Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Helge Hafting]

Ralf wrote:



So, how about a section giving tips on how to (strategically & technically)
proceed with large figures (typically exceeding the page borders but still A4)
with the requirement that they should appear close the first reference ...

Figures larger than the page, as well as large amounts of figures, can 
go into a "page of floats". That way, they don't mess up the text

formatting.

Now, if you need to position images exactly, consider not using floats. 
If you put them in the text, then they appear in the text where you put 
them. This can result in bad page breaking, and a need for some manual 
breaks though.


Helge Hafting

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Ralf]

Rob Oakes  writes:

> I'm currently working on a book which shows how professional and
> scientific writing can be done using purely open source tools.  
>
> [snip]
> 
> But are there other things that you would like to see?  


Since nobody has mentioned it ...

scientific works mostly include a lot of figures - I am finished now with my
thesis but I struggled immensely with the amount of large figures I had which
messed up most of the layout - I practivally needed to fix every position  of
the figures (lots of ERTs). The requirement that the figures should be as close
as possible to the first reference  did not help as you can imagine. At times I
was so frustrated I glanced at Word which makes this indeed easier. In fact I
think I will use Word for future work - the amount of time is just not worth the
superior look of Latex (however only text/math and a small number of figures is
a totally  different story). Moreover, scientific journal publishers mostly only
except Word files ...

So, how about a section giving tips on how to (strategically & technically)
proceed with large figures (typically exceeding the page borders but still A4)
with the requirement that they should appear close the first reference ...

Cheers
-Ralf

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Rich Shepard]

On Wed, 4 Nov 2009, Graham M Smith wrote:


In addition, I'd really like some instructions/examples on how to create
"business" like >documents. When I've tried, I've found it difficult and
annoying to try to get the appearance the >way the company wants it. (With
logos, lines and legaleese..). So tips and instructions on that >would
certainly be useful



I would also support this.


  Don't know if I can help, but I use LyX for most business reports,
proposals, and permit applications. The document classes are those from the
KOMA-script collection because of their flexibility and ease of
customization and how readily they accept logos above titles and in other
positions. My proposals -- most of them, anyway -- use the letter2 class
with the company logo as the letterhead on the first page and the
addressee's name, date, and page number on continuation pages.

  Much nicer than when I'm forced to use OO.o Writer for this stuff.

Rich

--
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.   |  IntegrityCredibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.|Innovation
 Voice: 503-667-4517  Fax: 503-667-8863

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Graham M Smith]

>In addition, I'd really like some instructions/examples on how to 
create "business" like >documents. When I've tried, I've found it 
difficult and annoying to try to get the appearance the >way the company 
wants it. (With logos, lines and legaleese..). So tips and instructions 
on that >would certainly be useful


I would also support this.

Graham

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Christian Ridderström]

I would suggest putting in some discussion on how to choose Document 
Class --


This is a very good idea IMHO. I've used LyX since a long time ago, and 
choosing a suitable class isn't the easiest.


In addition, I'd really like some instructions/examples on how to create 
"business" like documents. When I've tried, I've found it difficult and 
annoying to try to get the appearance the way the company wants it. (With 
logos, lines and legaleese..). So tips and instructions on that would 
certainly be useful.


Best regads,
Christian

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Piero Faustini]

 
> Dealing with Word is a very common question on list, and in
> professional and academic circumstances discussing it -- at exhaustive
> length, since all of the options are well less than perfect -- would
> likely be very helpful.

Yep. More in general, and I would never stop repeating it, LyX is likely to 
become the choice for thousands of non-geek academics and writers, expecially 
in 
humanistic fields. Thus, all of these topics need to be discussed and explained 
well:

1. Collaborating techniques and strategies (along with the "to/from MSWord/Ooo 
conversion")
2. the other half of the skye (read: humanistic fields)
3. BibLaTeX package (useful for all but expecially for humanists)

But if what you want to write is not a online guide, but a book, it doesn't 
have 
to fiddle with tips and tricks to override problem x or problem y. You should 
concentrate in general strategies and choices, and just point to the tricks we 
can find in the mailing lists or googling.
On point 1) I would treat problems with collaborating with Word-like 
environments 
(say 99% of humanistic fields) (there have been recently a thread on this), on 
2) 
the best choices for non-scientific writing, on 3) just explain how good can 
this 
package work for almost all needs.
_
Fatti riconoscere con i biglietti da visita di Messenger
http://www.messenger.it/bigliettiVisita.aspx

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Rainer M Krug]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2009 at 8:18 PM, Graham M Smith wrote:

> Rob
>
>  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.
>>
>>
> I wonder if something on Lyx/Sweave/R/Beamer might be useful. This
> combination is unbeatable (and I think unique, ignoring working with
> straight Latex) for anyone with scientific/statistics  related
> teaching/writing/presentations to do, but not immediately obvious how to get
> working, especially  with beamer (I am still trying to sort that out).
>

I absolute second that. I created a slides for an R course in LyX, using
exactly this combination. But I think, there are some points to be ironed
out, e.g. that the converters for R need to be entered manually in LyX and
that many frames I had to enter in ERT boxes, as I did not manage it with
normal LyX frames.

In essence, brilliant combination, but sometimes quite cryptic problems,
which require ERT boxes in LyX - but I love this combination

Rainer


> Graham
>
>
>
>
>
>


-- 
Rainer M. Krug, PhD (Conservation Ecology, SUN), MSc (Conservation Biology,
UCT), Dipl. Phys. (Germany)

Centre of Excellence for Invasion Biology
Natural Sciences Building
Office Suite 2039
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Skype:  RMkrug
Google: r.m.k...@gmail.com

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Manveru]

2009/11/3 Rob Oakes :
> 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.

