Re: Branch names with spaces

[Dominik Waßenhoven]

Jürgen Spitzmüller wrote:

> Dominik Waßenhoven wrote:
>> Which is a shame. (c;
> 
> Says an Historian!
> 
> Jürgen

Historians do not change the past, they invent the past and call that a
reconstruction (c;

Regards,
Dominik.-

Re: how to wrap the Title in classicthesis-preamble.sty

[Gian Maria Niccolò Benucci]

Hi again,

I would be seriously happy to try the new version of classic-thesis
template. Where can I find it? Do you have a direct link?
Thanks a lot,

Gian



On 17 October 2011 00:52, PhilipPirrip  wrote:

> On 10/16/2011 10:54 PM, Gian Maria Niccolò Benucci wrote:
>
>> I tired your advice adding the following to classicthesis-preamble.sty:
>> \newcommand{\myTitleLine1}{**Brassicaceae: from origin to recent
>> days\xspace}
>> \newcommand{\myTitleLine2}{**Taxonomy, ecology and polulation
>> studies\xspace}
>> \newcommand{\myTitle}{\**myTitleLine1 \myTitleLine2}
>> I am probably doing something bad... but where???
>>
>
>
> It's my fault, sorry. Commands, so it seems, should not contain digits.
> Just rename \myTitleLine1 to \myTitleLineA, and so on.
>
> In this case, you could have had considered using \myTitle and \mySubtitle,
> hm?
>
>
>
> We've just released a new version of ClassicThesis template. Its
> configuration does not depend on classicthesis-preamble.STY any more, but on
> classicthesis-config.tex. Many people had problems with the .sty.
> The config file is also much 'cleaner' now. Give it a try, and tell us your
> impressions.
> Regards,
> Pip
>
>


-- 
Gian Maria Niccolò Benucci
Ph.D. Candidate

University of Perugia
Department of Applied Biology

Borgo XX Giugno, 74
I-06121 - Perugia, ITALY
Tel: +39.0755856433
Fax: +39.0755856069
Email: gian.benu...@gmail.com



*- Do not print this email unless you really need to. Save paper and
protect the environment! -*

Re: how to wrap the Title in classicthesis-preamble.sty

[PhilipPirrip]

On 10/17/2011 10:29 AM, Gian Maria Niccolò Benucci wrote:

Hi again,

I would be seriously happy to try the new version of classic-thesis
template. Where can I find it? Do you have a direct link?



http://code.google.com/p/classicthesis/
or directly to download:
classicthesis.googlecode.com/files/ClassicThesis-LyX-v3.1-beta1.zip

Re: LyX slowness

[Helge Hafting]

On 13. okt. 2011 23:00, Paul Rubin wrote:

For what it's worth, I have LyX installed on three machines (Dell desktop, Dell
laptop, Acer desktop).  All run Linux Mint with the Gnome desktop.  The Dells
are both Intel 32; the Acer is AMD 64.  Both desktops have nVidia displays with
nVidia proprietary drivers.  I'm not sure about the laptop, but I think that too
is nVidia.  I've had no problems with display speed on any of them.



Some nvidia cards may be ok. I can't claim that they all are hopeless, 
but some are. The situation is weird - a machine capable of playing

light 3D-games with ok framerate, fail to perform for 2D work!
And I don't think LyX/qt is to blame, for LyX is fine on even weaker
computers. :-/

This illustrates the problem with closed drivers. My problem machine
is old - nobody sell that kind of hardware anymore. So no chance
that nvidia will make this card perform according to its potential. 
There is no money in that. And the open-source people have no

chance without proper documentation...

Helge Hafting

Re: Triangle of Tartaglia with Lyx

[Helge Hafting]

On 13. okt. 2011 11:32, Rubén Jiménez wrote:

Hi

Will you show me how I can draw the triangle of Tartaglia with Lyx?

I searched the forums but have not found the answer.

thank you very much


How about this?

If you want more numbers, start with a bigger matrix.

