatex, the figure is
> rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. Rotating the figure in the
> document is necessary so it is properly oriented when the file is
> compiled.
> 
>Any ideas why this happened?
> 
Rich,

I have no idea why this has happened, but I don't use gnuplot because
this kind of thing seems to happen with it. Instead I use xmgrace,
which can do exactly what I think you're trying to do, and can export
directly to either PDF or EPS, either of which will probably behave
better than PS when included as a figure.

Les

Re: Most suitable image format

[Les Denham]

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011 15:18:03 Jens Nöckel wrote:
 Sam, 
 just use PNG for all purposes. It's compressed but lossless, and it's
 supported by LyX as well as all modern web browsers. Jens
  
 
 On May 31, 2011, at 12:50 PM, Sam Lewis wrote:
  Thanks for your quick reply. 
 
  
 
  I intent to both print it and distribute it online. I guess two versions
  of the document might be useful.  What lossy format, would you recommend
  for the latter?

If it really is high resolution, even a PNG image format may give unacceptably 
slow loading over some internet connections.  JPEG is usually smaller than 
PNG, so there is an argument for using it for online distribution.  But in 
general PNG is a very good universal format.  If the PNG file is still too 
big, reduce the image resolution for online distribution.
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Most suitable image format

[Les Denham]

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011 15:18:03 Jens Nöckel wrote:
 Sam, 
 just use PNG for all purposes. It's compressed but lossless, and it's
 supported by LyX as well as all modern web browsers. Jens
  
 
 On May 31, 2011, at 12:50 PM, Sam Lewis wrote:
  Thanks for your quick reply. 
 
  
 
  I intent to both print it and distribute it online. I guess two versions
  of the document might be useful.  What lossy format, would you recommend
  for the latter?

If it really is high resolution, even a PNG image format may give unacceptably 
slow loading over some internet connections.  JPEG is usually smaller than 
PNG, so there is an argument for using it for online distribution.  But in 
general PNG is a very good universal format.  If the PNG file is still too 
big, reduce the image resolution for online distribution.
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Most suitable image format

[Les Denham]

On Tuesday, May 31, 2011 15:18:03 Jens Nöckel wrote:
> Sam, 
> just use PNG for all purposes. It's compressed but lossless, and it's
> supported by LyX as well as all modern web browsers. Jens
>  
> 
> On May 31, 2011, at 12:50 PM, Sam Lewis wrote:
> > Thanks for your quick reply. 
> >
> > 
> >
> > I intent to both print it and distribute it online. I guess two versions
> > of the document might be useful.  What lossy format, would you recommend
> > for the latter?

If it really is high resolution, even a PNG image format may give unacceptably 
slow loading over some internet connections.  JPEG is usually smaller than 
PNG, so there is an argument for using it for online distribution.  But in 
general PNG is a very good universal format.  If the PNG file is still too 
big, reduce the image resolution for online distribution.
-- 
Les Denham

Re: line breaks in chapter title show up in TOC

[Les Denham]

On Friday, May 27, 2011 14:12:23 Richard Opheim wrote:
 Hello LyX users.
 Has anyone ever had a problem with line breaks in a chapter title showing
 up in a TOC?
 I didn't like the way LyX laid out a chapter title---too many words on the
 top line and too few in the bottom line. So I inserted a line break.
 Problem is, now I've got a line break in the TOC. Is there any way to have
 my line break and normal-looking TOC, too?
 
  Richard Opheim

Richard,

You can use Short Title (Insert-Short Title) to define a different title for 
the Table of Contents. See attached.

Les
-- 
Les Denham


short_title.16.lyx
Description: application/lyx

Re: line breaks in chapter title show up in TOC

[Les Denham]

On Friday, May 27, 2011 14:12:23 Richard Opheim wrote:
 Hello LyX users.
 Has anyone ever had a problem with line breaks in a chapter title showing
 up in a TOC?
 I didn't like the way LyX laid out a chapter title---too many words on the
 top line and too few in the bottom line. So I inserted a line break.
 Problem is, now I've got a line break in the TOC. Is there any way to have
 my line break and normal-looking TOC, too?
 
  Richard Opheim

Richard,

You can use Short Title (Insert-Short Title) to define a different title for 
the Table of Contents. See attached.

Les
-- 
Les Denham


short_title.16.lyx
Description: application/lyx

Re: line breaks in chapter title show up in TOC

[Les Denham]

On Friday, May 27, 2011 14:12:23 Richard Opheim wrote:
> Hello LyX users.
> Has anyone ever had a problem with line breaks in a chapter title showing
> up in a TOC?
> I didn't like the way LyX laid out a chapter title---too many words on the
> top line and too few in the bottom line. So I inserted a line break.
> Problem is, now I've got a line break in the TOC. Is there any way to have
> my line break and normal-looking TOC, too?
> 
>  Richard Opheim

Richard,

You can use Short Title (Insert->Short Title) to define a different title for 
the Table of Contents. See attached.

Les
-- 
Les Denham


short_title.16.lyx
Description: application/lyx

Re: lyx presentation

[Les Denham]

On Saturday, May 21, 2011 07:50:33 am tania kallab wrote:
 Hello again,
 i am using lyx version 1.6is there a way that i can create presentation
 slides using lyx since i dont actually know how to do it on latexthank you

The simplest is to use Beamer.  Look at some of the examples at 
http://wiki.lyx.org/Examples/Beamer

or at the Beamer template installed with LyX.

Another possibility is Powerdot.

Les

Re: lyx presentation

[Les Denham]

On Saturday, May 21, 2011 07:50:33 am tania kallab wrote:
 Hello again,
 i am using lyx version 1.6is there a way that i can create presentation
 slides using lyx since i dont actually know how to do it on latexthank you

The simplest is to use Beamer.  Look at some of the examples at 
http://wiki.lyx.org/Examples/Beamer

or at the Beamer template installed with LyX.

Another possibility is Powerdot.

Les

Re: lyx presentation

[Les Denham]

On Saturday, May 21, 2011 07:50:33 am tania kallab wrote:
> Hello again,
> i am using lyx version 1.6is there a way that i can create presentation
> slides using lyx since i dont actually know how to do it on latexthank you

The simplest is to use Beamer.  Look at some of the examples at 
http://wiki.lyx.org/Examples/Beamer

or at the Beamer template installed with LyX.

Another possibility is Powerdot.

Les

Re: Timeline generation

[Les Denham]

On Monday, April 18, 2011 14:19:07 mario wrote:
 hello
 
 On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 06:51  PM, Steve Litt lt;sl...@troubleshooters.comgt; 
wrote:
  On Monday 18 April 2011 03:09:53 Walter wrote:
   Hi all,
   
   Does anyone have a good solution to generate timelines?
  
  All I know is this would be really cool, and please let us know when
  you've found a solution.
 
 Yes, it would be very very cool.
 Do you know about http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/ ?
 It would be very nice to be able to convert that html output to something
 Latex can hadle. I have millions of question, but before I ask them maybe
 somebody could tell us what can be done, or which stumblig blocks are in
 front of us.
 
 I look forward to read from you
 thanks
 mario

Mario,

Conversion from HTML to LyX is (at least in principle) doable.  The big 
problem with SIMILE is that the guts of the output is in Javascript not HTML.

I'm not aware of a way of getting Javascript into something LyX might be able 
to handle.

Les
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Timeline generation

[Les Denham]

On Monday, April 18, 2011 14:19:07 mario wrote:
 hello
 
 On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 06:51  PM, Steve Litt lt;sl...@troubleshooters.comgt; 
wrote:
  On Monday 18 April 2011 03:09:53 Walter wrote:
   Hi all,
   
   Does anyone have a good solution to generate timelines?
  
  All I know is this would be really cool, and please let us know when
  you've found a solution.
 
 Yes, it would be very very cool.
 Do you know about http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/ ?
 It would be very nice to be able to convert that html output to something
 Latex can hadle. I have millions of question, but before I ask them maybe
 somebody could tell us what can be done, or which stumblig blocks are in
 front of us.
 
 I look forward to read from you
 thanks
 mario

Mario,

Conversion from HTML to LyX is (at least in principle) doable.  The big 
problem with SIMILE is that the guts of the output is in Javascript not HTML.

I'm not aware of a way of getting Javascript into something LyX might be able 
to handle.

