This edition is going to introduce you to a text editor cum document processor. This solution is also an open source one and gives you full freedom . You may ask – Why another editor? Well, here are the reasons. First of all it allows you to write your files (documents) based on its structure (you can comprehend the actual meaning of this statement just by googling the term WYSIWYM).

And more importantly this gives you the power and flexibility of TeX (and LaTeX). I have seen many users looking for GUI versions that support Tex editing. Though there are open source editors like Kent, they are not very powerful. But, by using LyX you can do this using the GUI objects. Moreover this software is available for (GNU)Linux/Unix, Windows and Mac OS.

Features:

There are many Linux users who are unsatisfied by solutions like Open Office writer (/math). Some of them even resort to methods like installing Mathtype (with the help of wine) in their Linux machine. But if you have LyX, you probably won’t need any other math / equation editor. It has an inbuit mathematical formula editor which allows you to do the works that are primarily done using LaTeX. Equations and symbols can be entered by selecting the appropriate one from the drop down list. Another interesting one is that it allows you to copy and paste from LaTeX source code.

It also supports equation arrays, numbering, math macros (customizable), matrices and even algorithms! You can also do all the advanced level document editing stuffs required for drafting your research paper (say you can create references, index and bibliography). Obiviously it also supports all the standard operations (like cut and paste, undo etc). You can create letters, articles, books, slides and presentations. You can also make movie scripts and LinuxDoc files using this.

It allows you to have numbered section headings and TOC (table of contents – which are clickable). You can also have a lists of figures and tables. Some special textclasses are also included (say for APS, IEEE, AMS and for some Astrophysics journals). XFig, Dia and others are supported in the latest version. You may also do subfigures, subtables and captions using this. If you are writing artciles, you can go for wrapped figures and tables. And you can also perform cropping , rotation and scaling of images!

The editor allows you to export your document to LaTeX, PDF, Postscript, DVI, ASCII, HTML, OpenDocument, RTF or MS Word format. Since unicode is supported, you also edit documents in non-English script.

This editor supports some other cool features :

• Sending fax directly from the editor
• Exporting PDF bookmarks and header information

Just like in Open office (writer), this also supports text completion. And it also has a spell checker.

In short, this editor is a must have for active researchers who are working in GNU/Linux platform.

You can get the software from here. If you stumble upon any problem, you can check out the docs/tips section of the website. If you wish to know more about LaTeX editing using this, you may consider buying this book from Amazon. And for quick questions, you can contact other users via official mailing list:

lyx-users-subscribe@lists.lyx.org ( subscribe)
lyx-users-unsubscribe@lists.lyx.org ( unsubscribe)
lyx-users-help@lists.lyx.org (for help message )