Re: Spellchecker and ú

2010-11-02 Thread Stephan Witt
Am 02.11.2010 um 03:28 schrieb Christopher Menzel:

 On 10/30/2010 02:53 AM, Stephan Witt wrote:
 Am 29.10.2010 um 22:01 schrieb Christopher Menzel:
   
 Greetings LyX users,
 
 The aspell-based spellchecker in LyX does not appear to be happy checking a 
 document containing a Spanish name that includes the character ú.  
 Specifically, the name seems throw the checker pretty seriously off 
 balance; it begins to stop on perfectly ordinary words that occur in the 
 document a word or two *after* a word that it apparently isn't recognizing 
 internally -- for example, it asked if I wanted to replace the word that 
 with bisection, where that occurred two words after bijection, which 
 was clearly the word it had stopped on internally.  Is there a solution to 
 this beyond avoiding non-English unicode characters?
 
 Sorry, I've no solution but a question.
 You're using LyX 1.6.7? Which platform?
   
 1.6.7 on a Mac, latest version of Snow Leopard.

Interestingly... there are 2 options to use aspell then.
What's your setup exactly? What did you do to make aspell work?

Other question (again): 
did you mark the spanish name as Spanish language? 

Stephan

Re: LyX and LuaTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Rob Oakes wrote:
 I am currently slogging my way through a book chapter on advanced methods
 in LyX/LaTeX and just had a quick question.  Does anyone know if there is
 documentation on how to use LyX with luaTeX?  
 
 I know that it isn't officially supported, and things would probably break
 terribly, and that it might corrupt my mind and force me to sacrifice my
 first born.  But I'm kind of curious to experiment.  Has anyone spent any
 time using luaTeX from within LyX?  Care to comment on just how broken
 things were?

I tried it once, just out of interest, but LuaTeX was not very stable back 
then.

I suppose now that you can use fontspec, it's just a slight variation from the 
XeTeX setup described here:
http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/XeTeX

Of course it would be very welcome if you could document your effort on the 
wiki.

Jürgen


♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Dear all: I need to use glyphs like the heart symbol (below) from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol) in my text:

♥ The Alvareses:

Question: what encoding should I use? Unicode (UTF 8) doesn't seem to work. FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Frederick Noronha wrote:
 Dear all: I need to use glyphs like the heart symbol (below) from
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol) in my text:
 
 ♥ The Alvareses:

On possibility:

\usepackage{pxfonts}
in preamble

and

$\varheartsuit$  The Alvareses:

in Text (with $\varheartsuit$ in TeX mode).

Jürgen


Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Thanks a lot. Works perfectly! FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490




On 2 November 2010 15:42, Jürgen Spitzmüller sp...@lyx.org wrote:
 $\varheartsuit$  The Alvareses:


Re: box alignment

2010-11-02 Thread [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.

Hi!

Uwe Stöhr wrote:

Am 01.11.2010 23:50, schrieb [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.:

As far as I see, the paragraph keeps the same in the last alpha6 
release. Could I be of any help to

clarify this text?


I removed now the second sentence since 90% of the LyX users won't 
understand the difference between a LaTeX-command and LaTeX-environment.


Don't you think it is worth to introduce this concept to LyX users? I 
think that many people, like me, are using LyX not only as WYSIWYM 
editor, but also as an entry point to the LaTeX ecosystem. I've found 
this document quite useful to better understand what are we speaking 
about...


http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Customizing_LaTeX


Another solution is to defined a new command that sets up the box 
for you. Then you would have to
insert this command as TeX-code instead of a box. I can define such 
a command for you, but you
need to decide what box you want to have. If you made this decision, 
send me a LyX file with your

box and I'll have a look.


I don't want anything fancy. Simply, something like that:

http://ebiotic.net/bin/download/ICT/LyXBox/dummyTextMargins.pdf

Box has the same width as the text column and it is centred with it. 
Here the source file...


http://ebiotic.net/bin/download/ICT/LyXBox/dummyTextMargins.lyx


In your example the box has a width of only 95% not 100%. However, I 
defined a command for your box in the preamble of the attached 
document. You can insert then your custom box by inserting the 
TeX-code command \mybox as I have shown in the example.


Great! Thank you so much. I've learnt a lot with this example. In 
general, I must thank all the people answering here. You always provide 
accurate and clear answers!


What I don't understand here is the however. Please, what do you mean? 
I see {0.95\columnwidth}, so I guess this is the parameter I must tweak 
to reach this result.


Simply: a great universe of possibilities! Thanks!

BTW: I get two errors when opening the document the first time after 
saving it from your email:


Document header error
Unknown token: \use_refstyle \use_refstyle

Document header error
Unknown token: 0 0

They disappear once I locally save the document.

Please, where these errors come from? Thanks!


The color of the box is set in the document settings.

regards Uwe


All the best,

Ricardo

--
Ricardo Rodríguez
CTO
eBioTIC.
Life Sciences, Data Modeling and Information Management Systems



Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Les Denham wrote:
 I know one solution has already been given, but the following works
 perfectly  for me:
 
 Insert-Special Character-Symbols and select the ♥ from Miscellaneous 
 Symbols.

Yes, the character is supported by LyX's unicode symbol table. I suppose 
Frederick does not have the txfonts installed properly, and hence the 
\usepackage{pxfonts} did make the difference.

(this is also here with TeXLive 2010: txfonts gives a pdflatex error).

Jürgen


Re: box alignment

2010-11-02 Thread Uwe Stöhr

Am 02.11.2010 11:41, schrieb [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.:


In your example the box has a width of only 95% not 100%. However, I
defined a command for your box in the preamble of the attached
document. You can insert then your custom box by inserting the
TeX-code command \mybox as I have shown in the example.


What I don't understand here is the however. Please, what do you mean?
I see {0.95\columnwidth}, so I guess this is the parameter I must tweak
to reach this result.


You said that you box should have the width of the text. This means you 
must set 1\columnwidth but your example you used 95% width which is 
0.95\columnwidth.



BTW: I get two errors when opening the document the first time after
saving it from your email:

Document header error
Unknown token: \use_refstyle \use_refstyle

Document header error
Unknown token: 0 0

They disappear once I locally save the document.