Les
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Timeline generation

[Les Denham]

On Monday, April 18, 2011 14:19:07 mario wrote:
> hello
> 
> On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 06:51  PM, Steve Litt sl...@troubleshooters.com 
wrote:
> > On Monday 18 April 2011 03:09:53 Walter wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > > 
> > > Does anyone have a good solution to generate timelines?
> > 
> > All I know is this would be really cool, and please let us know when
> > you've found a solution.
> 
> Yes, it would be very very cool.
> Do you know about http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/ ?
> It would be very nice to be able to convert that html output to something
> Latex can hadle. I have millions of question, but before I ask them maybe
> somebody could tell us what can be done, or which stumblig blocks are in
> front of us.
> 
> I look forward to read from you
> thanks
> mario

Mario,

Conversion from HTML to LyX is (at least in principle) doable.  The big 
problem with SIMILE is that the guts of the output is in Javascript not HTML.

I'm not aware of a way of getting Javascript into something LyX might be able 
to handle.

Les
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Poll for the default icon theme in LyX 2.0

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday, March 30, 2011 08:26:28 Pavel Sanda wrote:
 These are the three themes available and we want to know which
 should be the default one. So I'm opening the poll right now,
 anyone interested can reply to this thread with
 
 - old
 
 - libreoffice
 
 - oxygen

I don't have strong feelings about this.  I'm personally most comfortable with 
the old icons, but I can see  arguments for both the other sets.  

The Libreoffice icons are surely destined to become very well known as 
Libreoffice replaces Openoffice as the most widely used replacement for MS 
Office, and this will make them familiar to most new users of LyX.

Oxygen has the goal of “Make a break with the past and go in a new 
direction, leaving behind the cartoonish and childish look of previous 
graphics”, and certainly this is a worthy goal.

On balance, as I don't have strong feelings as a user, I should vote for the 
one which will be of most use to LyX as a community for the longest time.  
That must surely be Oxygen. See:
http://www.oxygen-icons.org/?page_id=2
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Poll for the default icon theme in LyX 2.0

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday, March 30, 2011 08:26:28 Pavel Sanda wrote:
 These are the three themes available and we want to know which
 should be the default one. So I'm opening the poll right now,
 anyone interested can reply to this thread with
 
 - old
 
 - libreoffice
 
 - oxygen

I don't have strong feelings about this.  I'm personally most comfortable with 
the old icons, but I can see  arguments for both the other sets.  

The Libreoffice icons are surely destined to become very well known as 
Libreoffice replaces Openoffice as the most widely used replacement for MS 
Office, and this will make them familiar to most new users of LyX.

Oxygen has the goal of “Make a break with the past and go in a new 
direction, leaving behind the cartoonish and childish look of previous 
graphics”, and certainly this is a worthy goal.

On balance, as I don't have strong feelings as a user, I should vote for the 
one which will be of most use to LyX as a community for the longest time.  
That must surely be Oxygen. See:
http://www.oxygen-icons.org/?page_id=2
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Poll for the default icon theme in LyX 2.0

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday, March 30, 2011 08:26:28 Pavel Sanda wrote:
> These are the three themes available and we want to know which
> should be the default one. So I'm opening the poll right now,
> anyone interested can reply to this thread with
> 
> - old
> 
> - libreoffice
> 
> - oxygen

I don't have strong feelings about this.  I'm personally most comfortable with 
the "old" icons, but I can see  arguments for both the other sets.  

The "Libreoffice" icons are surely destined to become very well known as 
Libreoffice replaces Openoffice as the most widely used replacement for MS 
Office, and this will make them familiar to most new users of LyX.

"Oxygen" has the goal of “Make a break with the past and go in a new 
direction, leaving behind the cartoonish and childish look of previous 
graphics”, and certainly this is a worthy goal.

On balance, as I don't have strong feelings as a user, I should vote for the 
one which will be of most use to LyX as a community for the longest time.  
That must surely be Oxygen. See:
http://www.oxygen-icons.org/?page_id=2
-- 
Les Denham

Re: Export image to PDF as JPG, not as EPS

[Les Denham]

On Thursday, January 27, 2011 07:56:06 Ken wrote:
 Hi. I am writing a Beamer presentation. One of my slides has a very
 large EPS graphic. When I get to this slide in the presentation the
 computer takes a few moments to draw this image to screen.
 
 Is there a way for me to instead ask LyX to export this image to the
 PDF slideshow under a different format?  One that will render more
 instantly, such as a high-quality JPEG?
 
Your EPS graphic almost certainly has too much detail for the screen 
resolution of the projector used in the presentation.  Depending on the 
content of the graphic there might be better approaches, but I'd suggest using 
an image editor such as Gimp to produce a raster image with no more than about 
1600 pixels in the largest dimension, and save it as a PNG file.

If the result does not have detail you need for the presentation, you will 
have to reconsider what you're presenting, perhaps using an overview with 
additional slides to show detail.

-- 
Les Denham

Re: Export image to PDF as JPG, not as EPS

[Les Denham]

On Thursday, January 27, 2011 07:56:06 Ken wrote:
 Hi. I am writing a Beamer presentation. One of my slides has a very
 large EPS graphic. When I get to this slide in the presentation the
 computer takes a few moments to draw this image to screen.
 
 Is there a way for me to instead ask LyX to export this image to the
 PDF slideshow under a different format?  One that will render more
 instantly, such as a high-quality JPEG?
 
Your EPS graphic almost certainly has too much detail for the screen 
resolution of the projector used in the presentation.  Depending on the 
content of the graphic there might be better approaches, but I'd suggest using 
an image editor such as Gimp to produce a raster image with no more than about 
1600 pixels in the largest dimension, and save it as a PNG file.

If the result does not have detail you need for the presentation, you will 
have to reconsider what you're presenting, perhaps using an overview with 
additional slides to show detail.

-- 
Les Denham

Re: Export image to PDF as JPG, not as EPS

[Les Denham]

On Thursday, January 27, 2011 07:56:06 Ken wrote:
> Hi. I am writing a Beamer presentation. One of my slides has a very
> large EPS graphic. When I get to this slide in the presentation the
> computer takes a few moments to draw this image to screen.
> 
> Is there a way for me to instead ask LyX to export this image to the
> PDF slideshow under a different format?  One that will render more
> instantly, such as a high-quality JPEG?
> 
Your EPS graphic almost certainly has too much detail for the screen 
resolution of the projector used in the presentation.  Depending on the 
content of the graphic there might be better approaches, but I'd suggest using 
an image editor such as Gimp to produce a raster image with no more than about 
1600 pixels in the largest dimension, and save it as a PNG file.

If the result does not have detail you need for the presentation, you will 
have to reconsider what you're presenting, perhaps using an overview with 
additional slides to show detail.

-- 
Les Denham

Re: Making paragraphs stick together

[Les Denham]

On Tue, 2011-01-25 at 15:15 +0200, Barak Shoshany wrote:
 Hello,
 
 
 Sometimes I want to force two paragraphs to be on the same page. This
 may be done with Ctrl+Enter and the end of the first paragraph, but
 then the spacing between them is too small. How can I make two
 paragraphs (or maybe even a paragraph and an image, table, etc.)
 always be on the same page, no matter what?
 
 
 Thanks,
 Barak

Try this in the preamble:

\renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{0.8} 
% Allows up to 80% at the bottom of the page be floats
\renewcommand{\textfraction}{0.07} % allow minimal text w. figs 

Also see http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/bibliog/latex/floats.htm

Les

Re: Making paragraphs stick together

[Les Denham]

On Tue, 2011-01-25 at 15:15 +0200, Barak Shoshany wrote:
 Hello,
 
 
 Sometimes I want to force two paragraphs to be on the same page. This
 may be done with Ctrl+Enter and the end of the first paragraph, but
 then the spacing between them is too small. How can I make two
 paragraphs (or maybe even a paragraph and an image, table, etc.)
 always be on the same page, no matter what?
 
 
 Thanks,
 Barak

Try this in the preamble:

\renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{0.8} 
% Allows up to 80% at the bottom of the page be floats
\renewcommand{\textfraction}{0.07} % allow minimal text w. figs 

Also see http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/bibliog/latex/floats.htm

Les

Re: Making paragraphs stick together

[Les Denham]

On Tue, 2011-01-25 at 15:15 +0200, Barak Shoshany wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 
> Sometimes I want to force two paragraphs to be on the same page. This
> may be done with Ctrl+Enter and the end of the first paragraph, but
> then the spacing between them is too small. How can I make two
> paragraphs (or maybe even a paragraph and an image, table, etc.)
> always be on the same page, no matter what?
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Barak

Try this in the preamble:

\renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{0.8} 
% Allows up to 80% at the bottom of the page be floats
\renewcommand{\textfraction}{0.07} % allow minimal text w. figs 

Also see http://mintaka.sdsu.edu/GF/bibliog/latex/floats.htm

Les

Re: more on collaboration

[Les Denham]

On Friday 24 September 2010 10:29:10 Rob Oakes wrote:
 Anyone else have any thoughts?
 
