On 08 Apr 2011, Eric Weir wrote: > > On Apr 8, 2011, at 4:30 AM, Anthony Campbell wrote: > > > I dislike word processors. (I've been forced to use OpenOffice for one > > particular purpose recently and hate it.) I think that the process of > > generating prose should be separate from producing print-ready copy. So > > I do all my composing in Vim, which allows me to change things easily as > > much as I like. If I want it to look nice I then import it into LyX, > > which gives me publishable files. For short things like letters, I have > > made latex templates which I read into vim. > > Thanks, Anthony. I did all my writing from the early '80s till just a couple > years ago on MaxThink, the legendary outlining program, which had absolutely > no formatting capabilities. I totally buy the developer's [Neil Larson] > philosophy for that application. The emphasis was on supporting thinking, and > keeping things that distract you from thinking out of the way. MaxThink > was/is a DOS application. Totally command-driven. An attempt at a version > with a GUI was a complete flop. > > Even today, having finally reluctantly moved on from MaxThink, I keep > formatting to a bare minimum -- bolding titles and headings, italicizing > subheadings, occasionally footnoting -- and apply it only when sharing long > documents with others. > > Yeah, I think I hate OpenOffice Writer as much as Word. >
I'd definitely suggest having a look at LyX, if you haven't done so already. It's described as a document processor, not a word processor. You can do all this stuff in Latex, and I did in the past, but LyX makes it easier and quicker. >From the blurb: "LyX is for people who want their writing to look great, right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting details, “finger painting” font attributes or futzing around with page boundaries. You just write. On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output — or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced — looks like nothing else." I think LyX is brilliant, but I still like to write first in Vim and import it into Lyx when it's more or less as I want it. Anthony -- Anthony Campbell - [email protected] Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux http://www.acampbell.org.uk - sample my ebooks at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/acampbell -- You received this message from the "vim_use" maillist. Do not top-post! Type your reply below the text you are replying to. For more information, visit http://www.vim.org/maillist.php
