[philm]

I mentioned this in the 'Office delayed' thread, but it's a bit lost in there, so....

I am a hardcore MS Word user and all the time I use a number if its bells and whistles - auto-numbering for legends and sections, cross-referencing, TOC generation that sort of thing. Are there any real alternatives which offer this sort of functionality on the Mac? I know of the Open Source versions of course, but they are cheap and ugly(ish) versions of the real thing and cost saving is not a motive here.

I am generally happy with Word but it does odd things like handling imported vector images badly, but I have always assumed I just have to live with that on the basis of the wide ranging functionality the program offers. Are there any real alternatives?

[besson3c]

- OpenOffice
- AbiWord
- Nisus Writer
- Pages

[philm]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

- OpenOffice
- AbiWord
- Nisus Writer
- Pages

Three of these don't fit the bill, but I am interested in Nisus Writer now, having read their web site. Does anyone use Nisus Writer Pro?

Thanks.

Edit: the other thing I would like is a method of reviewing like Word's 'Track Changes'. The more I think of this, maybe Word is still head and shoulders above the others.

[mindwaves]

Apple goes to the office: a review of iWork '08: Page 1

[chriswithpepper]

Have an Intel Mac, Office 2007, and a copy of XP laying around? Install Parallels.

Office 2007 runs flawlessly for me. All the Windows apps do, especially in coherence mode.

[peeb]

It's unclear to me why you want to switch from Word - what do you need that it doesn't do? What kind of writing do you do?

[cgc]

Originally Posted by philm 

Three of these don't fit the bill, but I am interested in Nisus Writer now, having read their web site. Does anyone use Nisus Writer Pro?

...

I use NWP and love it.

[Macanoid]

Did you know there's a programs that tracks changes in any writing-application? It's called timedrawer! It's a system preference extension that backups files automatically. This is useful when you...

- Accidentally overwrote a file by selecting "Save" instead of "Save As"
- Often regret that the older version of the document was better than the current one but it has already been overwritten.
- Wants to retrieve files between periodical backups.

TimeDrawer can graphically show you how your writings has changed. See how you can easily find the differences between the writing you have created yesterday and updated today. It can "compare" any type of document that is supported by Spotlight including MicrosoftWord, iWork, etc. (Not Only Text Files)

[philm]

Originally Posted by peeb 

It's unclear to me why you want to switch from Word - what do you need that it doesn't do? What kind of writing do you do?

That's a fair question. I use Word 2004 which in my experience fails the fairly simple task of being able to appropriately handle charts from Excel. I am a university researcher and we generate large volumes of clinical data. These data are handled and crunched in Excel which I use to generate charts. Getting charts from Excel to Word (2004) in a vector format fails. Copy and paste or printing to and then importing PDFs also fails. The charts are pixellated. I think I have been able to do this by printing to a PDF then exporting the PDF as an EPS from Acrobat and inserting that into Word, but that is too many steps. Basically, Word cannot handle a PDF file and this is something which is a problem in my work.

Otherwise Word has its quirks but as I have used it daily since v.5.1 (including the dark days of 6.0 - yikes) I have grown to understand it and I know where it is quirky.

[peeb]

Depending on what kind of charts you're producing, you should check out Numbers and Pages for their graph capability. Numbers can import from excel and then produce wonderful charts that will then go into Pages very well.

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by philm 

That's a fair question. I use Word 2004 which in my experience fails the fairly simple task of being able to appropriately handle charts from Excel. I am a university researcher and we generate large volumes of clinical data. These data are handled and crunched in Excel which I use to generate charts. Getting charts from Excel to Word (2004) in a vector format fails. Copy and paste or printing to and then importing PDFs also fails. The charts are pixellated. I think I have been able to do this by printing to a PDF then exporting the PDF as an EPS from Acrobat and inserting that into Word, but that is too many steps. Basically, Word cannot handle a PDF file and this is something which is a problem in my work.

Otherwise Word has its quirks but as I have used it daily since v.5.1 (including the dark days of 6.0 - yikes) I have grown to understand it and I know where it is quirky.

Damn, that sounds like a serious PITA. I would have switched to the Windows versions long ago if I had to do that kind of work and Mac Office wasn't cutting it.

