Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pons.cis.ohio-state.edu!tj From: tj@pons.cis.ohio-state.edu (Todd R Johnson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: Figures in Word 4.0 Message-ID: <87237@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 12 Jan 91 22:54:41 GMT References: <1991Jan8.173714.581@athena.mit.edu> <6009@stpstn.UUCP> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: Todd R Johnson Distribution: comp.sys.mac.apps Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 35 >> The Mac may be >>wonderful for magazines and newsletters and the like, but it I find it >>somewhat short of 'insanely wonderful' for writing technical figures with >>simple figures and footnotes. Grmmpf... I think this is true of all WYSIWYG word processors on every machine. None of the WYSIWYG WP that I know of, including FrameMaker, can come close to LaTeX and a suitable document style. Word 4.0 doesn't have cross references and can't automatically number lists and headings. The dissertation format that I have to use requires that the last word on the page not be hyphenated. I have to fix this by hand before I print the final document. FrameMaker doesn't have an outliner and has no support for bibliographies. Nisus relies too heavily on macros (which are horribly slow) instead of providing automatic formatting solutions (it also doesn't have a built-in outliner and can't easily do bibliographies.) Fullwrite is just plain brain-damaged in its implementation of many of its features. Perhaps in ten years WYSIWYG will be where TeX and LaTeX are today. For now, you need to decide whether you are willing to put up with the inadequacies of WYSIWYG WP's in return for convenience, or to use TeX and LaTeX for their advanced features and cope with the amazingly complex code required for things that can be done without effort in a good WYSIWYG WP. (For example, to convert a LaTeX document to double space, you have to develop or find a whole new document style.) ---Todd -- Todd R. Johnson tj@cis.ohio-state.edu Laboratory for AI Research The Ohio State University