Rob,

I had no idea people were asking for this kind of feature.  Real-time 
collaboration on a document seems to me to be a formula for a colossal waste 
of time, extending the concept of endless meetings to an online equivalent.

In the organizations I'm involved in, written documents of all kinds seem to 
be actively discouraged by most managers.  The most common kind of report is 
an incoherent PowerPoint presentation put together with thought processes and 
artistic taste worthy of a four-year-old.

Writing of any kind is so rare I can't imagine there being any demand for 
collaborative writing.
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: more on collaboration

[Les Denham]

On Friday 24 September 2010 10:29:10 Rob Oakes wrote:
 Anyone else have any thoughts?
 
Rob,

I had no idea people were asking for this kind of feature.  Real-time 
collaboration on a document seems to me to be a formula for a colossal waste 
of time, extending the concept of endless meetings to an online equivalent.

In the organizations I'm involved in, written documents of all kinds seem to 
be actively discouraged by most managers.  The most common kind of report is 
an incoherent PowerPoint presentation put together with thought processes and 
artistic taste worthy of a four-year-old.

Writing of any kind is so rare I can't imagine there being any demand for 
collaborative writing.
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: more on collaboration

[Les Denham]

On Friday 24 September 2010 10:29:10 Rob Oakes wrote:
> Anyone else have any thoughts?
> 
Rob,

I had no idea people were asking for this kind of feature.  Real-time 
collaboration on a document seems to me to be a formula for a colossal waste 
of time, extending the concept of endless meetings to an online equivalent.

In the organizations I'm involved in, written documents of all kinds seem to 
be actively discouraged by most managers.  The most common kind of "report" is 
an incoherent PowerPoint presentation put together with thought processes and 
artistic taste worthy of a four-year-old.

Writing of any kind is so rare I can't imagine there being any demand for 
collaborative writing.
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Different page sizes in one document (eng/ger)

[Les Denham]

On Monday 30 August 2010 06:53:49 Roland Werth wrote:
 ENGLISH:
 Dear Community,
 
 I am currently writing a thesis in LyX, using Koma-Script(book). The page
  size is A4. Several technical drawings sufficient for the thesis are in A3
  and A31 (page height 297mm, width 841mm, to be folded down to A4 after
  print) and A2 (also to be folded). I want to integrate them in the
  document to make one lush book. The drawings are explained within the text
  and they should occur either after a single chapter or in the appendix and
  to be cross-referenced. The drawings are in PDF.
 

Roland,

I would use PDFTK (http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/).

1. If you want your final page numbering to include the drawings, insert the 
requisite number of blank pages at the end of each chapter, with a dummy figure 
float on each blank page to get the drawings in the List of Figures.

2. Export the LyX file to PDF.

3. Using PDFTK, split out the pages for each chapter as a single PDF file for 
the text of each chapter (do not include the blank pages).

4. Add the drawings to the end of each chapter file (using PDFTK).

5. Assemble the chapters into a single file using PDFTK.

Les

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Different page sizes in one document (eng/ger)

[Les Denham]

On Monday 30 August 2010 06:53:49 Roland Werth wrote:
 ENGLISH:
 Dear Community,
 
 I am currently writing a thesis in LyX, using Koma-Script(book). The page
  size is A4. Several technical drawings sufficient for the thesis are in A3
  and A31 (page height 297mm, width 841mm, to be folded down to A4 after
  print) and A2 (also to be folded). I want to integrate them in the
  document to make one lush book. The drawings are explained within the text
  and they should occur either after a single chapter or in the appendix and
  to be cross-referenced. The drawings are in PDF.
 

Roland,

I would use PDFTK (http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/).

1. If you want your final page numbering to include the drawings, insert the 
requisite number of blank pages at the end of each chapter, with a dummy figure 
float on each blank page to get the drawings in the List of Figures.

2. Export the LyX file to PDF.

3. Using PDFTK, split out the pages for each chapter as a single PDF file for 
the text of each chapter (do not include the blank pages).

4. Add the drawings to the end of each chapter file (using PDFTK).

5. Assemble the chapters into a single file using PDFTK.

Les

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Different page sizes in one document (eng/ger)

[Les Denham]

On Monday 30 August 2010 06:53:49 Roland Werth wrote:
> ENGLISH:
> Dear Community,
> 
> I am currently writing a thesis in LyX, using Koma-Script(book). The page
>  size is A4. Several technical drawings sufficient for the thesis are in A3
>  and A31 (page height 297mm, width 841mm, to be folded down to A4 after
>  print) and A2 (also to be folded). I want to integrate them in the
>  document to make one lush book. The drawings are explained within the text
>  and they should occur either after a single chapter or in the appendix and
>  to be cross-referenced. The drawings are in PDF.
> 

Roland,

I would use PDFTK (http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/).

1. If you want your final page numbering to include the drawings, insert the 
requisite number of blank pages at the end of each chapter, with a dummy figure 
float on each blank page to get the drawings in the List of Figures.

2. Export the LyX file to PDF.

3. Using PDFTK, split out the pages for each chapter as a single PDF file for 
the text of each chapter (do not include the blank pages).

4. Add the drawings to the end of each chapter file (using PDFTK).

5. Assemble the chapters into a single file using PDFTK.

Les

-- 
..
Les Denham

LyX success story

[Les Denham]

Back in December, I was working on a research project which was winding down, 
and we were drafting the final report.  The team leader complained to me that 
he could not see a reasonable way to get everything into a decent looking 
report using MS Word. He was having a lot of trouble with cross-references in 
particular.

So I suggested using LyX, and installed it on his laptop for him.

After a day working with it, he became enthusiastic about LyX, and over the 
next few weeks I received occasional phone calls asking how to achieve some 
particular layout, etc.

Finally, he called to tell me he had delivered the report to the client.

Yesterday I was visiting him, and he showed me the final paper version of the 
report.  It certainly does look impressive.  I don't think any other system 
could produce a document with 458 pages, over 400 figures, and a bibliography 
of about 100 items.  Especially with cross-references and citations on nearly 
every page.

And this was put together by one person in about three weeks.
-- 
..
Les Denham

LyX success story

[Les Denham]

Back in December, I was working on a research project which was winding down, 
and we were drafting the final report.  The team leader complained to me that 
he could not see a reasonable way to get everything into a decent looking 
report using MS Word. He was having a lot of trouble with cross-references in 
particular.

So I suggested using LyX, and installed it on his laptop for him.

After a day working with it, he became enthusiastic about LyX, and over the 
next few weeks I received occasional phone calls asking how to achieve some 
particular layout, etc.

Finally, he called to tell me he had delivered the report to the client.

Yesterday I was visiting him, and he showed me the final paper version of the 
report.  It certainly does look impressive.  I don't think any other system 
could produce a document with 458 pages, over 400 figures, and a bibliography 
of about 100 items.  Especially with cross-references and citations on nearly 
every page.

And this was put together by one person in about three weeks.
-- 
..
Les Denham

LyX success story

[Les Denham]

Back in December, I was working on a research project which was winding down, 
and we were drafting the final report.  The team leader complained to me that 
he could not see a reasonable way to get everything into a decent looking 
report using MS Word. He was having a lot of trouble with cross-references in 
particular.

So I suggested using LyX, and installed it on his laptop for him.

After a day working with it, he became enthusiastic about LyX, and over the 
next few weeks I received occasional phone calls asking how to achieve some 
particular layout, etc.

Finally, he called to tell me he had delivered the report to the client.

Yesterday I was visiting him, and he showed me the final paper version of the 
report.  It certainly does look impressive.  I don't think any other system 
could produce a document with 458 pages, over 400 figures, and a bibliography 
of about 100 items.  Especially with cross-references and citations on nearly 
every page.

And this was put together by one person in about three weeks.
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: First impressions of Beamer

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 07 April 2010 14:06:44 Steve Litt wrote:
 In the long run I don't know if I'll be doing these slides in Beamer,
  another LyX based slide environment, or just do it in Scribus, which of
  course is made for fingerpainting. But Beamer isn't bad for 15 minutes
  without reading documentation :-)

Steve,

I suggest you try the powerdot class.  I've used it for about five years with 
great satisfaction.  A few years ago there were problems getting it to run 
with TeTex, but with TeXlive the new standard it seems to run straight out of 
the box.

The only thing you really need to remember is it does not work with pdflatex.