This was a bug in the alpha 6 release. This has been fixed. Therefore: 
Don't use LyX 2.0 for anything else than testing.


regards Uwe


Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Dear all: this is a note I sent to our Free Software Users' Group in
Goa, India [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fsug-goa] but would like to
share with you too. Thanks in advance for any tips. FN
Frederick Noronha, Managing Trustee
http://goa1556.goa-india.org
[An alternative book publishing venture]


-- Forwarded message --

Dear all: I've spoken about Lyx in the past. We use it to create our
books (15 so far). At this point, I badly need to deepen my
understanding of Lyx. Is there anyone else with a shared interest? Can
we share notes?

In particular, I'm keen to understand:

* Sharable templates which make for better designs.
* How to convert a design from the drawingboard to a lyx template.
* How to install templates.
* How to bring two comps (using different distros) in tandem with Lyx
versions (so that files can be shared across them).
* Examples of good design for books done using Lyx.

Thanks for any help you could offer. FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Hi Frederick,

This is a very large question.  To narrow the scope (and provide better 
references), what specifically are you looking to do?  

When you say, sharable templates, what do you mean by that (templates are just 
LyX documents)?

What do you mean, convert a design from the drawingboard to a lyx template?  
Are you talking about using a LaTeX document class that already exists, or 
writing your own classes and styles?

Ditto for installing templates, as they are just documents, you mostly need to 
select a folder to keep them all together.  There is a templates folder 
included with LyX, but I would advise having a user templates folder and 
copying the best/most used items there.

When you say, bring two comps together, what are you looking to do?  If you 
mean syncing documents between the computers, have a look at dropbox.  Version 
control also works nicely (Subversion is best supported in LyX).

As far as examples, I would take a look at the TeX showcase 
(http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/).  That will give you an idea of what can be 
accomplished with LaTeX (and by extension, LyX).

There are many resources.  The first and most significant are the LyX manuals 
(available from the help menu).  Start with the Tutorial, and then take a 
gander at the User's Guide, Additional Features and any Specific manuals that 
look interesting.

Then, wander by the LyX wiki: wiki.lyx.org.  The wiki is a treasure trove of 
information about how to better mesh LyX with LaTeX, and by extension, how to 
create documents which bring a childlike sense of wonder to the world.

From there, you might consider wandering over to Steve Litt's LyX Library 
(http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/lyx/).  It includes some marvelous 
information, though some is a bit dated.

I've also written information about customizing LyX and how to use/create 
custom document classes.  You can find the links to those articles, and a brief 
summary of them at http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/writing/latex.

Finally, I happen to be working on a book that covers this exact subject.  (I 
happen to be working through the advanced LyX/LaTeX chapter right now and hope 
to finish it today, actually)  If you would be willing to provide feedback on 
the chapters, I would be happy to make the LyX/LaTeX chapters/appendix 
available for your review.

If you can be more specific with your earlier questions, i will also try and 
provide additional help for those as well.

Cheers,

Rob

Re: LyX and LuaTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Thanks for the link.

I was able to get LuaTeX working with normal pdfTeX documents via following the 
instructions on the wiki (using the MacTeX 2010 distribution and LyX 2.0).  I'm 
running into problems using fontspec, though.  I think that is due to the lack 
of a fontspec database.  (Described in the fontspec2010 docs.)  To generate the 
database, you need to download and run a script.  I'll have to experiment with 
it when I have a bit more time.

But, initial experiments show that it was easy to get up and running, and that 
it works with LyX 2.0 very well.  Take care with UTF characters, though.  I 
probably could have gotten it sorted out, but didn't really want to fuss with 
it.

I will update the wiki when I get a moment.  (I'm also going to have a go with 
fontspec and see if I can get the problems sorted).

Cheers,

Rob

XeTeX Updates in TeX Live 2010/MacTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Dear LyX Users,

Not sure if this is of interest to many LyX users, but I think I'll post it 
anyway.  TeX Live 2010/MacTeX were released a few weeks ago (maybe months ago, 
I haven't really been paying attention).  Anyway, I updated this morning and 
wanted to send a general report for Mac users.

Here's my report: if you are thinking about upgrading, do it.  Now.

MacTeX 2010 is a big improvement over MacTeX 2009.  Particularly if you're a 
XeTeX user.  The feature that has me *really* jazzed is that XeTeX has added 
support for margin kerning.  This means that several microtypographical 
goodies, like hanging punctuation 
(https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hanging_punctuation), finally 
work right.

The new default version of PDF is also now 1.5, which means that it no longer 
mangles my illustrations.  Yay!

When I compiled several of my test documents this morning, they looked 
noticeably better.  (Which isn't to say they looked poor last night.)

Also, it seems to work very well with LyX.  I have not yet had any trouble, 
even when compiling absurdly complicated things (like my book draft).

Anyway, I thought I would let you know.

Cheers,

Rob




Sharing documents among different versions of Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Is there some tool that makes the sharing of documents among different
versions of Lyx a little easier? FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Hi Frederick, 

 My apologies for not explaining myself adequately -- I'm a content
 person, not technical and hence the handicap.

Please don't apologize.  It would probably be a better world if content people 
forced technical people to explain themselves.

 I know what I want the first pages of my chapters to look like, but
 don't have a clue as to how to convert that into Lyx. 

Okay, it sounds like you are asking about chapter headings and styles.  Do I 
understand correctly? 

Here is what I would recommend, rather than try and code chapter headings on 
your own, try taking a look at a few of the packages/document classes that 
provide them.

For starters, check out out the memoir class.  It includes a very large number 
of well defined chapter styles.  (This PDF provides a good overview 
www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/MemoirChapStyles/MemoirChapStyles.pdf).  It will 
be likely that you can find one that matches your needs.  If not, all of the 
memoir examples include the source code, which you might be able to modify.

 This is a technical job no doubt, but is there some way to translate from
 sketchpage to Lyx formatting?

Short answer, yes.  But it can be ugly and there is no automated tool that 
allows you to do this.  You will need to write code.

Creating a new chapter heading in LyX requires writing style definitions and 
formatting instructions in LaTeX and base TeX.  Due to the work involved, these 
are then usually packaged as document classes or stand-alone modules.  The PDF 
I link provides several (five or six) examples.  There are even more on CTAN 
(the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network).

I notice that you are a publisher or editor.  If you need to produce a large 
number of unique document styles, here is a word of advice. I would recommend 
hiring a programmer to create the chapter headings for you.  Adjusting fonts, 
spacing, margins, etc. is relatively simple and you could likely do it without 
too much trouble on your own.

