On Apr 2, 2011, at 2:13 PM, Steve Litt wrote:
On Saturday 02 April 2011 11:03:00 Julien Rioux wrote:
On 02/04/2011 9:55 AM, Bruce Pourciau wrote:
A journal has the tex file I exported from my lyx file. Their
editing
process goes like this: they mark places in that tex file where they
want revisions, attach it to an email to me, I make the revisions in
that marked up tex file and send it back to them.
Now I'm comfortable working with LyX, but not at all comfortable
working
with a tex file directly. I'm worried that I'll make errors in the
editing process and that it will take me much longer to make
revisions,
if I have to work with the tex file directly. I know I can import
the
tex file they send me -- a revision of the original tex file
generated
by my lyx file -- but if I do this, make the changes they want in
lyx,
and then export a tex file, can I be sure that this would result
in the
same tex file that would have resulted from working directly on
the tex
file they sent me?
A second question: this journal does accept Word file submissions,
but
they much prefer tex files (naturally). I imagine that the editing
process is different for Word submissions, probably more like what I
would prefer: they tell me what they want changed, I make the
changes in
LyX, and then send them a new tex file exported from my revised lyx
file, even if that exported tex file is different (due to the
import/export process, not just the revisions) from the tex file
that
would have resulted from working on the tex file directly. In this
process, my lyx document is always the final say on the state of
the ms
at any time, at least until I send them the final tex file at the
end of
the process. I'm tempted to write back to the editors and say that I
want my manuscript to enjoy the editing process of a Word
submission. Do
you think that's justified?
Bruce
Save yourself from the tex -> lyx -> tex cycle, as it is known to be
incomplete. So I see two ways forward (not counting the Word
alternative)
1) Use your original LyX file. Always only modify the original LyX
file,
and use .tex at the last stage (export). For this method, you will
first
need to figure out what is different, between the .tex file you
sent to
the editors, and the .tex file you received from them. Identify those
changes and make the same changes in your LyX file. Then identify the
things they want you to change, and make the changes in your LyX
file.
When done, export to .tex and send the file.
2) Just go with editing the .tex file. At the editing stage, you will
only be changing a few sentences here and there anyway. If you need
to
modify math formulas and are intimidated by this, fire up LyX with
a new
file, write down how the formula should look like, open the
View>Source
panel, and copy/paste to your .tex file.
3) Ask your editors if, just possibly, they might use LyX on their
end. Who
knows, they might like it. For all the reasons you mention, if I
were a
professional editor I'd HATE working directly in LaTeX, and I'd LOVE
working
in LyX, always assuming I could agree with the author on which LyX
version.
SteveT
Steve, Eberhard, Stefano, Julien, and Liviu,
Thank you for the suggestions! I'll have to ponder. What I'd really
like is to go "old school": Have them mark up the pdf with a pen, send
it to me, I make the revisions in the lyx file, export tex, send the
tex file and a pdf to them with the changes. But I'm afraid they'll
never agree. It's my name that's going to be on the article, so I want
control. As it is, one editor has already made changes in the tex
file, replacing italic used for emphasis with roman, which is fine,
but he also did this for some theorem-like assertions, which is _not_
fine, and it's hard for me to know that I've spotted all the changes I
disagree with. His comments are marked with xx, which makes them easy
to find, but these changes are not so marked. So I feel, even at this
early stage of the process that I've lost control of my own ms! Grrrr.
Bruce