I've received quite a few compliments on my presentations from people who have 
never seen anything but Powerpoint (though admittedly that's a pretty low 
standard to exceed).

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: First impressions of Beamer

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 07 April 2010 14:29:26 Rich Shepard wrote:
 On Wed, 7 Apr 2010, Steve Litt wrote:
  I guess I'll be making a layout file called mybeamer.
 
 Steve,
 
You seem to enjoy re-inventing the wheel so you'll have fun with this.
  If you read the document you'll find a wide range of layouts and colors.
  Within those, you can tweak to your heart's content. But, that's not as
  much fun as starting from scratch.
 
  The funniest thing was placing a graphic on a page. When I make
  Powerpoint presentations I like to put the graphic at the side of the
  bullet points, somewhere where the bullet points are short. I couldn't
  figure a way to do that in Beamer (makes sense, what I describe is
  fingerpainting), so instead I put the graphic at the bottom and then
  preceded it with the following ERT:
 
Well, I do this on a regular basis. It's not difficult at all. RTFM.
 
  In the long run I don't know if I'll be doing these slides in Beamer,
 
Nah! Go back to PowerPoint. Easier.
 
Rich,

An easy way of achieving what Steve wants in powerdot is to put two boxes side 
by side on the slide (easily done simply by setting their widths to a total of 
about 99% of text width), and putting the text in one and the figure in the 
other.  I imagine this would work in beamer too.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: First impressions of Beamer

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 07 April 2010 14:06:44 Steve Litt wrote:
 In the long run I don't know if I'll be doing these slides in Beamer,
  another LyX based slide environment, or just do it in Scribus, which of
  course is made for fingerpainting. But Beamer isn't bad for 15 minutes
  without reading documentation :-)

Steve,

I suggest you try the powerdot class.  I've used it for about five years with 
great satisfaction.  A few years ago there were problems getting it to run 
with TeTex, but with TeXlive the new standard it seems to run straight out of 
the box.

The only thing you really need to remember is it does not work with pdflatex.

I've received quite a few compliments on my presentations from people who have 
never seen anything but Powerpoint (though admittedly that's a pretty low 
standard to exceed).

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: First impressions of Beamer

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 07 April 2010 14:29:26 Rich Shepard wrote:
 On Wed, 7 Apr 2010, Steve Litt wrote:
  I guess I'll be making a layout file called mybeamer.
 
 Steve,
 
You seem to enjoy re-inventing the wheel so you'll have fun with this.
  If you read the document you'll find a wide range of layouts and colors.
  Within those, you can tweak to your heart's content. But, that's not as
  much fun as starting from scratch.
 
  The funniest thing was placing a graphic on a page. When I make
  Powerpoint presentations I like to put the graphic at the side of the
  bullet points, somewhere where the bullet points are short. I couldn't
  figure a way to do that in Beamer (makes sense, what I describe is
  fingerpainting), so instead I put the graphic at the bottom and then
  preceded it with the following ERT:
 
Well, I do this on a regular basis. It's not difficult at all. RTFM.
 
  In the long run I don't know if I'll be doing these slides in Beamer,
 
Nah! Go back to PowerPoint. Easier.
 
Rich,

An easy way of achieving what Steve wants in powerdot is to put two boxes side 
by side on the slide (easily done simply by setting their widths to a total of 
about 99% of text width), and putting the text in one and the figure in the 
other.  I imagine this would work in beamer too.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: First impressions of Beamer

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 07 April 2010 14:06:44 Steve Litt wrote:
> In the long run I don't know if I'll be doing these slides in Beamer,
>  another LyX based slide environment, or just do it in Scribus, which of
>  course is made for fingerpainting. But Beamer isn't bad for 15 minutes
>  without reading documentation :-)

Steve,

I suggest you try the powerdot class.  I've used it for about five years with 
great satisfaction.  A few years ago there were problems getting it to run 
with TeTex, but with TeXlive the new standard it seems to run straight out of 
the box.

The only thing you really need to remember is it does not work with pdflatex.

I've received quite a few compliments on my presentations from people who have 
never seen anything but Powerpoint (though admittedly that's a pretty low 
standard to exceed).

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: First impressions of Beamer

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 07 April 2010 14:29:26 Rich Shepard wrote:
> On Wed, 7 Apr 2010, Steve Litt wrote:
> > I guess I'll be making a layout file called "mybeamer".
> 
> Steve,
> 
>You seem to enjoy re-inventing the wheel so you'll have fun with this.
>  If you read the document you'll find a wide range of layouts and colors.
>  Within those, you can tweak to your heart's content. But, that's not as
>  much fun as starting from scratch.
> 
> > The funniest thing was placing a graphic on a page. When I make
> > Powerpoint presentations I like to put the graphic at the side of the
> > bullet points, somewhere where the bullet points are short. I couldn't
> > figure a way to do that in Beamer (makes sense, what I describe is
> > fingerpainting), so instead I put the graphic at the bottom and then
> > preceded it with the following ERT:
> 
>Well, I do this on a regular basis. It's not difficult at all. RTFM.
> 
> > In the long run I don't know if I'll be doing these slides in Beamer,
> 
>Nah! Go back to PowerPoint. Easier.
> 
Rich,

An easy way of achieving what Steve wants in powerdot is to put two boxes side 
by side on the slide (easily done simply by setting their widths to a total of 
about 99% of text width), and putting the text in one and the figure in the 
other.  I imagine this would work in beamer too.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: LyX on Windows 7

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 31 March 2010 14:40:41 Rudi Eycken wrote:
 Is it possible to install LyX on a Windows 7 PC. (I need to buy a new PC
 and I need to use LyX).
 
 Thanks in advance.
 With kind regards,
 
Rudi,

Just this morning I installed LyX 1.6.5 on a new Windows 7 (64-bit) system 
using the LyXWinInstaller complete variant 
(http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyXWinInstaller).

The installation appeared to run with no problems at all, and the installed 
LyX seems to behave exactly the same as 1.6.5 running on my Linux system, 
though I haven't had time to do much with it yet.  I did install Acrobat 
Reader 9 first so it would be found by LyX, and it works as expected for View 
PDF.

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: LyX on Windows 7

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 31 March 2010 14:40:41 Rudi Eycken wrote:
 Is it possible to install LyX on a Windows 7 PC. (I need to buy a new PC
 and I need to use LyX).
 
 Thanks in advance.
 With kind regards,
 
Rudi,

Just this morning I installed LyX 1.6.5 on a new Windows 7 (64-bit) system 
using the LyXWinInstaller complete variant 
(http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyXWinInstaller).

The installation appeared to run with no problems at all, and the installed 
LyX seems to behave exactly the same as 1.6.5 running on my Linux system, 
though I haven't had time to do much with it yet.  I did install Acrobat 
Reader 9 first so it would be found by LyX, and it works as expected for View 
PDF.

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: LyX on Windows 7

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 31 March 2010 14:40:41 Rudi Eycken wrote:
> Is it possible to install LyX on a Windows 7 PC. (I need to buy a new PC
> and I need to use LyX).
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> With kind regards,
> 
Rudi,

Just this morning I installed LyX 1.6.5 on a new Windows 7 (64-bit) system 
using the LyXWinInstaller "complete" variant 
(http://wiki.lyx.org/Windows/LyXWinInstaller).

The installation appeared to run with no problems at all, and the installed 
LyX seems to behave exactly the same as 1.6.5 running on my Linux system, 
though I haven't had time to do much with it yet.  I did install Acrobat 
Reader 9 first so it would be found by LyX, and it works as expected for View 
PDF.

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Realistic Size Limit in LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 11 March 2010 06:41:05 Helge Hafting wrote:
 Possible fixes for float problems:
 * Upgrade your latex, if possible. May also help with
other limits.
 * Make sure you don't have an unplaceable float. Typically
one that is bigger than a page, so it forces all floats
to the end of the chapter/book. And that don't work
if there are too many.
 * Fewer floats, but you probably doesn't want that.
 * More text between floats, so one float can be placed before
the next is issued. If some clearpages help, then more
text in those locations will help too.
If you started by outlining with some headings and then
added all your figures before writing the text, then
you might get such trouble.
 * Merge adjacent floats into a single float containing
several figures. (You can still have several numbered captions
and cross-reference each of them.)
 * Reduce the size of some figures, placement becomes easier
for latex.
 
 If your problems aren't float-related, then this isn't
 likely to help.
 