Helge Hafting


pascal.lyx
Description: application/lyx

Re: Multilingual difficulties for beginners with Lyx

[Helge Hafting]

On 29. sep. 2011 02:52, Lisa wrote:

Guenter Milde  users.berlios.de>  writes:



If this main font contains Chinese characters, it should work for Chinese.

If you want to use a different font for Chinese (or any other non-Latin
script) via polyglossia, this needs to be set up in the preamble. By
default, polyglossia is loaded, too, when "use non-TeX fonts" is true, so
you don't need to load it again.


Thanks Günter, yes, if the person I installed Lyx for, sets a main font that can
also display Chinese then they will have no problem. I should have mentioned
that they do not want to use a Unicode / Chinese font as their default text 
font.


Then they will have to switch font when dispaying some chinese.


Lyx displays most languages nicely on the screen even when a more limited
default font that does not carry those codepoints is used.
It still displays them nicely with "view in html", and on a Mac for instance, if
you save this as a pdf without doing anything else you will see those languages
rendered nicely. So its a shame that it can't use that font substitution
information that it must know about at some level (in Qt?) to generate some
Latex for the Chinese/Arabic/Russian if the user hasn't supplied any 
her/himself.

Qt may do some substitution in order to display something. LyX does not 
know much about what qt does internally though.


Also, LyX does not know what problems latex/xetex may have with the 
fonts used. Often, the font used by latex is not the same used for the 
screen anyway. So the tricks needed for the screen font may not be 
necessary for latex - or latex may need different tricks where the 
screen font is ok.


LyX gets many of its advantages from *not* trying to match the screen
to the paper/pdf output. You have probably noticed that the line 
breaking is different, and that LyX doesn't do page breaking at all on 
screen. This why LyX can utilize tha advanced line/page breaking of 
latex, it is so advanced that it'd be too slow to do in real-time for 
screen contents.


On the other hand, I believe latex logs an error when the font lacks 
some symbols. LyX could be modified to catch this, and give the user a 
message recommending a different font. You may want to file

a "wishlist bug" at
http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome

Helge Hafting


Cheers, Lisa.
(p.s. its exactly for occasional use, in our global world, that it would be nice
to have this, rather than for regular multilingual users of Lyx who can choose
their preferred fonts).
(Polyglossia is still at 2010/7/27 (CTAN) which has no Chinese support, is that
right?)

Re: Fwd: Move from d:drive to c:drive

[Helge Hafting]

On 14. okt. 2011 20:17, Sølvi wrote:

ANYONE??

-- Forwarded message --
From: *Sølvi* mailto:s.n.mi...@gmail.com>>
Date: 2011/10/11
Subject: Move from d:drive to c:drive
To: lyx-users@lists.lyx.org 


Hi,

I'm currently using Windows XP with LyX v.2.0.0

I have a huge document, it's a master with several child documents
included which then again have documents/figures etc inserted (it's like
a christmas tree). I have been working on the d: drive on a pc but now I
have to work on a pc that only have a c: drive and I probably have to
move it all back to the pc with the d: drive later.

Is there any easy way to do this or do I have to "rebuild" the entire
document? It's a big document with lots of files incorporated.


Easy way:
Put the entire "christmas tree" on an usb stick or external harddisk, 
which will hopefully become "d:" on the machine that doesn't have a "d:" 
of its own.


A better way:
"Rebuild"! you document - once. You need to visit every reference to
other files, be it included documents or figures.

Change the filenames from "absolute" to "relative" Example:

Master document at d:\documents\book\master.lyx,
includes:
   d:\documents\book\chapter1\chapter1.lyx
   d:\documents\book\chapter2\chapter2.lyx
   which includes
 d:\documents\chapter2\figures\picture.jpg
 d:\documents\book\logo.png

with this structure, it should be change to relative
paths, removing the common path elements. The result would be:

Master document at d:\documents\book\master.lyx
including:
  chapter1\chapter1.lyx
  chapter2\chapter2.lyx
  which includes:
figures\picture.jpg
..\logo.png

And when you add more files later, make sure they
don't contain "d:\..", just the last and necessary parts of the path.