Chapter headings are not normally simple.  Especially if you will be using 
ornamentation.  Package writing (where this is invariably going) is a different 
beast than than using LyX or LaTeX to craft your text.

And while a programmer can produce a layout in a few hours, if you try and do 
it yourself, it will likely require *days* of work.  Therefore, my 
recommendation is to develop a style guide and price it out on eLance.  The $30 
or $40 you will spend on programming time will be saved many times over in 
frustration, time and productivity.  Please note that this advice only applies 
to chapter headings.

For your book cover, the title page, and other front-matter, I would recommend 
that you use a visual program called Scribus to design them.  You can then add 
them to the body through a package called pdfpages.  In LyX, this is done via 
the Insert  File  External material link in the menu.  When the dialog opens, 
select PDF from the available options and locate your file.

If you look at the archives of this list, you will find that the subject has 
been discussed multiple times.  There are many good suggestions in those 
threads.  (If you have trouble finding a specific thread, just search for Steve 
Litt as a contributor.  He preaches frontmatter design in a layout tool -- 
fingerpainting -- as gospel.)

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Rob

Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Jacob Bishop
As Rob noted, this is a very large question.

With regard to the question:
* How to bring two comps (using different distros) in tandem with Lyx

I do this with my computers, some running Windows, others running Linux.
There are several parts to making this work.

The first is to get some sort of software that can keep copies on both
computers up-to-date. One method is to use SVN or a similar version control
system that typically works over a network. Another method is to use
Dropbox.

The second part is to make sure that you always use relative paths when
inserting external references. This applies when inserting an image, a
bibtex bibliography, or any other external material.

The third thing is to make sure you have software in both locations that can
operate on any input given. For example, if including .svg images, you need
to have a conversion program configured on both machines that operates
properly when these files occur. If you use a special LaTeX package or font
set, it must be somewhere it can be found by the LaTeX distribution on both
machines.

You can find more details for this and your other questions by using the
many resources available, as outlined by Rob. One additional location for
information that I don't think was pointed out yet is, of course, the
archives for this and the other lyx mailing lists. For example, I can point
out a recent discussion on the topic of your question I just addressed at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users@lists.lyx.org/

Jacob


Re: Sharing documents among different versions of Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Richard Heck

On 11/02/2010 04:16 PM, Frederick Noronha wrote:

Is there some tool that makes the sharing of documents among different
versions of Lyx a little easier? FN

   
LyX 1.5.7 includes the same version of the lyx2lyx conversion tool that 
was released with 1.6.0, so that version of LyX should be able to open 
1.6.x files. (Newer versions can always open older ones.) And, if you 
wanted to do so, you could simply copy the LyX 2.0 version of lyx2lyx 
into your local scripts directory, and LyX will use it.


That said, I guess I'm wondering why people have sufficiently different 
versions that this would be an issue. The back and forth sometimes will 
turn LyX constructs into ERT, which can be kind of annoying.


Richard



Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
On 2 November 2010 23:15, Rob Oakes lyx-de...@oak-tree.us wrote:
 When you say, sharable templates, what do you
 mean by that (templates are just LyX documents)?

Dear Rob and Jacob,

My apologies for not explaining myself adequately -- I'm a content
person, not technical and hence the handicap.

What I was looking for is something more like:
http://zoonek.free.fr/LaTeX/LaTeX_samples_chapter/0.html

 What do you mean, convert a design from the
 drawingboard to a lyx template?  Are you talking
 about using a LaTeX document class that already
 exists, or writing your own classes and styles?

I know what I want the first pages of my chapters to look like, but
don't have a clue as to how to convert that into Lyx. This is a
technical job no doubt, but is there some way to translate from
sketchpage to Lyx formatting? FN


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Richard Heck

On 11/02/2010 04:43 PM, Jacob Bishop wrote:


The second part is to make sure that you always use relative paths 
when inserting external references. This applies when inserting an 
image, a bibtex bibliography, or any other external material.


Even better, put these things into a place LaTeX can find them, and 
insert them using the sort of simple identifiers that LaTeX uses. E.g., 
I have my bib files under ~/files/bibtex/ and have BIBINPUTS set to 
include that directory.


Richard



Re: Spellchecker and ú

2010-11-02 Thread Stephan Witt
Am 02.11.2010 um 03:28 schrieb Christopher Menzel:

 On 10/30/2010 02:53 AM, Stephan Witt wrote:
 Am 29.10.2010 um 22:01 schrieb Christopher Menzel:
   
 Greetings LyX users,
 
 The aspell-based spellchecker in LyX does not appear to be happy checking a 
 document containing a Spanish name that includes the character ú.  
 Specifically, the name seems throw the checker pretty seriously off 
 balance; it begins to stop on perfectly ordinary words that occur in the 
 document a word or two *after* a word that it apparently isn't recognizing 
 internally -- for example, it asked if I wanted to replace the word that 
 with bisection, where that occurred two words after bijection, which 
 was clearly the word it had stopped on internally.  Is there a solution to 
 this beyond avoiding non-English unicode characters?
 
 Sorry, I've no solution but a question.
 You're using LyX 1.6.7? Which platform?
   
 1.6.7 on a Mac, latest version of Snow Leopard.

Interestingly... there are 2 options to use aspell then.
What's your setup exactly? What did you do to make aspell work?

Other question (again): 
did you mark the spanish name as Spanish language? 

Stephan

Re: LyX and LuaTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Rob Oakes wrote:
 I am currently slogging my way through a book chapter on advanced methods
 in LyX/LaTeX and just had a quick question.  Does anyone know if there is
 documentation on how to use LyX with luaTeX?  
 
 I know that it isn't officially supported, and things would probably break
 terribly, and that it might corrupt my mind and force me to sacrifice my
 first born.  But I'm kind of curious to experiment.  Has anyone spent any
 time using luaTeX from within LyX?  Care to comment on just how broken
 things were?

I tried it once, just out of interest, but LuaTeX was not very stable back 
then.

I suppose now that you can use fontspec, it's just a slight variation from the 
XeTeX setup described here:
http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/XeTeX

Of course it would be very welcome if you could document your effort on the 
wiki.

Jürgen


♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Dear all: I need to use glyphs like the heart symbol (below) from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol) in my text:

♥ The Alvareses:

Question: what encoding should I use? Unicode (UTF 8) doesn't seem to work. FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Frederick Noronha wrote:
 Dear all: I need to use glyphs like the heart symbol (below) from
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol) in my text:
 
 ♥ The Alvareses:

On possibility:

\usepackage{pxfonts}
in preamble

and

$\varheartsuit$  The Alvareses:

in Text (with $\varheartsuit$ in TeX mode).