If it helps, I have written a document with 197 floats on 165 pages in the 
output PDF file.  While working on it, I did have problems with floats.  Here 
is how I fixed it:

1. Put the following in the Preamble:
  \usepackage{morefloats}
  \renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{.7}
  \renewcommand{\textfraction}{.05}

2. Put \clearpage (in ERT) at the end of each of 12 chapters.

That's all it took.  I did this over two years ago, when I was a few versions 
back for LyX, and I think I was still using a fairly ancient version of TeTeX.

Les

-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Realistic Size Limit in LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 11 March 2010 06:41:05 Helge Hafting wrote:
 Possible fixes for float problems:
 * Upgrade your latex, if possible. May also help with
other limits.
 * Make sure you don't have an unplaceable float. Typically
one that is bigger than a page, so it forces all floats
to the end of the chapter/book. And that don't work
if there are too many.
 * Fewer floats, but you probably doesn't want that.
 * More text between floats, so one float can be placed before
the next is issued. If some clearpages help, then more
text in those locations will help too.
If you started by outlining with some headings and then
added all your figures before writing the text, then
you might get such trouble.
 * Merge adjacent floats into a single float containing
several figures. (You can still have several numbered captions
and cross-reference each of them.)
 * Reduce the size of some figures, placement becomes easier
for latex.
 
 If your problems aren't float-related, then this isn't
 likely to help.
 
If it helps, I have written a document with 197 floats on 165 pages in the 
output PDF file.  While working on it, I did have problems with floats.  Here 
is how I fixed it:

1. Put the following in the Preamble:
  \usepackage{morefloats}
  \renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{.7}
  \renewcommand{\textfraction}{.05}

2. Put \clearpage (in ERT) at the end of each of 12 chapters.

That's all it took.  I did this over two years ago, when I was a few versions 
back for LyX, and I think I was still using a fairly ancient version of TeTeX.

Les

-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Realistic Size Limit in LyX

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 11 March 2010 06:41:05 Helge Hafting wrote:
> Possible fixes for float problems:
> * Upgrade your latex, if possible. May also help with
>other limits.
> * Make sure you don't have an "unplaceable float". Typically
>one that is bigger than a page, so it forces all floats
>to the end of the chapter/book. And that don't work
>if there are "too many".
> * Fewer floats, but you probably doesn't want that.
> * More text between floats, so one float can be placed before
>the next is issued. If some "clearpages" help, then more
>text in those locations will help too.
>If you started by outlining with some headings and then
>added all your figures before writing the text, then
>you might get such trouble.
> * Merge adjacent floats into a single float containing
>several figures. (You can still have several numbered captions
>and cross-reference each of them.)
> * Reduce the size of some figures, placement becomes easier
>for latex.
> 
> If your problems aren't float-related, then this isn't
> likely to help.
> 
If it helps, I have written a document with 197 floats on 165 pages in the 
output PDF file.  While working on it, I did have problems with floats.  Here 
is how I fixed it:

1. Put the following in the Preamble:
  \usepackage{morefloats}
  \renewcommand{\bottomfraction}{.7}
  \renewcommand{\textfraction}{.05}

2. Put \clearpage (in ERT) at the end of each of 12 chapters.

That's all it took.  I did this over two years ago, when I was a few versions 
back for LyX, and I think I was still using a fairly ancient version of TeTeX.

Les

-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Freeze followed by St9bad_alloc

[Les Denham]

I have been having problems with a report I'm working on currently. 

When I'm editing one of the files in the report, LyX freezes, and after 
several minutes it crashes with a cryptic error message St9bad_alloc.

This occurs most frequently when I'm doing something with a figure float.  The 
most recent occurrence appeared to originate when I cut a figure float from 
one child document and pasted it into another. The problem appears to 
originate most commonly when I change the paragraph settings from the default 
left alignment to center.  It also happens much more commonly when I'm using 
US Letter page size than when using A4.  On the current document it happened 
from the first time when I changed page size from A4 to Letter.

I've found I can usually fix the problem once I identify which float is 
causing the error by simply opening the float and making a change in the 
settings.  Apparently any change works.

The report I'm working on is currently a master document with six child 
documents, using Report(komascript) class.  I changed from a single document 
to make it easier to locate the float causing this problem.  I'm using LyX 
1.6.4 running on 64-bit Gentoo Linux with texlive-2008-r4.

Has anyone else run across this problem?
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Freeze followed by St9bad_alloc

[Les Denham]

On Monday 18 January 2010 13:51:27 rgheck wrote:
 This suggests to me an infinite loop somewhere that keeps consuming 
 memory until there's none left, which is when you get a memory 
 allocation error. I think this is really just std::bad_alloc in disguise.
 
Yes, that's what I would guess.

Since sending the message this morning I've upgraded to 1.6.5, and so far the 
problem has not recurred.  This could be a sign the problem was fixed in 
1.6.5, or it could be a sign that I had a problem with my installation 
(remembering that Gentoo compiles everything from source on the target 
machine) which was fixed by the recompiling and relinking in the upgrade.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Freeze followed by St9bad_alloc

[Les Denham]

I have been having problems with a report I'm working on currently. 

When I'm editing one of the files in the report, LyX freezes, and after 
several minutes it crashes with a cryptic error message St9bad_alloc.

This occurs most frequently when I'm doing something with a figure float.  The 
most recent occurrence appeared to originate when I cut a figure float from 
one child document and pasted it into another. The problem appears to 
originate most commonly when I change the paragraph settings from the default 
left alignment to center.  It also happens much more commonly when I'm using 
US Letter page size than when using A4.  On the current document it happened 
from the first time when I changed page size from A4 to Letter.

I've found I can usually fix the problem once I identify which float is 
causing the error by simply opening the float and making a change in the 
settings.  Apparently any change works.

The report I'm working on is currently a master document with six child 
documents, using Report(komascript) class.  I changed from a single document 
to make it easier to locate the float causing this problem.  I'm using LyX 
1.6.4 running on 64-bit Gentoo Linux with texlive-2008-r4.

Has anyone else run across this problem?
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Freeze followed by St9bad_alloc

[Les Denham]

On Monday 18 January 2010 13:51:27 rgheck wrote:
 This suggests to me an infinite loop somewhere that keeps consuming 
 memory until there's none left, which is when you get a memory 
 allocation error. I think this is really just std::bad_alloc in disguise.
 
Yes, that's what I would guess.

Since sending the message this morning I've upgraded to 1.6.5, and so far the 
problem has not recurred.  This could be a sign the problem was fixed in 
1.6.5, or it could be a sign that I had a problem with my installation 
(remembering that Gentoo compiles everything from source on the target 
machine) which was fixed by the recompiling and relinking in the upgrade.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Freeze followed by St9bad_alloc

[Les Denham]

I have been having problems with a report I'm working on currently. 

When I'm editing one of the files in the report, LyX freezes, and after 
several minutes it crashes with a cryptic error message "St9bad_alloc".

This occurs most frequently when I'm doing something with a figure float.  The 
most recent occurrence appeared to originate when I cut a figure float from 
one child document and pasted it into another. The problem appears to 
originate most commonly when I change the paragraph settings from the default 
left alignment to center.  It also happens much more commonly when I'm using 
US Letter page size than when using A4.  On the current document it happened 
from the first time when I changed page size from A4 to Letter.

I've found I can usually fix the problem once I identify which float is 
causing the error by simply opening the float and making a change in the 
settings.  Apparently any change works.

The report I'm working on is currently a master document with six child 
documents, using Report(komascript) class.  I changed from a single document 
to make it easier to locate the float causing this problem.  I'm using LyX 
1.6.4 running on 64-bit Gentoo Linux with texlive-2008-r4.

Has anyone else run across this problem?
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Freeze followed by St9bad_alloc

[Les Denham]

On Monday 18 January 2010 13:51:27 rgheck wrote:
> This suggests to me an infinite loop somewhere that keeps consuming 
> memory until there's none left, which is when you get a memory 
> allocation error. I think this is really just std::bad_alloc in disguise.
> 
Yes, that's what I would guess.

Since sending the message this morning I've upgraded to 1.6.5, and so far the 
problem has not recurred.  This could be a sign the problem was fixed in 
1.6.5, or it could be a sign that I had a problem with my installation 
(remembering that Gentoo compiles everything from source on the target 
machine) which was fixed by the recompiling and relinking in the upgrade.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Page numbering for subpages

[Les Denham]

On Monday 14 December 2009 16:29:04 Dainis Zegners wrote:
 Hello to everybody!
 
 I have the following problem to solve in Lyx:
 
 I have a couple of graphics in floats that each fill a whole page. I want
  that these pages are inserted as subpages, that is with numberings 40a,
  40b, etc.
 
 The reason is that I am writting a thesis with a maximum page limit of 40,
  but I am allowed to count pages with graphs only as subpages.
 