This gives a combined document tree that doesn't say "D:" anywhwere, so 
it'll work equally well on C:, on D: or for that matter, somewhere on a 
big file server. In short, it'll be moveable because it does not refer

to one specific disk drive.

Helge Hafting

Re: Printing a LyX file as it appears onscreen

[Helge Hafting]

On 17. okt. 2011 00:23, Bert Lloyd wrote:

Hello LyX users,

Is it possible to print a paper copy of a LyX document as it appears
onscreen, i.e. without exporting to PDF?

I would like to read through a collaborative document with lots of
tracked changes, LyX notes, and other things that do not get exported
to PDF, and always find reading the printed page more conducive to
thinking than reading on-screen.


Use the menu "Document->Change Tracking", and check the entry
"Show Changes in Output".

When that setting is used, the changes is printed. (Blue for
new stuff, strikeout for deleted stuff, and so on.) This works
for PDF export too.

I don't think you can print notes, but there may be other ways to get
what you want. Instead of using notes, use a special change tracking 
user to write note text. When you no longer need the notes, just
reject those "changes". Using a special "note user" makes it easier to 
see what is notes and what is your normal changes.


I know no way to print exactly what's on screen, other than
using lots of screen dumps. Which is too cumbersome.

Helge Hafting

Re: Move from d:drive to c:drive

[Jacob Bishop]

On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 4:25 AM, Christopher Menzel wrote:

> And don't forget about: 3) Have a geeky friend write a (really very simple)
> script to make all of those changes in one fell swoop.
>

touché

-Jacob

Re: Printing a LyX file as it appears onscreen

[David L. Johnson]

On 10/17/2011 02:57 AM, Liviu Andronic wrote:

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 12:23 AM, Bert Lloyd  wrote:

Hello LyX users,

Is it possible to print a paper copy of a LyX document as it appears
onscreen, i.e. without exporting to PDF?


Have you tried File>  Print? Normally it prints the document as seen
in LyX, and usually people complain that the output is crap while we
point them to the PDF preview.
I'm confused.  How is the output of File>Print any different from 
exporting to PDF and printing?  For me they have always be identical.


--

David L. Johnson

What is objectionable, and what is dangerous about extremists is not
that they are extreme, but that they are intolerant.
--Robert F. Kennedy

Re: Printing a LyX file as it appears onscreen

[Richard Heck]

On 10/17/2011 08:53 AM, Helge Hafting wrote:


I don't think you can print notes,

The only way to do it would be to redefine the Note insets via some 
layout. If that's not possible, then we should make it possible. This is 
a common request.


Richard

Re: Printing a LyX file as it appears onscreen

[Jürgen Spitzmüller]

Richard Heck wrote:
> The only way to do it would be to redefine the Note insets via some 
> layout. If that's not possible, then we should make it possible. This is 
> a common request.

It's not possible yet with (yellow) notes, since InsetNote::latex returns 
early if params_.type == InsetNoteParams::Note. Perhaps we should make the 
output a parameter of the layout instead of hardcoding it for a given type.

With comment (and greyed out, for that matter), you can do something like the 
attached.

Jürgen#\DeclareLyXModule{TODO notes from comments}
#DescriptionBegin
#Outputs comments as TODO-notes. A list of todo notes can be produced
#by inserting \listoftodos in ERT.
#DescriptionEnd
# Author: Juergen Spitzmueller 

Format 35

Preamble
\RequirePackage{todonotes}
EndPreamble

InsetLayout Note:Comment
LatexType command
LatexName todo
End

Re: Printing a LyX file as it appears onscreen

[Bert Lloyd]

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 2:57 AM, Liviu Andronic  wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 12:23 AM, Bert Lloyd  wrote:
>> Hello LyX users,
>>
>> Is it possible to print a paper copy of a LyX document as it appears
>> onscreen, i.e. without exporting to PDF?
>>
> Have you tried File > Print? Normally it prints the document as seen
> in LyX, and usually people complain that the output is crap while we
> point them to the PDF preview.
>
> Regards
> Liviu
>
>

When I try File > Print, I get a popup menu titled "LyX: Print
Document," with Print Destination options of Printer: and File:

The Printer field is blank, and when I choose this option, dvips
starts, saying that it's working with a .dvi file. I can't find this
dvi file or a .ps file created, so I'm not sure it is actually
created.

