2009/10/19 Helge Hafting <helge.haft...@hist.no> > Samar Singh wrote: > >> Dear Lyx Team >> >> To all those who have produced this wonderful tool for writing and >> especially to all those who continue to build it - a very heartfelt thank >> you! >> >> I have been using it almost from the begining and latex for some years >> before that and its been a great journey. >> >> One hopes this is not an inappropriate place to suggest a few things: >> >> 1. PDFTK has the ability to add attachments to the pdf file which then >> becomes an embedded component or appears to. Could a similar facility be >> provided within Lyx. I am aware of the movie 15 but that does not compile >> within Lyx though it does compile with pdflatex. However, it does not work >> in quite the same way. >> > > To some extent doable already - using the external inset. > > LyX already support PDF as a graphichs format, and is therefore > able to include single-page PDF content. Support for vector drawing > software already uses this, LyX cause the other software to export > its native format as PDF, and then uses this PDF as a figure. > > The external inset mechanism can be used with pdftk as the "drawing > app" too. Creating a new external inset isn't that hard. (No C++ or > compiling, just edit /usr/share/lyx/external_templates ) > > Adding support for pulling a single page out of any pdf is simple > using this mechanism. I don't know if LyX can include multiple > pages this way though. > > Helge Hafting
I think this particular problem has been resolved for me by Uwe's suggestion that I need to use the full file specification. However, I intend to take a look at the capabilities of the external inset. > 2. Beamer has been integrated somewhat but all my beamer presentations are > largely ERT. Could this be accorded some sort of priority? > > Only if you find (or fund) an interested programmer. > Is it possible to estimate the cost of funding a programmer? A sort of ball park figure. > > > 3. Tikz now has wonderful capabilities for various aspects which improve >> the >> end results but it is a bit of a pain for those who are not into >> programming. Is there any possibility this could be integrated in to some >> degree.. >> > > Well - is there an editor for tikz graphichs that suits those not into > programming? If so, then LyX, can be adapted to use that. If not, then make > one. I believe "graphichs editing" is outside the scope of LyX, > so an internal graphics editor won't happen. Adding support for an external > editor is much more likely. > Actually there are quite a few programs including inkscape which put out Tikz code for figures drawn using them. My issues are a little different. I dont know if it is of any use but i am attaching a lyx document that I keep with various Tikz facilities that I use which I copy into my own documents. These are all selected from the Tikz manual. If you look at the mindmap example for instance, it would be nice to be able to have that built into lyx so one could just specify the variables such as the number of nodes, subnodes, their titles, and the angle and have the mindmap appear in the compiled document. For many people that would make this wonderful facility very much more usable. I am personally comfortable with doing it this way but thought it would make these tools more accessible to many others if they could be meaningfully integrated into lyx. As I said earlier, Lyx is already a wonderful gift and actually enthuses me to write much more than I would normally. My suggestions are just cosmetic scaffolding to a great product. best regards samar