 I have already searched the internet for some hours but have not found a
 solution yet. I found a latex package called subfigure , but some how this
  did not work together with the float environment.
 
 I would greatly appreciate any help, thanks in advance !
 
Dainis,

I don't know of any easy way of doing this, but the following process should 
work:

1.  Get the numbers of subsequent pages right.  You can do this with the LaTeX 
command \setpagenumber{41} inserted after your last figure, but if you don't 
have any pages after the last figure you won't need to do this.

2. Export to PDF from LyX.

3. Use PDFTK to uncompress the PDF file.
(http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/)

4. Use a text editor on the uncompressed PDF file, and change the page numbers 
as required.

5. If needed, use the text editor on the uncompressed PDF file to change any 
references to the page numbers of the figures on the pages you just 
renumbered.  If you only used figure numbers in crossreferences, you will only 
have to change the List of Figures.

6. Use PDFTK to compress the PDF file. 

I can see some potential problems. The justification of the edited numbers 
will be off slightly. Finding the numbers to edit in the uncompressed PDF file 
could be difficult.  You could simplify that problem by using PDFTK to extract 
the pages to be edited individually, and just uncompressing them.

Les
-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Page numbering for subpages

[Les Denham]

On Monday 14 December 2009 16:29:04 Dainis Zegners wrote:
 Hello to everybody!
 
 I have the following problem to solve in Lyx:
 
 I have a couple of graphics in floats that each fill a whole page. I want
  that these pages are inserted as subpages, that is with numberings 40a,
  40b, etc.
 
 The reason is that I am writting a thesis with a maximum page limit of 40,
  but I am allowed to count pages with graphs only as subpages.
 
 I have already searched the internet for some hours but have not found a
 solution yet. I found a latex package called subfigure , but some how this
  did not work together with the float environment.
 
 I would greatly appreciate any help, thanks in advance !
 
Dainis,

I don't know of any easy way of doing this, but the following process should 
work:

1.  Get the numbers of subsequent pages right.  You can do this with the LaTeX 
command \setpagenumber{41} inserted after your last figure, but if you don't 
have any pages after the last figure you won't need to do this.

2. Export to PDF from LyX.

3. Use PDFTK to uncompress the PDF file.
(http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/)

4. Use a text editor on the uncompressed PDF file, and change the page numbers 
as required.

5. If needed, use the text editor on the uncompressed PDF file to change any 
references to the page numbers of the figures on the pages you just 
renumbered.  If you only used figure numbers in crossreferences, you will only 
have to change the List of Figures.

6. Use PDFTK to compress the PDF file. 

I can see some potential problems. The justification of the edited numbers 
will be off slightly. Finding the numbers to edit in the uncompressed PDF file 
could be difficult.  You could simplify that problem by using PDFTK to extract 
the pages to be edited individually, and just uncompressing them.

Les
-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Page numbering for subpages

[Les Denham]

On Monday 14 December 2009 16:29:04 Dainis Zegners wrote:
> Hello to everybody!
> 
> I have the following problem to solve in Lyx:
> 
> I have a couple of graphics in floats that each fill a whole page. I want
>  that these pages are inserted as subpages, that is with numberings 40a,
>  40b, etc.
> 
> The reason is that I am writting a thesis with a maximum page limit of 40,
>  but I am allowed to count pages with graphs only as subpages.
> 
> I have already searched the internet for some hours but have not found a
> solution yet. I found a latex package called subfigure , but some how this
>  did not work together with the float environment.
> 
> I would greatly appreciate any help, thanks in advance !
> 
Dainis,

I don't know of any easy way of doing this, but the following process should 
work:

1.  Get the numbers of subsequent pages right.  You can do this with the LaTeX 
command \setpagenumber{41} inserted after your last figure, but if you don't 
have any pages after the last figure you won't need to do this.

2. Export to PDF from LyX.

3. Use PDFTK to uncompress the PDF file.
(http://www.accesspdf.com/pdftk/)

4. Use a text editor on the uncompressed PDF file, and change the page numbers 
as required.

5. If needed, use the text editor on the uncompressed PDF file to change any 
references to the page numbers of the figures on the pages you just 
renumbered.  If you only used figure numbers in crossreferences, you will only 
have to change the List of Figures.

6. Use PDFTK to compress the PDF file. 

I can see some potential problems. The justification of the edited numbers 
will be off slightly. Finding the numbers to edit in the uncompressed PDF file 
could be difficult.  You could simplify that problem by using PDFTK to extract 
the pages to be edited individually, and just uncompressing them.

Les
-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: plotting with LyX

[Les Denham]

On Friday 04 December 2009 17:29:20 Yoel Koenka wrote:
 Hi all,
 Can someone tell me how do I plot graphs from math formulas in LyX?
 I have LyX 1.6.4.2 on Ubuntu.
 I've read there should be support for Octave (for example) but couldn't
  find which package to install.
 Thanks a lot,
 Yoel

I usually use Grace (http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/).

It produces very nice results, is very flexible once you learn it, and is 
supported transparently by LyX: if you install LyX on a computer with Grace 
installed, you can use Grace project files as figures directly.

Les

-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: plotting with LyX

[Les Denham]

On Friday 04 December 2009 17:29:20 Yoel Koenka wrote:
 Hi all,
 Can someone tell me how do I plot graphs from math formulas in LyX?
 I have LyX 1.6.4.2 on Ubuntu.
 I've read there should be support for Octave (for example) but couldn't
  find which package to install.
 Thanks a lot,
 Yoel

I usually use Grace (http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/).

It produces very nice results, is very flexible once you learn it, and is 
supported transparently by LyX: if you install LyX on a computer with Grace 
installed, you can use Grace project files as figures directly.

Les

-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: plotting with LyX

[Les Denham]

On Friday 04 December 2009 17:29:20 Yoel Koenka wrote:
> Hi all,
> Can someone tell me how do I plot graphs from math formulas in LyX?
> I have LyX 1.6.4.2 on Ubuntu.
> I've read there should be support for Octave (for example) but couldn't
>  find which package to install.
> Thanks a lot,
> Yoel
>
I usually use Grace (http://plasma-gate.weizmann.ac.il/Grace/).

It produces very nice results, is very flexible once you learn it, and is 
supported transparently by LyX: if you install LyX on a computer with Grace 
installed, you can use Grace project files as figures directly.

Les

-- 
Les Denham
---
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham
---
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Les Denham]

On Tuesday 03 November 2009 10:09:49 Rob Oakes wrote:
 Dear LyX Users,

 I'm currently working on a book which shows how professional and
 scientific writing can be done using purely open source tools.  Any book
 about Scientific/Technical/Professional writing on Linux has to include
 one (if not more) chapters on LyX.  Other chapters will look at LaTeX,
 BibTeX, DocBook and the programs that make working with them easier.

 I am writing this letter to see if there are any particular topics which
 people would like to see included in the book.  One example: I'm going
 to devote a chapter on how to create custom LyX layouts and modules from
 existing (or entirely new) LaTeX files.  (I will also be posting several
 other examples on a companion website.)

 But are there other things that you would like to see?  The standard LyX
 documentation is so good that I've found myself struggling to find other
 topics that need to be covered, other than a tremendously quick overview
 of the program and instructions on where to find the docs.

Rob,

I would suggest putting in some discussion on how to choose Document Class -- 
not the mechanics of using the menu, but the pros and cons of using different 
classes for different types of document. For example, there are more than 
twenty variants of Article, nine Letters, six Books, five Presentations 
and four Reports in my installation of LyX.  I've been using LyX since 2001, 
and I find myself just using the few classes I'm familiar with: article, 
report, book, memoir, a couple of Komascript classes, and powerdot. 
Suggestions or recommendations for using particular classes for specific 
purposes would be very welcome.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Les Denham]

On Tuesday 03 November 2009 10:09:49 Rob Oakes wrote:
 Dear LyX Users,

 I'm currently working on a book which shows how professional and
 scientific writing can be done using purely open source tools.  Any book
 about Scientific/Technical/Professional writing on Linux has to include
 one (if not more) chapters on LyX.  Other chapters will look at LaTeX,
 BibTeX, DocBook and the programs that make working with them easier.

 I am writing this letter to see if there are any particular topics which
 people would like to see included in the book.  One example: I'm going
 to devote a chapter on how to create custom LyX layouts and modules from
 existing (or entirely new) LaTeX files.  (I will also be posting several
 other examples on a companion website.)

 But are there other things that you would like to see?  The standard LyX
 documentation is so good that I've found myself struggling to find other
 topics that need to be covered, other than a tremendously quick overview
 of the program and instructions on where to find the docs.