If I choose File, similarly dvips runs, and a ps file is created. When
I run Distiller on the .ps file, it creates a compiled pdf, which
looks just like what I get if I do File - Export - pdflatex.

Thanks.

Re: Printing a LyX file as it appears onscreen

[David L. Johnson]

On 10/17/2011 11:27 AM, Bert Lloyd wrote:

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 2:57 AM, Liviu Andronic  wrote:

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 12:23 AM, Bert Lloyd  wrote:

Hello LyX users,

Is it possible to print a paper copy of a LyX document as it appears
onscreen, i.e. without exporting to PDF?


Have you tried File>  Print? Normally it prints the document as seen
in LyX, and usually people complain that the output is crap while we
point them to the PDF preview.

Regards
Liviu



When I try File>  Print, I get a popup menu titled "LyX: Print
Document," with Print Destination options of Printer: and File:

The Printer field is blank, and when I choose this option, dvips
starts, saying that it's working with a .dvi file.
Didn't LyX automatically run a configure script when it was first run?  
Maybe on Windows you don't see that.  It failed to find a printer.  But 
if you have a default printer on your computer, it should be able to 
find it.  You might try Tools>Preferences>Output>Printer to see what it 
thinks is available (it probably thinks none is), and if there is a 
problem, run Tools>Reconfigure  and see if it finds the printer.


--

David L. Johnson

You will say Christ saith this and the apostles say this; but what
canst thou say?
-- George Fox.

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[Liviu Andronic]

On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 6:49 PM, Johnston81  wrote:
> To the ones that can and will help,
>
> I apologize if this has already been covered in another topic; I have
> searched but been unable to find any such. If, however, you know of such
> topics, if you could please point me in the right direction?
>
> My current situation is this: I am working on my Master Thesis and currently
> doing my research and such. As it is now, I am uncertain how large my final
> project will be - I imagine that the final document will probably exceed 100
> pages, but where I am uncertain of size I am certain that the document will
> contain considerable amounts of graphs and tables - rather more than I am
> comfortable working with in Word 2010.
>
> My questions are fairly simple to ask, I am not certain that everybody will
> agree on the answers but rough estimates are all I am looking for anyway. So
> here goes:
>
> 1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately need to
> learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text, including graphics
> and formulas(!), from a template?
>
LyX excels and formulas, numbering graphics and at leaving you worry
about writing text instead of constantly tinkering with the
formatting.

It depends on the effort that you're willing to put in and on your
penchant for technical things. You could get working knowledge in less
than two weeks, I guess, especially if you're up for a challenge
(which you seem to be).

Once you get used to the LyX (LaTeX) ways of doing things, you will
find that generating a professional-looking document in LyX is much
easier than in Word. And LyX automatically takes care of lots of stuff
that Word will force you to deal with manually.

For starters, I would suggest to read Help > Intro and Help > Tutorial
along with LyX Essentials [1]. Then, as you get more familiar with
working in LyX take a look at templates for theses, such as File > New
>From Template > Thesis (folder) or the one proposed in [1]. There may
be some more on the wiki. Tweak them as needed, and once your happy
with the general document output start filling it in with actual text.

[1] https://sites.google.com/site/tsewiki/resources/latex

> 2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after having learned
> the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to teach LyX to oneself and
> how easy is it to solve problems when encountered?
>
Can be, if you put in a decent effort. Once a threshold is passed, LyX
seems (and really is) very easy to use. After you exhausted the usual
documentation Help menu, wiki, LyX Essentials, try your luck on the
very helpful lyx-users. Some forums should be available, too.


> 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
> spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?
>
Using LyX would ultimately increase your productivity and improve your
typesetting results. Give it a spin, and if in a week or two you still
feel lost and don't know where to begin with then revert to Word. But
given your interest in this, I feel that you're up to the challenge
and won't need to revert, ever.