Jürgen


Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Thanks a lot. Works perfectly! FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490




On 2 November 2010 15:42, Jürgen Spitzmüller sp...@lyx.org wrote:
 $\varheartsuit$  The Alvareses:


Re: box alignment

2010-11-02 Thread [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.

Hi!

Uwe Stöhr wrote:

Am 01.11.2010 23:50, schrieb [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.:

As far as I see, the paragraph keeps the same in the last alpha6 
release. Could I be of any help to

clarify this text?


I removed now the second sentence since 90% of the LyX users won't 
understand the difference between a LaTeX-command and LaTeX-environment.


Don't you think it is worth to introduce this concept to LyX users? I 
think that many people, like me, are using LyX not only as WYSIWYM 
editor, but also as an entry point to the LaTeX ecosystem. I've found 
this document quite useful to better understand what are we speaking 
about...


http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Customizing_LaTeX


Another solution is to defined a new command that sets up the box 
for you. Then you would have to
insert this command as TeX-code instead of a box. I can define such 
a command for you, but you
need to decide what box you want to have. If you made this decision, 
send me a LyX file with your

box and I'll have a look.


I don't want anything fancy. Simply, something like that:

http://ebiotic.net/bin/download/ICT/LyXBox/dummyTextMargins.pdf

Box has the same width as the text column and it is centred with it. 
Here the source file...


http://ebiotic.net/bin/download/ICT/LyXBox/dummyTextMargins.lyx


In your example the box has a width of only 95% not 100%. However, I 
defined a command for your box in the preamble of the attached 
document. You can insert then your custom box by inserting the 
TeX-code command \mybox as I have shown in the example.


Great! Thank you so much. I've learnt a lot with this example. In 
general, I must thank all the people answering here. You always provide 
accurate and clear answers!


What I don't understand here is the however. Please, what do you mean? 
I see {0.95\columnwidth}, so I guess this is the parameter I must tweak 
to reach this result.


Simply: a great universe of possibilities! Thanks!

BTW: I get two errors when opening the document the first time after 
saving it from your email:


Document header error
Unknown token: \use_refstyle \use_refstyle

Document header error
Unknown token: 0 0

They disappear once I locally save the document.

Please, where these errors come from? Thanks!


The color of the box is set in the document settings.

regards Uwe


All the best,

Ricardo

--
Ricardo Rodríguez
CTO
eBioTIC.
Life Sciences, Data Modeling and Information Management Systems



Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Les Denham wrote:
 I know one solution has already been given, but the following works
 perfectly  for me:
 
 Insert-Special Character-Symbols and select the ♥ from Miscellaneous 
 Symbols.

Yes, the character is supported by LyX's unicode symbol table. I suppose 
Frederick does not have the txfonts installed properly, and hence the 
\usepackage{pxfonts} did make the difference.

(this is also here with TeXLive 2010: txfonts gives a pdflatex error).

Jürgen


Re: box alignment

2010-11-02 Thread Uwe Stöhr

Am 02.11.2010 11:41, schrieb [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.:


In your example the box has a width of only 95% not 100%. However, I
defined a command for your box in the preamble of the attached
document. You can insert then your custom box by inserting the
TeX-code command \mybox as I have shown in the example.


What I don't understand here is the however. Please, what do you mean?
I see {0.95\columnwidth}, so I guess this is the parameter I must tweak
to reach this result.


You said that you box should have the width of the text. This means you 
must set 1\columnwidth but your example you used 95% width which is 
0.95\columnwidth.



BTW: I get two errors when opening the document the first time after
saving it from your email:

Document header error
Unknown token: \use_refstyle \use_refstyle

Document header error
Unknown token: 0 0

They disappear once I locally save the document.


This was a bug in the alpha 6 release. This has been fixed. Therefore: 
Don't use LyX 2.0 for anything else than testing.


regards Uwe


Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Dear all: this is a note I sent to our Free Software Users' Group in
Goa, India [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fsug-goa] but would like to
share with you too. Thanks in advance for any tips. FN
Frederick Noronha, Managing Trustee
http://goa1556.goa-india.org
[An alternative book publishing venture]


-- Forwarded message --

Dear all: I've spoken about Lyx in the past. We use it to create our
books (15 so far). At this point, I badly need to deepen my
understanding of Lyx. Is there anyone else with a shared interest? Can
we share notes?

In particular, I'm keen to understand:

* Sharable templates which make for better designs.
* How to convert a design from the drawingboard to a lyx template.
* How to install templates.
* How to bring two comps (using different distros) in tandem with Lyx
versions (so that files can be shared across them).
* Examples of good design for books done using Lyx.

Thanks for any help you could offer. FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Hi Frederick,

This is a very large question.  To narrow the scope (and provide better 
references), what specifically are you looking to do?  

When you say, sharable templates, what do you mean by that (templates are just 
LyX documents)?

What do you mean, convert a design from the drawingboard to a lyx template?  
Are you talking about using a LaTeX document class that already exists, or 
writing your own classes and styles?

Ditto for installing templates, as they are just documents, you mostly need to 
select a folder to keep them all together.  There is a templates folder 
included with LyX, but I would advise having a user templates folder and 
copying the best/most used items there.

When you say, bring two comps together, what are you looking to do?  If you 
mean syncing documents between the computers, have a look at dropbox.  Version 
control also works nicely (Subversion is best supported in LyX).

As far as examples, I would take a look at the TeX showcase 
(http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/).  That will give you an idea of what can be 
accomplished with LaTeX (and by extension, LyX).

There are many resources.  The first and most significant are the LyX manuals 
(available from the help menu).  Start with the Tutorial, and then take a 
gander at the User's Guide, Additional Features and any Specific manuals that 
look interesting.

Then, wander by the LyX wiki: wiki.lyx.org.  The wiki is a treasure trove of 
information about how to better mesh LyX with LaTeX, and by extension, how to 
create documents which bring a childlike sense of wonder to the world.

From there, you might consider wandering over to Steve Litt's LyX Library 
(http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/lyx/).  It includes some marvelous 
information, though some is a bit dated.

I've also written information about customizing LyX and how to use/create 
custom document classes.  You can find the links to those articles, and a brief 
summary of them at http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/writing/latex.