Rob,

I would suggest putting in some discussion on how to choose Document Class -- 
not the mechanics of using the menu, but the pros and cons of using different 
classes for different types of document. For example, there are more than 
twenty variants of Article, nine Letters, six Books, five Presentations 
and four Reports in my installation of LyX.  I've been using LyX since 2001, 
and I find myself just using the few classes I'm familiar with: article, 
report, book, memoir, a couple of Komascript classes, and powerdot. 
Suggestions or recommendations for using particular classes for specific 
purposes would be very welcome.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Les Denham]

On Tuesday 03 November 2009 10:09:49 Rob Oakes wrote:
> Dear LyX Users,
>
> I'm currently working on a book which shows how professional and
> scientific writing can be done using purely open source tools.  Any book
> about Scientific/Technical/Professional writing on Linux has to include
> one (if not more) chapters on LyX.  Other chapters will look at LaTeX,
> BibTeX, DocBook and the programs that make working with them easier.
>
> I am writing this letter to see if there are any particular topics which
> people would like to see included in the book.  One example: I'm going
> to devote a chapter on how to create custom LyX layouts and modules from
> existing (or entirely new) LaTeX files.  (I will also be posting several
> other examples on a companion website.)
>
> But are there other things that you would like to see?  The standard LyX
> documentation is so good that I've found myself struggling to find other
> topics that need to be covered, other than a tremendously quick overview
> of the program and instructions on where to find the docs.

Rob,

I would suggest putting in some discussion on how to choose Document Class -- 
not the mechanics of using the menu, but the pros and cons of using different 
classes for different types of document. For example, there are more than 
twenty variants of "Article", nine "Letters", six "Books", five "Presentations" 
and four "Reports" in my installation of LyX.  I've been using LyX since 2001, 
and I find myself just using the few classes I'm familiar with: article, 
report, book, memoir, a couple of Komascript classes, and powerdot. 
Suggestions or recommendations for using particular classes for specific 
purposes would be very welcome.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: problem with two languages in a thesis

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 15 October 2009 06:40:20 rgheck wrote:
 On 10/14/2009 07:05 PM, Evan Mason wrote:
  Hi, I have 8 child documents of an English thesis.  Child/chapter 7 is in
  Spanish.  The 8th child is the appendix.  The problem is that in the
  appendix lyx continues to use Spanish (Cuadro rather than Table and so
  on).
 
  I started out setting the language in child 7 to Spanish with Documents
  Settings.  I have now changed it English, highlighted the entire chapter
  and set Spanish using Edit  Text style.  I then highlighted the entire
  appendix and set it to English in the same way.
 
  But this has not worked.  Can anyone tell where I am going wrong?

 Can you produce a really simple set of documents that has this problem?

 rh
Attached is a really simple set of documents, and it seems to work exactly as 
Evan initially assumed.  The parent document is set to English, the first child 
document is set to Spanish in the Document Settings, and the second child 
document is set to English in the Document Settings. In the pdflatex output, 
the table in the first child is labeled Cuadro not Table, and the figure in 
the second is Figure not Figura.

LyX 1.5.7
-- 
..
Les Denham


langtest.lyx
Description: application/lyx


test.lyx
Description: application/lyx


test1.lyx
Description: application/lyx


langtest.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Re: problem with two languages in a thesis

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 15 October 2009 06:40:20 rgheck wrote:
 On 10/14/2009 07:05 PM, Evan Mason wrote:
  Hi, I have 8 child documents of an English thesis.  Child/chapter 7 is in
  Spanish.  The 8th child is the appendix.  The problem is that in the
  appendix lyx continues to use Spanish (Cuadro rather than Table and so
  on).
 
  I started out setting the language in child 7 to Spanish with Documents
  Settings.  I have now changed it English, highlighted the entire chapter
  and set Spanish using Edit  Text style.  I then highlighted the entire
  appendix and set it to English in the same way.
 
  But this has not worked.  Can anyone tell where I am going wrong?

 Can you produce a really simple set of documents that has this problem?

 rh
Attached is a really simple set of documents, and it seems to work exactly as 
Evan initially assumed.  The parent document is set to English, the first child 
document is set to Spanish in the Document Settings, and the second child 
document is set to English in the Document Settings. In the pdflatex output, 
the table in the first child is labeled Cuadro not Table, and the figure in 
the second is Figure not Figura.

LyX 1.5.7
-- 
..
Les Denham


langtest.lyx
Description: application/lyx


test.lyx
Description: application/lyx


test1.lyx
Description: application/lyx


langtest.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Re: problem with two languages in a thesis

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 15 October 2009 06:40:20 rgheck wrote:
> On 10/14/2009 07:05 PM, Evan Mason wrote:
> > Hi, I have 8 child documents of an English thesis.  Child/chapter 7 is in
> > Spanish.  The 8th child is the appendix.  The problem is that in the
> > appendix lyx continues to use Spanish (Cuadro rather than Table and so
> > on).
> >
> > I started out setting the language in child 7 to Spanish with Documents>
> > Settings.  I have now changed it English, highlighted the entire chapter
> > and set Spanish using Edit>  Text style.  I then highlighted the entire
> > appendix and set it to English in the same way.
> >
> > But this has not worked.  Can anyone tell where I am going wrong?
>
> Can you produce a really simple set of documents that has this problem?
>
> rh
Attached is a really simple set of documents, and it seems to work exactly as 
Evan initially assumed.  The parent document is set to English, the first child 
document is set to Spanish in the Document Settings, and the second child 
document is set to English in the Document Settings. In the pdflatex output, 
the table in the first child is labeled "Cuadro" not "Table", and the figure in 
the second is "Figure" not "Figura".

LyX 1.5.7
-- 
..
Les Denham


langtest.lyx
Description: application/lyx


test.lyx
Description: application/lyx


test1.lyx
Description: application/lyx


langtest.pdf
Description: Adobe PDF document

Re: Small poll about svn

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 08 October 2009 10:50:26 Pavel Sanda wrote:
 hi,

 i have small question for people using lyx + subversion. i'm thinking about
 using some svn syntax from version =1.5 for new lyx commands. how big is
 the crowd of people still using svn 1.4 or in other words could you drop me
 version number of subversion you use to have some ratio?

 pavel

I use LyX on several systems from 1.5.7 to 1.6.4 so if I understand your 
question correctly, I would not be directly affected.

However, I still have old files archived from as far back as 1.3, and possibly 
earlier.  I'd certainly like them to open on new releases without any 
problems.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Small poll about svn

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 08 October 2009 10:50:26 Pavel Sanda wrote:
 hi,

 i have small question for people using lyx + subversion. i'm thinking about
 using some svn syntax from version =1.5 for new lyx commands. how big is
 the crowd of people still using svn 1.4 or in other words could you drop me
 version number of subversion you use to have some ratio?

 pavel

I use LyX on several systems from 1.5.7 to 1.6.4 so if I understand your 
question correctly, I would not be directly affected.

However, I still have old files archived from as far back as 1.3, and possibly 
earlier.  I'd certainly like them to open on new releases without any 
problems.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Small poll about svn

[Les Denham]

On Thursday 08 October 2009 10:50:26 Pavel Sanda wrote:
> hi,
>
> i have small question for people using lyx + subversion. i'm thinking about
> using some svn syntax from version >=1.5 for new lyx commands. how big is
> the crowd of people still using svn 1.4 or in other words could you drop me
> version number of subversion you use to have some ratio?
>
> pavel

I use LyX on several systems from 1.5.7 to 1.6.4 so if I understand your 
question correctly, I would not be directly affected.

However, I still have old files archived from as far back as 1.3, and possibly 
earlier.  I'd certainly like them to open on new releases without any 
problems.

Les
-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Powerdot slides off screen--no control of orientation?

[Les Denham]

On Monday 28 September 2009 11:02:11 Kenward Vaughan wrote:
 Well, part of the problem stemmed from my belief that the powerdot
 documentation was to be taken literally. They make a statement about
 putting the above into the options, which I obediently did.  Once I
 remove them, the presentation comes up normally.  

 Unfortunately this depends on what creates the pdf file (which is my
 ultimate goal, of course).

 dvipdfm - looks good as screen mode, but overlays show through as grey
 which I don't want. Xpdf is the same.

 pdflatex - this NEVER works.  It dies in compilation with errors.

 ps2pdf - the greyed overlays are gone (totally hidden--good!), but the
 orientation is bad.  It's placed on letter-portrait.

 If I add orient=portrait then I can see it all with dvipdfm but the
 greyed out material persists.  Links (contents) don't work.   ps2pdf
 works fine and all is seen.  