[nonhuman]

I haven't had a chance to play with iWork '08 yet (my Apple Consultants Network membership expired and I don't feel like spending the money to renew it, so no super cheap Apple software for me for a while), but I've been using iWork '06 for a while now and really am a fan of Pages.

Of course I'm not really much of a word-processor user. I pretty much use Pages for creating Project Proposals, Quotes, and Invoices for my home business, and it's fantastic at that sort of thing. When I was in school and needed to write papers I generally just wrote them in Emacs and marked them up with LaTeX (there was something very satisfying to the computer major in me about compiling my papers before handing them in).

[philm]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

I pretty much use Pages for creating Project Proposals, Quotes, and Invoices for my home business, and it's fantastic at that sort of thing. When I was in school and needed to write papers I generally just wrote them in Emacs and marked them up with LaTeX (there was something very satisfying to the computer major in me about compiling my papers before handing them in).

I think the consensus is that Pages 06 is a great layout type program. By the looks of Mindwaves's post (above) Pages 08 is a bit more of a serious word processor. Thanks for everyone's input on this BTW.

[peeb]

Pages 08 contains all the layout stuff as 06 - 08 contains the ability to choose layout or wp mode.

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by philm 

I think the consensus is that Pages 06 is a great layout type program. By the looks of Mindwaves's post (above) Pages 08 is a bit more of a serious word processor. Thanks for everyone's input on this BTW.

Yeah, this thread has made iWork '08 even more tempting than it was before... If/When I renew my ACN membership I'll definitely be picking up a NFR copy of it.

[JKT]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Damn, that sounds like a serious PITA. I would have switched to the Windows versions long ago if I had to do that kind of work and Mac Office wasn't cutting it.

What makes you think that Word for Windows is any better than the Mac version at handling anything other than a limited range of bitmap image formats? (It isn't).

[Cold Warrior]

Originally Posted by JKT 

What makes you think that Word for Windows is any better than the Mac version at handling anything other than a limited range of bitmap image formats? (It isn't).

Doesn't Word 2003 handle Excel 2003 graphs much better than the poster described? It does, in my experience. Not talking about pdf or other images. Don't be so hostile.

[JKT]

The OP specifically says they want to import Excel charts into Word in a vector format. Word 2003 is as bad at supporting vector graphics as any other version of Word.

Edit: Excuse my hostility, but I use Word day-in, day-out for many hours at a time and its crap interface, poorly implemented track change and commenting features and general bugginess don't induce warm and fuzzy feelings in me.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by nonhuman 

Yeah, this thread has made iWork '08 even more tempting than it was before... If/When I renew my ACN membership I'll definitely be picking up a NFR copy of it.

Have you played with the 30 day trial?

[zaghahzag]

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Doesn't Word 2003 handle Excel 2003 graphs much better than the poster described? It does, in my experience. Not talking about pdf or other images. Don't be so hostile.

If you have your excel charts being auto-updated then you get word&excel crashes regularly on intel macs.

The killer app for me wrt to word right now is endnote. I've read about other bibliographic/word processing solutions on the mac, and there is a huge hole right now because endnote and word work together so insanely slowly you want to kill yourself.

I'm seriously looking into just using LaTex, but it looks like it's got a good learning curve. I used pages for a paper and did the bibliography manually in endnote, but my prof wasn't very picky about formatting.

SERIOUSLY DEVELOPERS & APPLE: THERE IS SERIOUS CASH TO BE MADE SOLVING THIS PROBLEM.

I've bought 3 copies of endnote in the last 3 years for a ridiculous amount of money each time. It's overall pretty shitty software. Importing refs from other formats sucks, the interface is weak, the integration with word barely functions at a level that makes it useable.

does NWP work with any bibliography software?

[.Neo]

I've dropped Microsoft Office 2004 for iWork '05 (back then) and never looked back. Pages '08 fits all of my needs.

When printing documents at college I simply export my files to PDF using the build-in export menu.

I wonder though how it will compare to Word 2008.

[Shades of Gray]

Originally Posted by philm 

That's a fair question. I use Word 2004 which in my experience fails the fairly simple task of being able to appropriately handle charts from Excel. I am a university researcher and we generate large volumes of clinical data. These data are handled and crunched in Excel which I use to generate charts. Getting charts from Excel to Word (2004) in a vector format fails. Copy and paste or printing to and then importing PDFs also fails. The charts are pixellated. I think I have been able to do this by printing to a PDF then exporting the PDF as an EPS from Acrobat and inserting that into Word, but that is too many steps. Basically, Word cannot handle a PDF file and this is something which is a problem in my work.