Write couple words about microtype and effects achievable by this
package. It is unfortunately not supported under XeTeX (and will not
be) while it makes PDFs really nicer.

-- 
Manveru
jabber: manv...@manveru.pl
 gg: 1624001
   http://www.manveru.pl

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Liviu Andronic]

Hello

On 11/3/09, Rob Oakes  wrote:
>  I'm currently working on a book which shows how professional and
>  scientific writing can be done using purely open source tools.  Any book
>
[..]
>  But are there other things that you would like to see?  The standard LyX
>
For a professional look, the choice of fonts is perhaps a good point
of discussion. In my experience, the "default" fonts in LyX can yield
unpredictable results, with strange-looking (both on screen and on
paper), unnamed fonts possibly chosen. At the same time, many of us
are non-experts and can make pretty lousy font choices. Some pointers
on the pros and cons of different fonts/font combinations would be
great. (There is a recent thread [1] on the subject.)

Regards
Liviu

[1] http://www.mail-archive.com/lyx-users@lists.lyx.org/msg77281.html

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Liviu Andronic]

Hello

On 11/3/09, Graham M Smith  wrote:
>  I wonder if something on Lyx/Sweave/R/Beamer might be useful. This
> combination is unbeatable (and I think unique, ignoring working with
> straight Latex) for anyone with scientific/statistics  related
> teaching/writing/presentations to do, but not immediately obvious how to get
> working, especially  with beamer (I am still trying to sort that out).
>
I was also thinking about Sweave support as a great selling point for
LyX, so to speak. Another not immediately obvious feature is support
in LyX for various Computer Algebra Systems (CAS), including the
open-source Maxima and Octave. For Sweave, a good reference would be
Gregor Gorjanc's Rnews article [1].

Already mentioned, it would be informative to explain UTF8 support in
LyX (the nuances of the variuos utf8* variants) and propose approaches
to writing multi-lingual documents (including tough-nuts-to-crack,
say, English+Greek+Russian).

Also mentioned, exporting to Word (and the like).. Yesterday
investigating (again) the issue of LaTeX to
anything-other-than-pdf-or-ps-or-dvi, I stumbled upon this interesting
overview [2] of various approaches.

Good luck!
Liviu

PS When the book is made public, please consider dropping a note on this list.

[1] http://cran.r-project.org/doc/Rnews/Rnews_2008-1.pdf
[2] http://biostat.mc.vanderbilt.edu/SweaveConvert

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Stefano Franchi]

On 11/03/09, Uwe Stöhr  wrote:
Rob Oakes schrieb:

> 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.

Wow, what a compliment for the docs!
I also don't know what to describe as addition to the docs. Otherwise I would 
have added it to the 
docs ;-).

But have a look at wiki.lyx.org, you find there many useful information around 
LyX and also some HowTo.

regards Uwe


The LyX documentation is indeed excellent. What I feel is still missing---and 
I have been planning to write, in fact, once I learn the basics---is a task-
oriented more or less step-by-step guide on how to write layouts file for 
(previously created) latex classes and how to extend existing classes purely 
with layouts (a topic Steve Litt has approached, but I think it could be 
extended). The "Customizing LyX" manual is great and contains lots of details 
on the various commands to be used in layouts (thanks Uwe!), but it could be 
supplemented by a chapter on "How to extend the article class [or koma-
article, etc.]." The chapter could show how to add new features to class in 
lyx only, or how to extend the latex class with new features and then create a 
layout to render those in Lyx. 

Cheers,

S. 


__
Stefano Franchi
Department of Philosophy  Ph:  (979) 862-2211
Texas A&M University  Fax: (979) 845-0458
305B Bolton Hall  fran...@philosophy.tamu.edu
College Station, TX 77843-4237

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Andrew Sullivan]

On Tue, Nov 03, 2009 at 06:14:30PM +0100, Uwe Stöhr wrote:

> But have a look at wiki.lyx.org, you find there many useful
  information around LyX and also some HowTo.

Dealing with Word is a very common question on list, and in
professional and academic circumstances discussing it -- at exhaustive
length, since all of the options are well less than perfect -- would
likely be very helpful.

A

-- 
Andrew Sullivan
a...@shinkuro.com
Shinkuro, Inc.

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Graham M Smith]

Rob

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.
  
I wonder if something on Lyx/Sweave/R/Beamer might be useful. This 
combination is unbeatable (and I think unique, ignoring working with 
straight Latex) for anyone with scientific/statistics  related 
teaching/writing/presentations to do, but not immediately obvious how to 
get working, especially  with beamer (I am still trying to sort that out).


Graham

Re: Professional and Scientific Writing Book

[Uwe Stöhr]

Rob Oakes schrieb:


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.


Wow, what a compliment for the docs!
I also don't know what to describe as addition to the docs. Otherwise I would have added it to the 
docs ;-).


But have a look at wiki.lyx.org, you find there many useful information around 
LyX and also some HowTo.

regards Uwe

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

[John Coppens]

On Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:09:49 -0700
Rob Oakes  wrote:

> 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.

A clear overview of how to use accented (or otherwise punctuated
characteres) would be useful (with indications why it sometimes won't
work). I couldn't get character composition to work in 1.5.x; it
spontaneously re-appeared in 1.6.x (I suspect because of Qt 3.x and Qt
4.x)

I guess this would be particularly useful for writers who only
ocasionally use other languages.

John