> I have many more similar questions, but for now this will have to do - I
> shouldn't take to much of your time! But if you have any other advice or
> experiences that relate to my post, that you feel could help me or others
> that are doing the same kind of contemplations, please do not hesitate and
> do share!
>
As far as I'm concerned LyX Essentials is a decent effort in giving
true beginners a general sense of how LyX works and how it differs
from the Word paradigm. But then, I co-wrote it, so I would be biased.

Good luck and feel free to ask questions on this list. Regards
Liviu


> Thank you very much for time. I look forward to read your replies!
>
> Johnston81
>
> --
> View this message in context: 
> http://lyx.475766.n2.nabble.com/Engineering-student-considering-LyX-for-Thesis-tp6901371p6901371.html
> Sent from the LyX - Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>



-- 
Do you know how to read?
http://www.alienetworks.com/srtest.cfm
http://goodies.xfce.org/projects/applications/xfce4-dict#speed-reader
Do you know how to write?
http://garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/e.htm#e-mail

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[curtis osterhoudt]

I would second everything that Liviu has said. I'd especially like to amplify 
his mention of the mailing lists. 90% of the time I've had a problem, I could 
immediately find mention of it on the lists, and very helpful responses. 10% of 
the time, I figured it out myself, usually right after asking a question to the 
list. The people are helpful and pretty prompt, even when questions have to do 
with LaTeX code instead of LyX-specific stuff.

I started using LyX in graduate school, just because it was different and fun, 
and now I use it for nearly all of my writing. It's immensely powerful for 
everything from letter-writing to producing long works, and powerful without 
having to learn a lot of esoteric coding or formatting. I think that trying to 
use it for a week, just to see if you like it, will be very useful to you in 
the long run.

   Curtis O.





>
>From: Liviu Andronic 
>To: Johnston81 
>Cc: lyx-users@lists.lyx.org
>Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 1:53 PM
>Subject: Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis
>
>On Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 6:49 PM, Johnston81  wrote:
>> To the ones that can and will help,
>>
>> I apologize if this has already been covered in another topic; I have
>> searched but been unable to find any such. If, however, you know of such
>> topics, if you could please point me in the right direction?
>>
>> My current situation is this: I am working on my Master Thesis and currently
>> doing my research and such. As it is now, I am uncertain how large my final
>> project will be - I imagine that the final document will probably exceed 100
>> pages, but where I am uncertain of size I am certain that the document will
>> contain considerable amounts of graphs and tables - rather more than I am
>> comfortable working with in Word 2010.
>>
>> My questions are fairly simple to ask, I am not certain that everybody will
>> agree on the answers but rough estimates are all I am looking for anyway. So
>> here goes:
>>
>> 1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately need to
>> learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text, including graphics
>> and formulas(!), from a template?
>>
>LyX excels and formulas, numbering graphics and at leaving you worry
>about writing text instead of constantly tinkering with the
>formatting.
>
>It depends on the effort that you're willing to put in and on your
>penchant for technical things. You could get working knowledge in less
>than two weeks, I guess, especially if you're up for a challenge
>(which you seem to be).
>
>Once you get used to the LyX (LaTeX) ways of doing things, you will
>find that generating a professional-looking document in LyX is much
>easier than in Word. And LyX automatically takes care of lots of stuff
>that Word will force you to deal with manually.
>
>For starters, I would suggest to read Help > Intro and Help > Tutorial
>along with LyX Essentials [1]. Then, as you get more familiar with
>working in LyX take a look at templates for theses, such as File > New
>From Template > Thesis (folder) or the one proposed in [1]. There may
>be some more on the wiki. Tweak them as needed, and once your happy
>with the general document output start filling it in with actual text.
>
>[1] https://sites.google.com/site/tsewiki/resources/latex
>
>> 2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after having learned
>> the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to teach LyX to oneself and
>> how easy is it to solve problems when encountered?
>>
>Can be, if you put in a decent effort. Once a threshold is passed, LyX
>seems (and really is) very easy to use. After you exhausted the usual
>documentation Help menu, wiki, LyX Essentials, try your luck on the
>very helpful lyx-users. Some forums should be available, too.
>
>
>> 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
>> spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?
>>
>Using LyX would ultimately increase your productivity and improve your
>typesetting results. Give it a spin, and if in a week or two you still
>feel lost and don't know where to begin with then revert to Word. But
>given your interest in this, I feel that you're up to the challenge
>and won't need to revert, ever.
>
>
>> I have many more similar questions, but for now this will have to do - I
>> shouldn't take to much of your time! But if you have any other advice or
>> experiences that relate to my post, that you feel could help me or others
>> that are doing the same kind of contemplations, please do not hesitate and
>> do share!
>>
>As far as I'm concerned LyX Essentials is a decent effort in giving
>true beginners a general sense of how LyX works and how it differs
>from the Word paradigm. But then, I co-wrote it, so I would be biased.
>
>Good luck and feel free to ask questions on this list. Regards
>Liviu
>
>
>> Thank you very much for time. I look forward to read your replies!
>>
>> Johnston81
>>
>> --
>> Vi