Otherwise Word has its quirks but as I have used it daily since v.5.1 (including the dark days of 6.0 - yikes) I have grown to understand it and I know where it is quirky.

I use VBA code in XL2004 that puts a linked picture from Excel of a chart (another for a range of cells). Works, slick, and I set up one button for each on the toolbar. So I can get any chart or range from Excel into Powerpoint with one click of a button. After saving and closing, open the XL file first, make your changes, then open Powerpoint and update links.

Most of the time I use the range, and use the cells around the chart to produce the formatting. If you want it, I can post this code. (Obviously there would need to be some modifications to use Word)

[philm]

Originally Posted by Shades of Gray 

I use VBA code in XL2004 that puts a linked picture from Excel of a chart (another for a range of cells). Works, slick, and I set up one button for each on the toolbar. So I can get any chart or range from Excel into Powerpoint with one click of a button. After saving and closing, open the XL file first, make your changes, then open Powerpoint and update links.

Most of the time I use the range, and use the cells around the chart to produce the formatting. If you want it, I can post this code. (Obviously there would need to be some modifications to use Word)

This sounds very interesting. I'd like to see the code if possible. One potential problem is that because my Excel workbooks are typically 10MB-20MB in size, if I copy and paste charts 'normally' (which links the Word document with the Excel workbook) then the whole 10-20MB gets pated into the Word file. This is why I 'Paste Special' and insert the picture only. When you link in the way you describe are you getting all of the spreadsheet saved with the Powerpoint file. Also, does the chart go all bitmapped in Powerpoint rather than retaining its vector characteristics?

Reading through the above posts shows there is quite a bit of angst with the whole Word/Excel thing. This thread has been quite cathartic.

[Shades of Gray]

No, it does not put the whole workbook, only a linked file, which reduces the file size tremendously. These two pieces do not have the links, but you can adjust as needed. Be sure in VBE to add the Powerpoint Library in by clicking on it in Tools > References.

Code:
Sub RangeToPresentation()
' Set a VBE reference to Microsoft PowerPoint Object Library,
' Adapted from Jon Peltier on Windows
Dim PPApp As PowerPoint.Application

Dim PPPres As PowerPoint.Presentation
Dim PPSlide As PowerPoint.Slide

' Make sure a range is selected
If Not TypeName(Selection) = "Range" Then
    MsgBox "Please select a worksheet range and try again.", vbExclamation, _
        "No Range Selected"
Else
    ' Reference existing instance of PowerPoint
    
    Set PPApp = GetObject(, "Powerpoint.Application")
    ' Reference active presentation
    Set PPPres = PPApp.ActivePresentation
    PPApp.ActiveWindow.ViewType = ppViewSlide
    ' Reference active slide
    Set PPSlide = PPPres.Slides(PPApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange.SlideIndex)
    
    ' Copy the range as a piicture
    Selection.CopyPicture Appearance:=xlScreen, _
        Format:=xlPicture

    ' Paste the range
    PPSlide.Shapes.Paste.Select
    
    ' Align the pasted range
    PPApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Align msoAlignCenters, True
    PPApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Align msoAlignMiddles, True

    ' Clean up
    Set PPSlide = Nothing
    Set PPPres = Nothing
    Set PPApp = Nothing
End If

End Sub

Sub ChartToPresentation()
' Set a VBE reference to Microsoft PowerPoint Object Library,
' Adapted from Jon Peltier on Windows

Dim PPApp As PowerPoint.Application
Dim PPPres As PowerPoint.Presentation
Dim PPSlide As PowerPoint.Slide

' Make sure a chart is selected
If ActiveChart Is Nothing Then
    MsgBox "Please select a chart and try again.", vbExclamation, _
        "No Chart Selected"
Else
    ' Reference existing instance of PowerPoint
    Set PPApp = GetObject(, "Powerpoint.Application")
    ' Reference active presentation
    Set PPPres = PPApp.ActivePresentation
    PPApp.ActiveWindow.ViewType = ppViewSlide
    ' Reference active slide
    Set PPSlide = PPPres.Slides _
        (PPApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.SlideRange.SlideIndex)
    
