[PLUG] Setting OO.o Writer Default

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Wed Sep 2 02:59:55 UTC 2009


On Tue, 1 Sep 2009, John Jason Jordan wrote:

> I think of Lyx as a word processor on steroids - a word processor because
> it is continuous text. In contrast Scribus is a design app where each page
> is a discrete object and text is always in a frame, so it does not
> automatically flow from page to page (unless you tell it to). Many
> projects could be done in either one with equal facility; but the
> fundamental concepts behind the way they work are completely different. In
> my experience you like one or you like the other; few like them both.

   I strongly disagree with your initial statement. LyX is a GUI front end to
LaTeX which is a markup/macro language for the TeX typesetting engine. The
focus is on text-centric documents, but tables and graphics are easily
incorporated. The author does not need to futz with document or page layout;
tracking styles for headings; hyphenation; cross-references; tables of
contents, figures, and tables; or indices. Want to change from a report
style to an article style? One change in the document setup dialog box and
it's a completely different appearance. The writer focuses on content.

   Scribus is a great page layout application which is more graphic-oriented
than text-oriented. Sure, you can write a book with it but that's not its
forte. Brochures, magazines, newspapers, and the like which have layouts
designed to grab attention are best created with scribus rather than a word
processor or LaTeX.

   They are different tools for different purposes. There is a variety of
vehicle types (sports cars, sedans, trucks of various sizes and purposes)
each for a specific need. Document creation is equivalent. Given all that, I
still don't like to use OO.o Writer, and anything with mathematics in it
pales by comparison with the output from TeX.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517      Fax: 503-667-8863



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