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[Les Denham]

On Monday 17 October 2011 11:49:53 Johnston81 wrote:
> 1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately need to
> learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text, including
> graphics and formulas(!), from a template?

Assuming you are reasonably fast at learning new things (and I assume you are 
as you are in graduate school): ten minutes.

> 2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after having
> learned the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to teach LyX to
> oneself and how easy is it to solve problems when encountered?

Most problems are quickly and easily solved. Some -- such as complying exactly 
with very specific formatting directions -- can be extraordinarily difficult.

> 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
> spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?

In spite of such a serious handicap I believe you will save a lot of time by 
using LyX, as long as you forget all you know about Word.

I recently sent to printing a 164 page book with figures (mainly photographs) 
on nearly every page. I do not think it would be possible to generate a 
satisfactory final PDF using Word, but it was relatively easy with LyX.

Today I finished a 33-page report with 30 figures. My total time for 
completing the report was about eight hours, of which 75% was spent extracting 
figures from PowerPoint presentations made by my collaborators and editing 
them to look decent.

-- 
Les Denham
Interactive Interpretation & Training, Inc.

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[Spyros Stathopoulos]

Well, there is no doubt that math typesetting and float tracking is 
considerably more robust in TeX, no need to argue about that. The main 
problem I am constantly encountering when I try to convert people in 
TeX is the fact that people get easily discouraged by the steep 
learning curve. And it *is* steep especially if you are coming from a 
text processing background.

My first experience with LyX was when I was trying to switch to TeX in 
general and it was disastrous. I got so frustrated I gave up. Nowadays, 
after having used (La)TeX for some years I found my second experience 
with LyX magical. Everything made sense and worked perfectly. The fact 
that LyX hides a lot of the horrid TeX markup is both good and bad. 
It's good because, well, it is more pleasing and eases the transition 
from word processing, but on the other hand when you start using a 
bazillion of packages and things break (and *will* break) it is quite 
difficult to dissect the errors, especially with the cryptic error 
messages that TeX produces.

LyX is a really nice and mature piece of software and supports a great 
variety of widely used packages. No doubt the people behind it have 
worked hard to deliver such a nice product. But one should not expect 
that it magically transforms text into beautiful documents. In my 
opinion it is *complementary* to TeX and not a replacement. It will 
definitely get you started to produce documents easily, but if you want 
to go a step further then it will not write TeX for you; you will need 
to get your hands dirty. I've written my MSc thesis easily with LyX and 
it came out quite nice but my preamble was 300 lines long, so you get 
my point. Fortunately there is a huge amount of resources to help you 
with your endeavor. :)

