Νίκος Αλεξανδρής wrote:
In the Features [1] page the visitor reads, among other details:
"Import and export to many formats (LaTeX, PDF, Postscript, DVI, ASCII,
HTML, OpenDocument, RTF, MS Word, and others) thanks to configurable
converters".
Am I the only LyX user who is having so much trouble to export .lyx
files in these file formats?
Please, let me know how I could export, _without_ the need to search in
the internet for just a simple example, lets say to... M$ Windowz.
The conversions depends on external software. This must be installed
before conversion is possible. Some conversions can be done in several
ways, with different programs. Some programs do a better job than
others, so you might get bad results if all you have is the worst program.
Do not expect all the conversions to yield good results in all cases.
Most of the formats you can export to, is only partially compatible with
LyX. So the converted document will at best be different, and at worst
be useless.
Conversion to latex is about the only conversion that always works
perfectly. Conversions to pdf, dvi and postscript goes through latex
and is normally perfect. But documents using special features may fail
in some of these conversions. For example, dvi does not support pstricks.
All other formats have less than perfect conversions.
ASCII obviously looses most of the formatting, as it doesn't support
fonts and images. But then, nobody expects more from ASCII.
Not all features are supported in HTML, so some things may be missing.
Still, LyX can be ok for writing html if you avoid some features.
opendocument/rtf/word is particularly troublesome. The three are
compatible, and therefore all have the same problems. This is a word
processor format with a simpler feature set than LyX, so a perfect
conversion will never be possible. In particular, any such conversion
will loose the good line and page breaking and the hyphenation that LyX
does so well. After conversion, a document can merely look like a
word document, not better.
Also, this converter is far from finished. Much better conversion to
word is _possible_, but it looks like nobody/few is interested in
working on that for free. Developers tend to want to improve LyX itself
rather than the converters, removing the need for word rather than
adding compatibility.
Helge Hafting
