Gmane User wrote:
> I'm reading the online documentation, and see no navigation panel to navigate
> the chapters and subsections. There is only the "Table of Contents" (TOC)
> button, which only shows 1st level headings.
Look at the Navigation menu. The TOC button is there to insert at TOC,
not to provide navigation. (And, at least under Linux, you can move the
little slider at the bottom of the box that pops up when you click the
TOC button to expand it.)
> So I tried to view the online docs as PDFs in hopes of seeing the full TOC,
> maybe even hyperlinked if I'm lucky. However, this always seems to crash
> Lyx. From the task manager, I can see all sorts of processes rising to the
> top of my list, sorted by CPU usage. So no one process is stalled, but there
> might be a script caught in a loop. Same thing happens if I restart Lyx and
> try to export to PDF. If I try to print to a PS file the PS file never shows
> up (looked in the default directory, as well as the directory I specified).
> I am able to print my HelloWorld file to PS, though.
>
> Are the online documents unprintable/unexportable in other Lyx installations?
>
I don't have these problems under Linux. I do note, however, that the
first time I viewed the file as DVI, it did take a while. It's a
good-sized file. Try this: Find the temporary directory LyX is using to
do the compilation. You should see a .tex file there to which LyX is
exporting LaTeX. Run LaTeX manually on that file and see what happens.
That's what LyX is doing anyway: Export to LaTeX; run latex (or
pdflatex, or whatever).
> Since my aim is to replace Word, there is some functionality I'm hoping to
> see present. One is Word's "outline mode", which lets the user collapse or
> expand any hierarcy of text, promote/demote move entire subtrees of text, and
> generally move subtrees around. Is there such functionality in Lyx?
>
At present, there is no such functionality built into LyX. There is, as
I've just mentioned, good navigation, and you could use branches to
allow text to be displayed and hidden. But it isn't outline mode.
There's something a little closer in OpenOffice.
> I'm also interested in hyperlinking, both in the Lyx file and the final PDF
> file. I know I can generate hyperlinks in LaTeX, but only in the final PDF
> (since LaTeX is just text). Even that needs all sorts of files and commands
> embedded in the LaTeX file. I understand that the user has to make them
> known to Lyx. I'm not necessarily expecting someone to spell out step by
> step how to do it (though I wouldn't ignore it if someone did), I'd
> appreciate it if those who have tried going through the process can indicate
> how straightforward it is, assuming it is even possible.
>
You just have to \usepackage{hyperref}. That will generate a lot of
links for you automagically. Others can be inserted using "ERT", which
allows the insertion of arbitrary LaTeX code in the LyX document. So the
process is pretty much the same as with LaTeX. Some enhancement requests
have recently been filed to make this a bit easier, and the developers
seemed enthusiastic.
> On the matter of making files known to Lyx, the template I'm using is for
> LaTeX use. How painless is it to make it available to Lyx? I'm thinking
> that as I navigate the online docs, there might be a section that says how to
> point Lyx to the tetex tree that I set up for LaTex (I'm a bit new to that,
> too, and it took about 1.5 days to get the template working, including
> fetching missing files from the web). Thanks for an advance idea of what can
> be expected.
>
I assume what you mean by a "template" is a LaTeX document class or
style. If so, then you need to create a LyX "layout" to go with it. This
can be anywhere from trivial to a pain in the tuckus, depending upon the
details of the class. But there are plenty of people here who have
experience writing these, and it's really not that hard if you have any
experience at all with coding. For what it's worth, though, probably the
most common complaint about LyX is precisely that getting a new LaTeX
class to work is harder than it ought to be. But, on the other hand,
it's something you aren't likely to have to do very often, unless you're
in the habit of creating new classes all the time.
> Finally, a question to those who had experience in LaTeX before going to Lyx
> -- was it worthwhile? Did you find it actually helped?
>
I use LyX for some things and straight LaTeX for others. Mostly, I use
LyX when I'm writing papers or a book, and especially when I'm doing
lots of mathematics. So I find LyX helps, yes.
Richard