    ' Copy chart as a picture
    ActiveChart.CopyPicture Appearance:=xlScreen, Size:=xlScreen, _
        Format:=xlPicture

    ' Paste chart
    PPSlide.Shapes.Paste.Select
    
    ' Align pasted chart
    PPApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Align msoAlignCenters, True
    PPApp.ActiveWindow.Selection.ShapeRange.Align msoAlignMiddles, True

    ' Clean up
    Set PPSlide = Nothing
    Set PPPres = Nothing
    Set PPApp = Nothing
End If

End Sub

[Shades of Gray]

Also, check out the following sites:

Jim Gordon, MS MVP for Mac

McGimpsey MS MVP for Mac

Word FAQ, which also has Mac section.

The other problem with a VBA solution is that with 2008, there will not be VBA on the Mac side. So, the options are AppleScript, which is not cross-platform, or working with Python. I have not tried that option, but would seriously look at it if I had to work with XL and Word/PPT on the Mac (for a living; I use Office 2003 at my day job); non-work related, I use Mac for academic papers, concentrating on Mellel and DTP with Papyrus/RagTime.

[philm]

Originally Posted by Shades of Gray 

Also, check out the following sites:

Jim Gordon, MS MVP for Mac

McGimpsey MS MVP for Mac

Word FAQ, which also has Mac section.

The other problem with a VBA solution is that with 2008, there will not be VBA on the Mac side. So, the options are AppleScript, which is not cross-platform, or working with Python. I have not tried that option, but would seriously look at it if I had to work with XL and Word/PPT on the Mac (for a living; I use Office 2003 at my day job); non-work related, I use Mac for academic papers, concentrating on Mellel and DTP with Papyrus/RagTime.

Thanks for these links and the above VBA. As far as I can tell, no program suits all my needs with the following major drawbacks:

Word - no easy import of vector images
Nisus Writer Pro - no 'track changes'
Pages 08 - no automatic caption numbering (!)

For me, the least worst option is probably still MS Word. Cheers.

[akulavolk]

" (my Apple Consultants Network membership expired and I don't feel like spending the money to renew it, so no super cheap Apple software for me for a while)"

Wow! At $79 for a single license ($99 for 5 seat "family pack") for all three apps, iWork is already crazy cheap. Especially when compared to Office's $399 MSRP ($349 via Amazon).

I've also been trying to switch from Office to SOMETHING else for the last year or so. My reasoning is basically the same as described in this thread...Word's layout and import/handling of graphics, especially vector-based or high-res graphics, is abysmal. I don't have a 100% replacement to recommend, but I'm finding it's easier to switch significant portions of my workload away from Office now...which was impossible before.

Another reason to switch from Office right now is stability and speed. Office on Mac runs slowly and crashes frequently for me on an Intel Mac (actually a few Macs that I use). Crazy that it's taken them this long to make Office Universal. Even Adobe's already gone Universal with over 13 high-end/complicated apps and I thought it took THEM a long time.

I've tried AbiWord, NeoOffice, and OpenOffice. As much as I like the IDEA of these, I still haven't found them to be real replacements for Office. They just feel clumsy and half-baked to me. No flames, please I'm an open source proponent, but it's easy to use Firefox, Miro, VLC, Transmission, Adium, or Cyberduck because they simply work great. The productivity apps above just don't have the same level of polish...hopefully that'll change in the future, just as Ubuntu has finally made Linux far more polished and user-friendly.

As others have noted, Pages handles graphics really well. It's especially nice to be able to embed full-quality Illustrator PDF files and retain gorgeous quality, scalability, transparency, etc. with super-small file sizes. Unfortunately...every once in a while, I have to switch back to Word because Pages will fall short of some feature I need that Word happens to have: TOCs, or something else...

I'd highly recommend Numbers for its chart generation and Pages integration. I'm not yet sold on its spreadsheet capabilities. I still use some Excel features that aren't available in Numbers. But I'll often crunch numbers in Excel, open the raw data in Numbers, and get a chart that's far better than anything Excel can create. I've been switching to Google's Docs spreadsheet and actually like it quite a bit: docs.google.com.

Charting: I used DeltaGraph in the 90s for charting. Excel still hasn't caught up with DG's capabilities from 15 years ago. I haven't used DeltaGraph since it was resurrected by Red Rock Software, but it's interesting to me that in charting, Excel can't compare with 15-year old software. Numbers' charting is both gorgeous and (I think) more flexible than Excel's...at least for the more common chart styles (pies, column/bars, etc.) that I frequently use.