Finally, I happen to be working on a book that covers this exact subject.  (I 
happen to be working through the advanced LyX/LaTeX chapter right now and hope 
to finish it today, actually)  If you would be willing to provide feedback on 
the chapters, I would be happy to make the LyX/LaTeX chapters/appendix 
available for your review.

If you can be more specific with your earlier questions, i will also try and 
provide additional help for those as well.

Cheers,

Rob

Re: LyX and LuaTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Thanks for the link.

I was able to get LuaTeX working with normal pdfTeX documents via following the 
instructions on the wiki (using the MacTeX 2010 distribution and LyX 2.0).  I'm 
running into problems using fontspec, though.  I think that is due to the lack 
of a fontspec database.  (Described in the fontspec2010 docs.)  To generate the 
database, you need to download and run a script.  I'll have to experiment with 
it when I have a bit more time.

But, initial experiments show that it was easy to get up and running, and that 
it works with LyX 2.0 very well.  Take care with UTF characters, though.  I 
probably could have gotten it sorted out, but didn't really want to fuss with 
it.

I will update the wiki when I get a moment.  (I'm also going to have a go with 
fontspec and see if I can get the problems sorted).

Cheers,

Rob

XeTeX Updates in TeX Live 2010/MacTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Dear LyX Users,

Not sure if this is of interest to many LyX users, but I think I'll post it 
anyway.  TeX Live 2010/MacTeX were released a few weeks ago (maybe months ago, 
I haven't really been paying attention).  Anyway, I updated this morning and 
wanted to send a general report for Mac users.

Here's my report: if you are thinking about upgrading, do it.  Now.

MacTeX 2010 is a big improvement over MacTeX 2009.  Particularly if you're a 
XeTeX user.  The feature that has me *really* jazzed is that XeTeX has added 
support for margin kerning.  This means that several microtypographical 
goodies, like hanging punctuation 
(https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hanging_punctuation), finally 
work right.

The new default version of PDF is also now 1.5, which means that it no longer 
mangles my illustrations.  Yay!

When I compiled several of my test documents this morning, they looked 
noticeably better.  (Which isn't to say they looked poor last night.)

Also, it seems to work very well with LyX.  I have not yet had any trouble, 
even when compiling absurdly complicated things (like my book draft).

Anyway, I thought I would let you know.

Cheers,

Rob




Sharing documents among different versions of Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Is there some tool that makes the sharing of documents among different
versions of Lyx a little easier? FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Hi Frederick, 

 My apologies for not explaining myself adequately -- I'm a content
 person, not technical and hence the handicap.

Please don't apologize.  It would probably be a better world if content people 
forced technical people to explain themselves.

 I know what I want the first pages of my chapters to look like, but
 don't have a clue as to how to convert that into Lyx. 

Okay, it sounds like you are asking about chapter headings and styles.  Do I 
understand correctly? 

Here is what I would recommend, rather than try and code chapter headings on 
your own, try taking a look at a few of the packages/document classes that 
provide them.

For starters, check out out the memoir class.  It includes a very large number 
of well defined chapter styles.  (This PDF provides a good overview 
www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/MemoirChapStyles/MemoirChapStyles.pdf).  It will 
be likely that you can find one that matches your needs.  If not, all of the 
memoir examples include the source code, which you might be able to modify.

 This is a technical job no doubt, but is there some way to translate from
 sketchpage to Lyx formatting?

Short answer, yes.  But it can be ugly and there is no automated tool that 
allows you to do this.  You will need to write code.

Creating a new chapter heading in LyX requires writing style definitions and 
formatting instructions in LaTeX and base TeX.  Due to the work involved, these 
are then usually packaged as document classes or stand-alone modules.  The PDF 
I link provides several (five or six) examples.  There are even more on CTAN 
(the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network).

I notice that you are a publisher or editor.  If you need to produce a large 
number of unique document styles, here is a word of advice. I would recommend 
hiring a programmer to create the chapter headings for you.  Adjusting fonts, 
spacing, margins, etc. is relatively simple and you could likely do it without 
too much trouble on your own.

Chapter headings are not normally simple.  Especially if you will be using 
ornamentation.  Package writing (where this is invariably going) is a different 
beast than than using LyX or LaTeX to craft your text.

And while a programmer can produce a layout in a few hours, if you try and do 
it yourself, it will likely require *days* of work.  Therefore, my 
recommendation is to develop a style guide and price it out on eLance.  The $30 
or $40 you will spend on programming time will be saved many times over in 
frustration, time and productivity.  Please note that this advice only applies 
to chapter headings.

For your book cover, the title page, and other front-matter, I would recommend 
that you use a visual program called Scribus to design them.  You can then add 
them to the body through a package called pdfpages.  In LyX, this is done via 
the Insert  File  External material link in the menu.  When the dialog opens, 
select PDF from the available options and locate your file.

If you look at the archives of this list, you will find that the subject has 
been discussed multiple times.  There are many good suggestions in those 
threads.  (If you have trouble finding a specific thread, just search for Steve 
Litt as a contributor.  He preaches frontmatter design in a layout tool -- 
fingerpainting -- as gospel.)

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Rob

Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Jacob Bishop
As Rob noted, this is a very large question.

With regard to the question:
* How to bring two comps (using different distros) in tandem with Lyx

I do this with my computers, some running Windows, others running Linux.
There are several parts to making this work.

The first is to get some sort of software that can keep copies on both
computers up-to-date. One method is to use SVN or a similar version control
system that typically works over a network. Another method is to use
Dropbox.

The second part is to make sure that you always use relative paths when
inserting external references. This applies when inserting an image, a
bibtex bibliography, or any other external material.

The third thing is to make sure you have software in both locations that can
operate on any input given. For example, if including .svg images, you need
to have a conversion program configured on both machines that operates
properly when these files occur. If you use a special LaTeX package or font
set, it must be somewhere it can be found by the LaTeX distribution on both
machines.

You can find more details for this and your other questions by using the
many resources available, as outlined by Rob. One additional location for
information that I don't think was pointed out yet is, of course, the
archives for this and the other lyx mailing lists. For example, I can point
out a recent discussion on the topic of your question I just addressed at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users@lists.lyx.org/

Jacob


Re: Sharing documents among different versions of Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Richard Heck

On 11/02/2010 04:16 PM, Frederick Noronha wrote:

Is there some tool that makes the sharing of documents among different
versions of Lyx a little easier? FN

   
LyX 1.5.7 includes the same version of the lyx2lyx conversion tool that 
was released with 1.6.0, so that version of LyX should be able to open 
1.6.x files. (Newer versions can always open older ones.) And, if you 
wanted to do so, you could simply copy the LyX 2.0 version of lyx2lyx 
into your local scripts directory, and LyX will use it.


