TeX or advanced word processor?

[dullard]

Ten years ago there was a major reason to use TeX - word processors were terrible when it came to equations. So I turned in all my math papers written with TeX. Now there are much more advanced word processors that let you graphically enter any equation in any style. I see little or no reason to go back to arcane text based TeX. Now I'm in a math group and they all want to use TeX. Is there any improvement in TeX that I don't know about? Or are they stuck in the middle ages?

 

[JJChicken]

I suggest you use the math editor in Microsoft Office 2007/2010. It's great.

Personally, I've had enough trying to use TeX. I was trying to get it to work on my website (through mediawiki) but with no avail. Even went as far as using linux.

The future (hopefully) will be handwriting recognition for us math lovers!

 

[dullard]

That came back from the dead. I was just about to post that the OP was about a decade off when he mentioned that TeX was good 10 years ago. Then I realized it was me and the post was almost a decade old.

 

[Born2bwire]

Despite the necro I still do not consider using anything but laTex for technical writing. It's so much better than Microsoft Office w/ MathType.

 

[zokudu]

Holy Necro Batman!

 

[CycloWizard]

I use TeX for anything but a quick letter. If you use TeXnicCenter or some similar TeX GUI, it's not much different than using Word. You can also use LyX, which is a WYSIWYG TeX editor, but I don't have much experience with it to say how good it is. The main reason I use TeX is the ease with which I can string together papers and proposals with figures, citations, references, and complex documents. I can also output to PDF, RTF, HTML, or whatever format I want, usually with a lot smaller file sizes than Word.

 

[LordMorpheus]

I use TeX exclusively for anything with math in it (which is most of my stuff).

I can't believe it took me so long to switch. Also, Bibtex is fantastic.

Here's a tip: For those of you that are required to do presentations in powerpoint, look into Iguanatex, it lets you insert TeX into powerpoint as a vector graphics object (meaning they scale well).

Honestly it makes no sense to me that equation editor from word (which is OK these days, but still can't touch TeX) completely shits all over itself when you try to use it in powerpoint.

 

[KayGee]

For dissertations and journal/conference papers, TeX is just fantastic. For everything else, nothing beats the convenience of Word (IMO).

 

[Bill Brasky]

That came back from the dead. I was just about to post that the OP was about a decade off when he mentioned that TeX was good 10 years ago. Then I realized it was me and the post was almost a decade old.

The coincidence is overwhelming.

 

[dullard]

Honestly it makes no sense to me that equation editor from word (which is OK these days, but still can't touch TeX) completely shits all over itself when you try to use it in powerpoint.

I've never had any problem with putting Equation Editor equations into Power Point. Its only real drawback is when scaling it bigger/smaller, you should really only increase the vertical and horizontal sizes at the same percent. Otherwise the spaces it creates does look a little silly. But that is a fairly minor problem.

 

[Born2bwire]

I use TeX for anything but a quick letter. If you use TeXnicCenter or some similar TeX GUI, it's not much different than using Word. You can also use LyX, which is a WYSIWYG TeX editor, but I don't have much experience with it to say how good it is. The main reason I use TeX is the ease with which I can string together papers and proposals with figures, citations, references, and complex documents. I can also output to PDF, RTF, HTML, or whatever format I want, usually with a lot smaller file sizes than Word.

Yeah, I've been using TexnicCenter for years now. It's really gotten a lot better and I can't wait for the new version to get out of alpha.

 

[JJChicken]

Have you guys tried using the keyboard shortcuts in Office 2007? It makes typing math a real breeze. Honestly, its faster than Tex when you get used to using the shortcuts.

On another note, can you guys recommend me a good tex editor for Windows? Something that "Just Works". I don't want to be messing around with converting files from .tex to .png, etc etc etc.

 

[Ika]

That came back from the dead. I was just about to post that the OP was about a decade off when he mentioned that TeX was good 10 years ago. Then I realized it was me and the post was almost a decade old.

haha this is gold.

 

[JJChicken]

Also, do I really need to download 1 gig tex installation to get it to work on Windows?

 

[LordMorpheus]

Have you guys tried using the keyboard shortcuts in Office 2007? It makes typing math a real breeze. Honestly, its faster than Tex when you get used to using the shortcuts.

On another note, can you guys recommend me a good tex editor for Windows? Something that "Just Works". I don't want to be messing around with converting files from .tex to .png, etc etc etc.

For me, math is just part of why I use TeX. The other thing is that if I'm writing a paper for a specific journal or conference, I just need to locate a class file and a bibliography format file for whatever my target is and I'm done worrying about formatting. It's wonderful.

 

[Born2bwire]

Also, do I really need to download 1 gig tex installation to get it to work on Windows?

No. You can choose to do a minimum of packages and then just download the packages as you need them. The 1 gig installations are full of stuff you probably don't need. My installation of Miktex is around 300 megs and that also includes the package repository and stuff.

 

[halik]

I suggest you use the math editor in Microsoft Office 2007/2010. It's great.

Personally, I've had enough trying to use TeX. I was trying to get it to work on my website (through mediawiki) but with no avail. Even went as far as using linux.

The future (hopefully) will be handwriting recognition for us math lovers!

There's an equation thing in word 2003 also. Takes a while, but makes nice equations:

edit: yay mega-necro thread.

 

[esun]

Have you guys tried using the keyboard shortcuts in Office 2007? It makes typing math a real breeze. Honestly, its faster than Tex when you get used to using the shortcuts.

On another note, can you guys recommend me a good tex editor for Windows? Something that "Just Works". I don't want to be messing around with converting files from .tex to .png, etc etc etc.

In my experience TeX is much, much faster for typesetting math than any of the incarnations of MS Word's equation editor. There are certain things I have to use my mouse for in MS Word, but in LaTeX obviously that is never necessary. That kills my typesetting speed.

TeX also tends to make things look much better than Word. For both of those reasons (speed and quality) I typeset everything I can in TeX. Plus, once you get past the learning curve, it's actually easier to use than Word.

 

[alfa147x]

inb4thelocks

 

[MovingTarget]

TeX > * for mathematics-intensive documents. MSWORD equation editor is alright if you only need to do one or two short formulas, but it is a pain to use.