Spyros

On Mon 17 Oct 2011 11:09:27 PM EEST, Les Denham wrote:
> On Monday 17 October 2011 11:49:53 Johnston81 wrote:
>> 1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately need to
>> learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text, including
>> graphics and formulas(!), from a template?
>
> Assuming you are reasonably fast at learning new things (and I assume you are 
> as you are in graduate school): ten minutes.
>
>> 2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after having
>> learned the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to teach LyX to
>> oneself and how easy is it to solve problems when encountered?
>
> Most problems are quickly and easily solved. Some -- such as complying 
> exactly 
> with very specific formatting directions -- can be extraordinarily difficult.
>
>> 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
>> spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?
>
> In spite of such a serious handicap I believe you will save a lot of time by 
> using LyX, as long as you forget all you know about Word.
>
> I recently sent to printing a 164 page book with figures (mainly photographs) 
> on nearly every page. I do not think it would be possible to generate a 
> satisfactory final PDF using Word, but it was relatively easy with LyX.
>
> Today I finished a 33-page report with 30 figures. My total time for 
> completing the report was about eight hours, of which 75% was spent 
> extracting 
> figures from PowerPoint presentations made by my collaborators and editing 
> them to look decent.
>

Beginners introductory tutorials?

[Keith Roberts]

Hi. Thanks for LyX which I think is an awesome piece of 
software!


Are there any introductory screencast tutorials that will 
show a complete beginner how to use LyX to do some basic 
eiting tasks, and then how to generate the appropriate DVI 
and PDF output for the edited document please?


Something that will also show how LyX can generate the 
contents page, and update that as the user edits the .lyx 
source file would be handy.


I think the tutorial on the website is far too technical and 
maths related, for a LyX newbie that just wants to create a 
nice PDF text document.


Kind Regards,

Keith Roberts

---
Websites:
http://www.karsites.net
http://www.php-debuggers.net
http://www.raised-from-the-dead.org.uk

All email addresses are challenge-response protected with
TMDA [http://tmda.net]
---

Re: Beginners introductory tutorials?

[Jens Nöckel]

Here is one that I point people to - there may be newer ones I'm not aware of, 
but this should give you the flavor:

"Introduction to Latex and Lyx"
http://youtu.be/m4cEAVmLegg

Jens

On Oct 17, 2011, at 2:13 PM, Keith Roberts wrote:

> Hi. Thanks for LyX which I think is an awesome piece of software!
> 
> Are there any introductory screencast tutorials that will show a complete 
> beginner how to use LyX to do some basic eiting tasks, and then how to 
> generate the appropriate DVI and PDF output for the edited document please?
> 
> Something that will also show how LyX can generate the contents page, and 
> update that as the user edits the .lyx source file would be handy.
> 
> I think the tutorial on the website is far too technical and maths related, 
> for a LyX newbie that just wants to create a nice PDF text document.
> 
> Kind Regards,
> 
> Keith Roberts
> 
> ---
> Websites:
> http://www.karsites.net
> http://www.php-debuggers.net
> http://www.raised-from-the-dead.org.uk
> 
> All email addresses are challenge-response protected with
> TMDA [http://tmda.net]
> ---

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[David L. Johnson]

On 10/17/2011 12:49 PM, Johnston81 wrote:

1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately need to
learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text, including graphics
and formulas(!), from a template?


Should be quick.  I presume you have some basic programming skills.  Not 
that you need them with LyX, but it would show the ability to easily 
learn the few special commands you might need.

2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after having learned
the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to teach LyX to oneself and
how easy is it to solve problems when encountered?
Should be easy indeed.  There may be special gotcha's with Windows 
(another questioner had considerable trouble due to the use of absolute 
path names-- that may be the default under Windows, but I would advise 
against it), but it always made more sense to me than word or its clones.

3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately - save or
spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?'
The problem is that many things will never be easy in Word.  Dealing 
with equations is trivial in LyX, and a headache in Word.  Some 
knowledge of TeX makes it even better.