FWIW Keynote is flat-out the best presentation package I've used. No complaints or obvious problems with it that I've seen. Unlike Pages and Numbers, once I tried Keynote, I had no reason to go back to Office. This app alone is enough to justify buying iWork in my opinion. The templates look better than MS's circa 80s template designs. It's fast, stable, and handles importing vector and high-quality graphics with no problem. Typography is better than PowerPoint, and Keynote works better at dealing with high-def displays and/or printouts.

Lastly, I've been integrating Adobe's apps into my workflow more. Yeah, they're expensive, but if you need Photoshop and Illustrator, anyway, you might end up using InDesign for layout, too...

My current tools:
- Text generation/Editing: Pages (for daily work), Word (for a few features or complicated junk that Pages won't handle).
- Number crunching: Google Docs (using this more and more) or Excel
- Charting: Numbers
- Page layout/Word Processing: Pages or InDesign
- Presentation: Keynote
- Other graphics: Illustrator (keep a vector-based workflow)

[Shades of Gray]

Two other possibilities for use:

Papyrus is a complete cross-platform layout package. I used it to layout a book 18 months ago (236 pages with ~100 photos); I produced PDFs for final use by the printing shop. Excellent program which includes a database capability. At $100 (US) it is a bargain.

Ragtime highend page layout and word processor that also includes spreadsheet and presentation and is cross-platform as well. I haven't spent as much time with it, but it is definitely better than Word. Different pricing for different audiences. I got the non-profit 6.0 for $125 (US).

[zaghahzag]

@akuvolk: Nice summary of lot of different options. I've found iwork to be really good for normal usage. It is, however, lacking any way to import bibliographical references that I know of.

I'm worried that the new office 2008 or whatever it's called will really suck. The fact that it's taken them so long to come out with it makes me think they don't have a big dev group, and lets face it, Office 2004 sells great on the mac since almost everyone ends up buying it anyway simply to be able to open and read word and excel docs.

z

[rubaiyat]

iText Express is to me just the ultimate in simplicity and productivity and being based on Text Edit is extremely compatible.

[phoenix78]

I have found the openoffice and similar to be horrible... performance is way too bad...

I think Pages is largely a disappointment!

It does not allow for captioning figures!!!!! this is the number 1 biggest missing feature ever. OMG how could Apple miss this??!! how disgusting that they should go to the effort to get a whole office suite setup and not include this.

I use Latex for my typesetting anyway so i couldnt care less for Word or Pages or any other word processor.

For the average user, Pages will be fine. nice UI. But the fonts browser doesnt show the actual style when you get the fonts popup.

Numbers is too slow. for large files.

Keynote owns ppt. totally. I used it just last week for a presentation with pretty amazing animations. Its worth buying iWork just for keynote.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by mindwaves 

Apple goes to the office: a review of iWork '08: Page 1

Except for the stoplight widgets, I love that GUI. Office should look like that.

[zaghahzag]

I think i'm going to learn LaTeX and be done with it

[nonhuman]

Originally Posted by zaghahzag 

I think i'm going to learn LaTeX and be done with it

Go for it. LaTeX can be fun, but definitely has a steep learning curve. A reference book would be a wise investment (I have Lamport's LaTeX guide, as well as the TeX Book).

[cagctg]

Vector graphics work just fine in Word, but you need to save the file as a .png file. Of course they are no longer really vectors, but they look and print great and they are very small.

[DKR]

I can recommend combining Pages with LaTeX. That is, you write your paper, assignment or whatever in Pages, and you use LaTeX for the equations, etc. (If you're into that)

LaTeXIt does a brilliant job of this: http://ktd.club.fr/programmation/latexit_en.php

If you're hell-bent on using pure LaTeX, TeXShop is a very, very nice GUI with syntax highlighting, convenient support for typesetting directly to PDF, etc. You can find it at: http://www.uoregon.edu/~koch/texshop/

LaTeX has some legitimate uses, and I use it myself for math papers as LaTeX is very, very capable of this.

A nice LaTeX primer can be found at: http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~dwilkins/LaTeXPrimer/

[OreoCookie]

If you are into science, use LaTeX. There is a learning curve, burt if you know some html, it'll be quite easy to learn. Plus, it produces the best text output from a typographic point of view, second to none really (yes, that includes layout apps such as Quark and InDesign).

