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Re: Making graphic available for Latex ( on Mac)


From: Michael Martin
Subject: Re: Making graphic available for Latex ( on Mac)
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 13:52:55 -0600


On Feb 3, 2005, at 1:06 PM, Henry F. Mollet wrote:

My question: If I had LaTex installed on my iMac with OS 10.2.8 would it take the place of MSWord X for producing my final document for submission to scientific journal. Or on my next Mac when Tiger comes out, LaTeX can take
the place of MSWord and I won't need it at all?

I am a fellow Mac user, and I would say that Latex is certainly **a possible solution**. Whether it is **the solution** for you will depend upon you.

I have battled with the quirks of Office far to often in the past and have long since given up on it. I use Latex for all my word processing and presentations. This is true whether I am at work or at home. I do not use Office at all to generate documents these days. I converted to Latex about the time OSX first came out (2000?). I use Latex to go straight to pdf and send the pdf's out instead of Office files, which invariably seem to get mangled somehow. (Such as Office Mac can rotate pdfs, but Office Windows could not (at least in the past this was the case). I could list lots more).

As to figures, I generate them as .pdf files and include them in presentations and papers as desired. For a given topic I create a figures folder and dump all the figures there. Thus I can include whatever I need and update any figure and all the related documents as needed.

Now, on the downside Latex is not a wsywig type application. One uses macros and a command language to describe the contents of the document. There is certainly a learning curve involved. Packages/front ends like TexShop make it easier, but there is still a learning curve. On the upside, one can usually find good explanations via google of the trickier things Latex can do.

One added benefit of Latex is, that since it is a text only input typesetting language, one can use scripts (perl, shell, Applescript etc) to harvest simulation results and automatically generate tables/charts/etc with Latex commands that can be included into the final report. Thus one is spared the manual task of setting these things up. (ie import/copy/paste etc)


If you do go the Latex route, I recommend:

        TexShop http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/texshop.html

And for the Latex itself, use Gerben Wierda's excellet i-Installer at:

        http://www.rna.nl/tex.html
        

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Michael W. Martin                   Phone: (281) 333-2177
Draper Laboratory                   FAX:   (281) 333-5276
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