 I have yet to find a combo (variations of letter=/orient=) which works
 the way I thought things would go to produce a full screen version,
 except plain portrait mode.  ps2pdf is the only converter which properly
 creates a presentation with overlays completely out of sight.

 I'm glad to get the portrait version, but it would be nice to get a
 normal slide as well.

 I don't know where the problem is except that perhaps the way things get
 translated from LyX to LaTeX to the pdf files gets messed up from
 whatever standard powerdot needs to create a normal result.

Kenward,

Firstly, check that your LaTeX installation meets the requirements specified in 
the Powerdot documentation (page 26).

The ps2pdf conversion is the only one which will work properly with Powerdot.

I have numerous presentations which work properly with the following options:

nopsheader,style=horatio,display=slides,paper=screen

These are set in Document Class (under Document Settings) as a string in 
Custom, under Class Options. The style can be any of the other Powerdot 
styles. Everything else in Document Settings I leave at whatever  is the 
default, except for the Preamble. Here I fill in the PDF options using 
\pdsetup.


-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Powerdot slides off screen--no control of orientation?

[Les Denham]

On Monday 28 September 2009 05:59:54 pm Kenward Vaughan wrote:
 I still am led to believe that something in LyX's script must have
 options in it which cause the failure to create this.

Kenward,

Have you tried the sample file?  It is 
/usr/share/lyx/examples/powerdot-example.lyx 
on the system I'm using this evening.  It works perfectly out of the box.

This is LyX 1.6.2 running on Kubuntu 9.04, and powerdot is provided by 
texlive-latex-recommended 2007.dfsg.1-5 in the main ubuntu repository. Debian 
is known for being rather slow in adopting releases, and while I have not used 
it myself, I have run into problems with LaTeX versions not working with 
Powerdot in other distributions.

Les
-- 
L. R. Denham
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham

Re: Powerdot slides off screen--no control of orientation?

[Les Denham]

On Monday 28 September 2009 11:02:11 Kenward Vaughan wrote:
 Well, part of the problem stemmed from my belief that the powerdot
 documentation was to be taken literally. They make a statement about
 putting the above into the options, which I obediently did.  Once I
 remove them, the presentation comes up normally.  

 Unfortunately this depends on what creates the pdf file (which is my
 ultimate goal, of course).

 dvipdfm - looks good as screen mode, but overlays show through as grey
 which I don't want. Xpdf is the same.

 pdflatex - this NEVER works.  It dies in compilation with errors.

 ps2pdf - the greyed overlays are gone (totally hidden--good!), but the
 orientation is bad.  It's placed on letter-portrait.

 If I add orient=portrait then I can see it all with dvipdfm but the
 greyed out material persists.  Links (contents) don't work.   ps2pdf
 works fine and all is seen.  

 I have yet to find a combo (variations of letter=/orient=) which works
 the way I thought things would go to produce a full screen version,
 except plain portrait mode.  ps2pdf is the only converter which properly
 creates a presentation with overlays completely out of sight.

 I'm glad to get the portrait version, but it would be nice to get a
 normal slide as well.

 I don't know where the problem is except that perhaps the way things get
 translated from LyX to LaTeX to the pdf files gets messed up from
 whatever standard powerdot needs to create a normal result.

Kenward,

Firstly, check that your LaTeX installation meets the requirements specified in 
the Powerdot documentation (page 26).

The ps2pdf conversion is the only one which will work properly with Powerdot.

I have numerous presentations which work properly with the following options:

nopsheader,style=horatio,display=slides,paper=screen

These are set in Document Class (under Document Settings) as a string in 
Custom, under Class Options. The style can be any of the other Powerdot 
styles. Everything else in Document Settings I leave at whatever  is the 
default, except for the Preamble. Here I fill in the PDF options using 
\pdsetup.


-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Powerdot slides off screen--no control of orientation?

[Les Denham]

On Monday 28 September 2009 05:59:54 pm Kenward Vaughan wrote:
 I still am led to believe that something in LyX's script must have
 options in it which cause the failure to create this.

Kenward,

Have you tried the sample file?  It is 
/usr/share/lyx/examples/powerdot-example.lyx 
on the system I'm using this evening.  It works perfectly out of the box.

This is LyX 1.6.2 running on Kubuntu 9.04, and powerdot is provided by 
texlive-latex-recommended 2007.dfsg.1-5 in the main ubuntu repository. Debian 
is known for being rather slow in adopting releases, and while I have not used 
it myself, I have run into problems with LaTeX versions not working with 
Powerdot in other distributions.

Les
-- 
L. R. Denham
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham

Re: Powerdot slides off screen--no control of orientation?

[Les Denham]

On Monday 28 September 2009 11:02:11 Kenward Vaughan wrote:
> Well, part of the problem stemmed from my belief that the powerdot
> documentation was to be taken literally. They make a statement about
> putting the above into the options, which I obediently did.  Once I
> remove them, the presentation comes up "normally."  
>
> Unfortunately this depends on what creates the pdf file (which is my
> ultimate goal, of course).
>
> dvipdfm - looks good as screen mode, but overlays show through as grey
> which I don't want. Xpdf is the same.
>
> pdflatex - this NEVER works.  It dies in compilation with errors.
>
> ps2pdf - the greyed overlays are gone (totally hidden--good!), but the
> orientation is bad.  It's placed on letter-portrait.
>
> If I add "orient=portrait" then I can see it all with dvipdfm but the
> greyed out material persists.  Links (contents) don't work.   ps2pdf
> works fine and all is seen.  
>
> I have yet to find a combo (variations of letter=/orient=) which works
> the way I thought things would go to produce a full screen version,
> except plain portrait mode.  ps2pdf is the only converter which properly
> creates a presentation with overlays completely out of sight.
>
> I'm glad to get the portrait version, but it would be nice to get a
> "normal" slide as well.
>
> I don't know where the problem is except that perhaps the way things get
> translated from LyX to LaTeX to the pdf files gets messed up from
> whatever standard powerdot needs to create a normal result.

Kenward,

Firstly, check that your LaTeX installation meets the requirements specified in 
the Powerdot documentation (page 26).

The ps2pdf conversion is the only one which will work properly with Powerdot.

I have numerous presentations which work properly with the following options:

nopsheader,style=horatio,display=slides,paper=screen

These are set in Document Class (under Document Settings) as a string in 
Custom, under Class Options. The style can be any of the other Powerdot 
styles. Everything else in Document Settings I leave at whatever  is the 
default, except for the Preamble. Here I fill in the PDF options using 
\pdsetup.


-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: Powerdot slides off screen--no control of orientation?

[Les Denham]

On Monday 28 September 2009 05:59:54 pm Kenward Vaughan wrote:
> I still am led to believe that something in LyX's script must have
> options in it which cause the failure to create this.

Kenward,

Have you tried the sample file?  It is 
/usr/share/lyx/examples/powerdot-example.lyx 
on the system I'm using this evening.  It works perfectly out of the box.

This is LyX 1.6.2 running on Kubuntu 9.04, and powerdot is provided by 
texlive-latex-recommended 2007.dfsg.1-5 in the main ubuntu repository. Debian 
is known for being rather slow in adopting releases, and while I have not used 
it myself, I have run into problems with LaTeX versions not working with 
Powerdot in other distributions.

Les
-- 
L. R. Denham
http://www.hal-pc.org/~ldenham

Re: How many are left handed

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 16 September 2009 09:20:50 Helge Hafting wrote:
 Is there anything in LyX a left-handed person might want different?
 I think most of the support goes in the OS: left handed mouse,
 and anything you might want change about the keyboard.

I am left handed, and I really don't want anything different.  I use enough 
different computers (mainly set up by right handed people) that I have given up 
wanting anything special.  I'm just happy if the mouse (or trackball) is not 
one of those blatantly discriminatory gadgets which can only be used in the 
right hand, and if it can be moved to the left side of the keyboard.

Les

-- 
..
Les Denham

Re: How many are left handed

[Les Denham]

On Wednesday 16 September 2009 09:20:50 Helge Hafting wrote:
 Is there anything in LyX a left-handed person might want different?
 I think most of the support goes in the OS: left handed mouse,
 and anything you might want change about the keyboard.

I am left handed, and I really don't want anything different.  I use enough 
different computers (mainly set up by right handed people) that I have given up 
wanting anything special.  I'm just happy if the mouse (or trackball) is not 
one of those blatantly discriminatory gadgets which can only be used in the 
right hand, and if it can be moved to the left side of the keyboard.

Les

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Les Denham