[peeb]

Originally Posted by cagctg 

Vector graphics work just fine in Word, but you need to save the file as a .png file. Of course they are no longer really vectors, but they look and print great and they are very small.

To be fair - while this may be a solution, what you are suggesting is converting the vectors to a bitmap. This is a useful suggestion, but underlines the point that vector graphics suck in Word.

[akulavolk]

I agree with the comment above.

PNG is a great format, no question: lossless compression, transparency, etc... But it's a bitmap/raster format, not a vector-based format. This means larger file sizes, and graphics that can't be scaled up without artifacting. Files can't be printed/output at high resolutions unless you convert the vector images to raster at high resolution. This makes it unrealistic for, say, e-mail collaboration on a file with lots of embedded graphics. Files are just too large to e-mail.

Converting to PNG may help in some instances, but it still doesn't fix Word's problem with vectors. I also think Word's handling of bitmap/raster graphics is lousy compared to Pages and other programs, but that's another discussion :-)

[Horsepoo!!!]

Originally Posted by phoenix78 

But the fonts browser doesnt show the actual style when you get the fonts popup.

Untrue.

[pkdavis]

Mellel is an excellent writing program. It can use pdfs properly. It does autonumbering. It does NOT do changes yet, although that is probably going to be available shortly. Stability is high, performance is excellent, flexibility is excellent. There is a learning curve, however. It is very well integrated with Bookends, which is a first-rate, inexpensive, well-supported bibliographic program that reportedly imports and exports to EndNote.

[peeb]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!! 

Untrue.

Really? I can't get it to.

[phoenix78]

Originally Posted by Horsepoo!!! 

Untrue.

Can you enlighten us on how to do this then? I would like to know

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by OreoCookie 

Plus, it produces the best text output from a typographic point of view, second to none really (yes, that includes layout apps such as Quark and InDesign).

If that is the case, why isn't everyone migrating to it? It's not like Quark or InDesign's learning curve is all that flat. Not saying it's not true, I am just saying this is the first I have heard such a thing.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

If that is the case, why isn't everyone migrating to it? It's not like Quark or InDesign's learning curve is all that flat. Not saying it's not true, I am just saying this is the first I have heard such a thing.

TeX code needs to be compiled into a ps/dvi/pdf file and it's not suitable to move stuff around creatively. You can't just drag in an image and let the text flow around it via drag and drop. You can create that layout with (La)TeX, but it requires a lot of tinkering (you need to change the source code). In short, it's suitable for standard text with a rigid layout (say, a book or letters). In physics and mathematics at least, (La)TeX is the default app to generate your articles, papers and theses. This is partly due to the fact that LaTeX generates the best output of mathematical formulas. Some banks use it for mails, too.

To give you an idea: the underlying TeX-engine is quite likely the most bug-free computer code out there, I've heard it's used to test compilers, for instance. Various small things (hyphenation for instance) have been subject of dissertations.

[Kevin]

In other words, it would take far too long to do layouts using said Latex and therefore not really feasible in the graphics world.

[zaghahzag]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

In other words, it would take far too long to do layouts using said Latex and therefore not really feasible in the graphics world.

From what I understand though, you can swap "style sheets" for differently formatted things. So if you have one journal that has certain ways of doing something, you can re-compile for that very easily without doing any work. Try doing that in word and you'll go insane. Especially with a long document.

[peeb]

That's the point of Latex - it's not for custom stuff so much as it is for formatting journals etc which have constant formatting and changing content.

[OreoCookie]

Originally Posted by zaghahzag 

From what I understand though, you can swap "style sheets" for differently formatted things. So if you have one journal that has certain ways of doing something, you can re-compile for that very easily without doing any work. Try doing that in word and you'll go insane. Especially with a long document.

That's right, it's similar to (x)html + css: ideally, the html file contains only content and by swapping the css file, you can totally change the appearance. That's the main point: you don't tweak the layout anymore, you just focus on creating the content.

[JKT]

Originally Posted by phoenix78 

Can you enlighten us on how to do this then? I would like to know

I think Horsepoo is confusing the ability to show a preview pane in the Font Panel with the desire of you folk to have the pop-up font menu in the toolbar show previews of the font styles.