That said, I guess I'm wondering why people have sufficiently different 
versions that this would be an issue. The back and forth sometimes will 
turn LyX constructs into ERT, which can be kind of annoying.


Richard



Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
On 2 November 2010 23:15, Rob Oakes lyx-de...@oak-tree.us wrote:
 When you say, sharable templates, what do you
 mean by that (templates are just LyX documents)?

Dear Rob and Jacob,

My apologies for not explaining myself adequately -- I'm a content
person, not technical and hence the handicap.

What I was looking for is something more like:
http://zoonek.free.fr/LaTeX/LaTeX_samples_chapter/0.html

 What do you mean, convert a design from the
 drawingboard to a lyx template?  Are you talking
 about using a LaTeX document class that already
 exists, or writing your own classes and styles?

I know what I want the first pages of my chapters to look like, but
don't have a clue as to how to convert that into Lyx. This is a
technical job no doubt, but is there some way to translate from
sketchpage to Lyx formatting? FN


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Richard Heck

On 11/02/2010 04:43 PM, Jacob Bishop wrote:


The second part is to make sure that you always use relative paths 
when inserting external references. This applies when inserting an 
image, a bibtex bibliography, or any other external material.


Even better, put these things into a place LaTeX can find them, and 
insert them using the sort of simple identifiers that LaTeX uses. E.g., 
I have my bib files under ~/files/bibtex/ and have BIBINPUTS set to 
include that directory.


Richard



Re: Spellchecker and ú

2010-11-02 Thread Stephan Witt
Am 02.11.2010 um 03:28 schrieb Christopher Menzel:

> On 10/30/2010 02:53 AM, Stephan Witt wrote:
>> Am 29.10.2010 um 22:01 schrieb Christopher Menzel:
>>   
>>> Greetings LyX users,
>>> 
>>> The aspell-based spellchecker in LyX does not appear to be happy checking a 
>>> document containing a Spanish name that includes the character ú.  
>>> Specifically, the name seems throw the checker pretty seriously off 
>>> balance; it begins to stop on perfectly ordinary words that occur in the 
>>> document a word or two *after* a word that it apparently isn't recognizing 
>>> internally -- for example, it asked if I wanted to replace the word "that" 
>>> with "bisection", where "that" occurred two words after "bijection", which 
>>> was clearly the word it had stopped on internally.  Is there a solution to 
>>> this beyond avoiding non-English unicode characters?
>>> 
>> Sorry, I've no solution but a question.
>> You're using LyX 1.6.7? Which platform?
>>   
> 1.6.7 on a Mac, latest version of Snow Leopard.

Interestingly... there are 2 options to use aspell then.
What's your setup exactly? What did you do to make aspell work?

Other question (again): 
did you mark the spanish name as "Spanish" language? 

Stephan

Re: LyX and LuaTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Rob Oakes wrote:
> I am currently slogging my way through a book chapter on advanced methods
> in LyX/LaTeX and just had a quick question.  Does anyone know if there is
> documentation on how to use LyX with luaTeX?  
> 
> I know that it isn't officially supported, and things would probably break
> terribly, and that it might corrupt my mind and force me to sacrifice my
> first born.  But I'm kind of curious to experiment.  Has anyone spent any
> time using luaTeX from within LyX?  Care to comment on just how broken
> things were?

I tried it once, just out of interest, but LuaTeX was not very stable back 
then.

I suppose now that you can use fontspec, it's just a slight variation from the 
XeTeX setup described here:
http://wiki.lyx.org/LyX/XeTeX

Of course it would be very welcome if you could document your effort on the 
wiki.

Jürgen


♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Dear all: I need to use glyphs like the heart symbol (below) from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol) in my text:

♥ The Alvareses:

Question: what encoding should I use? Unicode (UTF 8) doesn't seem to work. FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Frederick Noronha wrote:
> Dear all: I need to use glyphs like the heart symbol (below) from
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_(symbol) in my text:
> 
> ♥ The Alvareses:

On possibility:

\usepackage{pxfonts}
in preamble

and

$\varheartsuit$  The Alvareses:

in Text (with $\varheartsuit$ in TeX mode).

Jürgen


Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Thanks a lot. Works perfectly! FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490




On 2 November 2010 15:42, Jürgen Spitzmüller  wrote:
> $\varheartsuit$  The Alvareses:


Re: box alignment

2010-11-02 Thread [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.

Hi!

Uwe Stöhr wrote:

Am 01.11.2010 23:50, schrieb [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.:

As far as I see, the paragraph keeps the same in the last alpha6 
release. Could I be of any help to

clarify this text?


I removed now the second sentence since 90% of the LyX users won't 
understand the difference between a LaTeX-command and LaTeX-environment.


Don't you think it is worth to introduce this concept to LyX users? I 
think that many people, like me, are using LyX not only as WYSIWYM 
editor, but also as an entry point to the LaTeX ecosystem. I've found 
this document quite useful to better understand what are we speaking 
about...


http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Customizing_LaTeX


Another solution is to defined a new command that sets up the box 
for you. Then you would have to
insert this command as TeX-code instead of a box. I can define such 
a command for you, but you
need to decide what box you want to have. If you made this decision, 
send me a LyX file with your

box and I'll have a look.


I don't want anything fancy. Simply, something like that:

http://ebiotic.net/bin/download/ICT/LyXBox/dummyTextMargins.pdf

Box has the same width as the text column and it is centred with it. 
Here the source file...


http://ebiotic.net/bin/download/ICT/LyXBox/dummyTextMargins.lyx


In your example the box has a width of only 95% not 100%. However, I 
defined a command for your box in the preamble of the attached 
document. You can insert then your custom box by inserting the 
TeX-code command \mybox as I have shown in the example.


Great! Thank you so much. I've learnt a lot with this example. In 
general, I must thank all the people answering here. You always provide 
accurate and clear answers!


What I don't understand here is the "however". Please, what do you mean? 
I see {0.95\columnwidth}, so I guess this is the parameter I must tweak 
to reach this result.


Simply: a great universe of possibilities! Thanks!