--

David L. Johnson

"What am I on?  I'm on my bike, six hours a day, busting my ass.
What are you on?"
--Lance Armstrong

getting curly snake like arrow with xymatrix using lyx

[Alberto Alcalá Alvarez]

when writing the code \ar @{{˜}>} I keep getting the message: "dir not 
defined", so I went to the manual and saw some examples for defining tips of 
arrows, and wasnt able to get it right for the shaft  ~  , I already tried 
other things like \ar @{{}˜>} , \ar @{{}~>} and the like, and at some point 
while trying to define the ~shaft in the preamble, I got the message: 
conversion failed  thanks!

Re: Engineering student considering LyX for Thesis

[Steve Litt]

On Monday, October 17, 2011 12:49:53 PM Johnston81 wrote:
> To the ones that can and will help,
> 
> I apologize if this has already been covered in another topic; I
> have searched but been unable to find any such. If, however, you
> know of such topics, if you could please point me in the right
> direction?
> 
> My current situation is this: I am working on my Master Thesis and
> currently doing my research and such. As it is now, I am uncertain
> how large my final project will be - I imagine that the final
> document will probably exceed 100 pages, but where I am uncertain
> of size I am certain that the document will contain considerable
> amounts of graphs and tables - rather more than I am comfortable
> working with in Word 2010.
> 
> My questions are fairly simple to ask, I am not certain that
> everybody will agree on the answers but rough estimates are all I
> am looking for anyway. So here goes:
> 
> 1. Considering LyX over Word, how much time would I approximately
> need to learn LyX to the extent that I can actually produce text,
> including graphics and formulas(!), from a template?

This is actually two different questions with two different answers. If 
you mean using LyX with a pre-created document class such as Book, 
Article or Report, and you (and your professor) are willing to use 
only the document class's existing styles with those styles' existing 
appearance, the answer is a couple hours.

If you need to create styles or change the appearance of styles, 
that's a completely different question, and my best answer is that I've 
been using LyX for ten years and I'm still learning more about 
creating and modifying styles.

If you want an easy life in LyX, I'd recommend NOT letting your 
document class format the Frontmatter, but instead inserting LaTeX 
(called ERT in LyX Land) to format the frontmatter exactly how your 
professor wants it. In my opinion however, the mainmatter should be 
100% styles based, with no ERT inserted.

> 2. What can I reasonably expect my learning curve to be after
> having learned the bare basics; what I mean is, is it simple to
> teach LyX to oneself and how easy is it to solve problems when
> encountered?

Same thing -- depends hugely on whether you're creating and 
reformatting styles. My opinion -- if your professor is satisfied with 
the default look of your document class, you can start your thesis 
within 2 hours and learn along the way, being productive constantly.

On the other hand, as a newbie, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it 
takes you an entire day to create one style. Others will argue with me 
on this, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. As time goes on 
styles-creation and modification become easier and easier. I've written 
a lot on the subject, starting at this link site:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/lyx/index.htm

By the way, in LyX speak, an MS Word "Paragraph Style" is called a LyX 
"Environment", and an MS Word "Character Style" is called a LyX 
"Character Style".

> 3. And finally, being a skilled user of Word would I - ultimately -
> save or spend time if I did try my luck on LyX?

The best response I can give to this is that my first two books, in 
1990 and 1999, were written in WordPerfect 5.1 and Word respectively. 
I wrote my first LyX book in 2001, and every book I've written since 
then was written in LyX. Here's my book list:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/index.htm

Your question was about time. Obviously at first you'd lose time 
switching to LyX, unless of course every single style from the 
document class is acceptable as-is. As you become more skilled at LyX, 
I'd say you'd save time with LyX. LyX crashes less. LyX is very 
stable. With LyX, you get a lot fewer defective documents that you 
need to troubleshoot. LyX won't let you put in two consecutive spaces 
or two consecutive carriage returns unless you go out of your way to 
tell LyX that's what you really want to do, and this rejection of 
excess spacing has saved me lots of time over the years. LyX doesn't 
do that "the spreadsheet was embedded before, but now it's not" deal. 
LyX does nothing but linking, and I like it that way.

I think one of the first questions you should put to this list is, 
which document class would be the best for what you're doing?

HTH

SteveT

Steve Litt
Author: The Key to Everyday Excellence
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/key_excellence.htm
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/stevelitt