Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!bu.edu!bu-cs!dartvax!griggs!hugo
From: hugo@griggs.dartmouth.edu (Peter Su)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Thesis formatting program for word processors??
Message-ID: <18596@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU>
Date: 18 Jan 90 15:21:37 GMT
References: <481@iceman.jcu.oz> <4173@csv.viccol.edu.au> <2355@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP>
Sender: news@dartvax.Dartmouth.EDU
Reply-To: hugo@griggs (Peter Su)
Organization: Dartmouth College
Lines: 30

In article <2355@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> sharp@ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca.UUCP (Maurice Sharp) writes:
>With LaTeX you can get the overall appearance right, but the fine
>points are an absolute bi*ch to get the way they should be.  And if
>you are thinking of diagrams, dream on.  You can do it, but you need a
>LaTeX guru/hack to get them right.
>

>In Word you have to set it up yourself.  On the other hand, we  have
>had people do it quite succesfully.  Also, diagrams, tables, figures,
>etc. are very easy to put in.  
>

Don't forget to tell them that in Word you have to format the
bibliography yourself, keep cross references straight yourself, number
sections, figures,tables, diagrmas, formulae, and chapters yourself,
place figures on pages yourself and move them around if you have to
add some text here or there.  IF your thesis is in multiple files you
have to keep those straight by yourself.  This is all ignoring the
fact that learning Word is almost as tough as LaTeX, and the fact that
Word styles, glossaries, and mechanisms for formatting tables and
equations are really not intuitive or consistent.

The point is that there is more to LaTeX than just the automatic
styles. It also does a lot of the needly bookeeping, does much more
than Word ever dreamed of doing.

I guess I must just be an elitist TeX wizard, sigh.

Pete
hugo@sunapee.dartmouth.edu