BTW: I get two errors when opening the document the first time after 
saving it from your email:


Document header error
Unknown token: \use_refstyle \use_refstyle

Document header error
Unknown token: 0 0

They disappear once I locally save the document.

Please, where these errors come from? Thanks!


The color of the box is set in the document settings.

regards Uwe


All the best,

Ricardo

--
Ricardo Rodríguez
CTO
eBioTIC.
Life Sciences, Data Modeling and Information Management Systems



Re: ♥ The Alvareses ... heart shaped symbols

2010-11-02 Thread Jürgen Spitzmüller
Les Denham wrote:
> I know one solution has already been given, but the following works
> perfectly  for me:
> 
> Insert->Special Character->Symbols and select the ♥ from Miscellaneous 
> Symbols.

Yes, the character is supported by LyX's unicode symbol table. I suppose 
Frederick does not have the txfonts installed properly, and hence the 
\usepackage{pxfonts} did make the difference.

(this is also here with TeXLive 2010: txfonts gives a pdflatex error).

Jürgen


Re: box alignment

2010-11-02 Thread Uwe Stöhr

Am 02.11.2010 11:41, schrieb [Ricardo Rodriguez] eBioTIC.:


In your example the box has a width of only 95% not 100%. However, I
defined a command for your box in the preamble of the attached
document. You can insert then your custom box by inserting the
TeX-code command \mybox as I have shown in the example.


What I don't understand here is the "however". Please, what do you mean?
I see {0.95\columnwidth}, so I guess this is the parameter I must tweak
to reach this result.


You said that you box should have the width of the text. This means you 
must set 1\columnwidth but your example you used 95% width which is 
0.95\columnwidth.



BTW: I get two errors when opening the document the first time after
saving it from your email:

Document header error
Unknown token: \use_refstyle \use_refstyle

Document header error
Unknown token: 0 0

They disappear once I locally save the document.


This was a bug in the alpha 6 release. This has been fixed. Therefore: 
"Don't use LyX 2.0 for anything else than testing."


regards Uwe


Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Dear all: this is a note I sent to our Free Software Users' Group in
Goa, India [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fsug-goa] but would like to
share with you too. Thanks in advance for any tips. FN
Frederick Noronha, Managing Trustee
http://goa1556.goa-india.org
[An alternative book publishing venture]


-- Forwarded message --

Dear all: I've spoken about Lyx in the past. We use it to create our
books (15 so far). At this point, I badly need to deepen my
understanding of Lyx. Is there anyone else with a shared interest? Can
we share notes?

In particular, I'm keen to understand:

* Sharable templates which make for better designs.
* How to convert a design from the drawingboard to a lyx template.
* How to install templates.
* How to bring two comps (using different distros) in tandem with Lyx
versions (so that files can be shared across them).
* Examples of good design for books done using Lyx.

Thanks for any help you could offer. FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Hi Frederick,

This is a very large question.  To narrow the scope (and provide better 
references), what specifically are you looking to do?  

When you say, sharable templates, what do you mean by that (templates are just 
LyX documents)?

What do you mean, "convert a design from the drawingboard to a lyx template"?  
Are you talking about using a LaTeX document class that already exists, or 
writing your own classes and styles?

Ditto for installing templates, as they are just documents, you mostly need to 
select a folder to keep them all together.  There is a templates folder 
included with LyX, but I would advise having a user templates folder and 
copying the best/most used items there.

When you say, bring two comps together, what are you looking to do?  If you 
mean syncing documents between the computers, have a look at dropbox.  Version 
control also works nicely (Subversion is best supported in LyX).

As far as examples, I would take a look at the TeX showcase 
(http://www.tug.org/texshowcase/).  That will give you an idea of what can be 
accomplished with LaTeX (and by extension, LyX).

There are many resources.  The first and most significant are the LyX manuals 
(available from the help menu).  Start with the Tutorial, and then take a 
gander at the User's Guide, Additional Features and any Specific manuals that 
look interesting.

Then, wander by the LyX wiki: wiki.lyx.org.  The wiki is a treasure trove of 
information about how to better mesh LyX with LaTeX, and by extension, how to 
create documents which bring a childlike sense of wonder to the world.

From there, you might consider wandering over to Steve Litt's LyX Library 
(http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/lyx/).  It includes some marvelous 
information, though some is a bit dated.

I've also written information about customizing LyX and how to use/create 
custom document classes.  You can find the links to those articles, and a brief 
summary of them at http://blog.oak-tree.us/index.php/writing/latex.

Finally, I happen to be working on a book that covers this exact subject.  (I 
happen to be working through the advanced LyX/LaTeX chapter right now and hope 
to finish it today, actually)  If you would be willing to provide feedback on 
the chapters, I would be happy to make the LyX/LaTeX chapters/appendix 
available for your review.

If you can be more specific with your earlier questions, i will also try and 
provide additional help for those as well.

Cheers,

Rob

Re: LyX and LuaTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Thanks for the link.

I was able to get LuaTeX working with normal pdfTeX documents via following the 
instructions on the wiki (using the MacTeX 2010 distribution and LyX 2.0).  I'm 
running into problems using fontspec, though.  I think that is due to the lack 
of a fontspec database.  (Described in the fontspec2010 docs.)  To generate the 
database, you need to download and run a script.  I'll have to experiment with 
it when I have a bit more time.

But, initial experiments show that it was easy to get up and running, and that 
it works with LyX 2.0 very well.  Take care with UTF characters, though.  I 
probably could have gotten it sorted out, but didn't really want to fuss with 
it.

I will update the wiki when I get a moment.  (I'm also going to have a go with 
fontspec and see if I can get the problems sorted).

Cheers,

Rob

XeTeX Updates in TeX Live 2010/MacTeX

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Dear LyX Users,

Not sure if this is of interest to many LyX users, but I think I'll post it 
anyway.  TeX Live 2010/MacTeX were released a few weeks ago (maybe months ago, 
I haven't really been paying attention).  Anyway, I updated this morning and 
wanted to send a general report for Mac users.

Here's my report: if you are thinking about upgrading, do it.  Now.

MacTeX 2010 is a big improvement over MacTeX 2009.  Particularly if you're a 
XeTeX user.  The feature that has me *really* jazzed is that XeTeX has added 
support for margin kerning.  This means that several microtypographical 
goodies, like hanging punctuation 
(https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Hanging_punctuation), finally 
work right.

The new default version of PDF is also now 1.5, which means that it no longer 
mangles my illustrations.  Yay!

When I compiled several of my test documents this morning, they looked 
noticeably better.  (Which isn't to say they looked poor last night.)

Also, it seems to work very well with LyX.  I have not yet had any trouble, 
even when compiling absurdly complicated things (like my book draft).

Anyway, I thought I would let you know.

Cheers,

Rob




Sharing documents among different versions of Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
Is there some tool that makes the sharing of documents among different
versions of Lyx a little easier? FN

Frederick Noronha :: +91-9822122436 :: +91-832-2409490


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Rob Oakes
Hi Frederick, 

> My apologies for not explaining myself adequately -- I'm a content
> person, not technical and hence the handicap.

Please don't apologize.  It would probably be a better world if content people 
forced technical people to explain themselves.

> I know what I want the first pages of my chapters to look like, but
> don't have a clue as to how to convert that into Lyx. 

Okay, it sounds like you are asking about chapter headings and styles.  Do I 
understand correctly? 

Here is what I would recommend, rather than try and code chapter headings on 
your own, try taking a look at a few of the packages/document classes that 
provide them.

For starters, check out out the memoir class.  It includes a very large number 
of well defined chapter styles.  (This PDF provides a good overview 
www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/MemoirChapStyles/MemoirChapStyles.pdf).  It will 
be likely that you can find one that matches your needs.  If not, all of the 
memoir examples include the source code, which you might be able to modify.

> This is a technical job no doubt, but is there some way to translate from
> sketchpage to Lyx formatting?

Short answer, yes.  But it can be ugly and there is no automated tool that 
allows you to do this.  You will need to write code.

Creating a new chapter heading in LyX requires writing style definitions and 
formatting instructions in LaTeX and base TeX.  Due to the work involved, these 
are then usually packaged as document classes or stand-alone modules.  The PDF 
I link provides several (five or six) examples.  There are even more on CTAN 
(the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network).

I notice that you are a publisher or editor.  If you need to produce a large 
number of unique document styles, here is a word of advice. I would recommend 
hiring a programmer to create the chapter headings for you.  Adjusting fonts, 
spacing, margins, etc. is relatively simple and you could likely do it without 
too much trouble on your own.

Chapter headings are not normally simple.  Especially if you will be using 
ornamentation.  Package writing (where this is invariably going) is a different 
beast than than using LyX or LaTeX to craft your text.

And while a programmer can produce a layout in a few hours, if you try and do 
it yourself, it will likely require *days* of work.  Therefore, my 
recommendation is to develop a style guide and price it out on eLance.  The $30 
or $40 you will spend on programming time will be saved many times over in 
frustration, time and productivity.  Please note that this advice only applies 
to chapter headings.

For your book cover, the title page, and other front-matter, I would recommend 
that you use a visual program called Scribus to design them.  You can then add 
them to the body through a package called pdfpages.  In LyX, this is done via 
the Insert > File > External material link in the menu.  When the dialog opens, 
select "PDF" from the available options and locate your file.

If you look at the archives of this list, you will find that the subject has 
been discussed multiple times.  There are many good suggestions in those 
threads.  (If you have trouble finding a specific thread, just search for Steve 
Litt as a contributor.  He preaches frontmatter design in a layout tool -- 
fingerpainting -- as gospel.)

Hope this is of some help.

Cheers,

Rob

Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Jacob Bishop
As Rob noted, this is a very large question.

With regard to the question:
* How to bring two comps (using different distros) in tandem with Lyx

I do this with my computers, some running Windows, others running Linux.
There are several parts to making this work.

The first is to get some sort of software that can keep copies on both
computers up-to-date. One method is to use SVN or a similar version control
system that typically works over a network. Another method is to use
Dropbox.

The second part is to make sure that you always use relative paths when
inserting external references. This applies when inserting an image, a
bibtex bibliography, or any other external material.

The third thing is to make sure you have software in both locations that can
operate on any input given. For example, if including .svg images, you need
to have a conversion program configured on both machines that operates
properly when these files occur. If you use a special LaTeX package or font
set, it must be somewhere it can be found by the LaTeX distribution on both
machines.

You can find more details for this and your other questions by using the
many resources available, as outlined by Rob. One additional location for
information that I don't think was pointed out yet is, of course, the
archives for this and the other lyx mailing lists. For example, I can point
out a recent discussion on the topic of your question I just addressed at:
http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users@lists.lyx.org/

Jacob


Re: Sharing documents among different versions of Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Richard Heck

On 11/02/2010 04:16 PM, Frederick Noronha wrote:

Is there some tool that makes the sharing of documents among different
versions of Lyx a little easier? FN

   
LyX 1.5.7 includes the same version of the lyx2lyx conversion tool that 
was released with 1.6.0, so that version of LyX should be able to open 
1.6.x files. (Newer versions can always open older ones.) And, if you 
wanted to do so, you could simply copy the LyX 2.0 version of lyx2lyx 
into your local scripts directory, and LyX will use it.


That said, I guess I'm wondering why people have sufficiently different 
versions that this would be an issue. The back and forth sometimes will 
turn LyX constructs into ERT, which can be kind of annoying.


Richard



Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Frederick Noronha
On 2 November 2010 23:15, Rob Oakes  wrote:
> When you say, sharable templates, what do you
> mean by that (templates are just LyX documents)?

Dear Rob and Jacob,

My apologies for not explaining myself adequately -- I'm a content
person, not technical and hence the handicap.

What I was looking for is something more like:
http://zoonek.free.fr/LaTeX/LaTeX_samples_chapter/0.html

> What do you mean, "convert a design from the
> drawingboard to a lyx template"?  Are you talking
> about using a LaTeX document class that already
> exists, or writing your own classes and styles?

I know what I want the first pages of my chapters to look like, but
don't have a clue as to how to convert that into Lyx. This is a
technical job no doubt, but is there some way to translate from
sketchpage to Lyx formatting? FN


Re: Understanding Lyx

2010-11-02 Thread Richard Heck

On 11/02/2010 04:43 PM, Jacob Bishop wrote:


The second part is to make sure that you always use relative paths 
when inserting external references. This applies when inserting an 
image, a bibtex bibliography, or any other external material.


Even better, put these things into a place LaTeX can find them, and 
insert them using the sort of simple identifiers that LaTeX uses. E.g., 
I have my bib files under ~/files/bibtex/ and have BIBINPUTS set to 
include that directory.


Richard