Re: [Fwd: Re: Writer Processor (was Re: Ubuntu vs. Debian ...)]
On 2007-02-12, Greg Folkert <greg@gregfolkert.net> wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-02-11 at 15:39 -0500, Miles Fidelman wrote:
>> Just to add another voice. Some of us have to exchange documents with=20
>> people who use Word - particularly in work settings, and features like=20
>> change tracking,
>
> Change tracking in word is a horrible feature.
<snip>
> Important, only to those that do not know better.
<snip>
> The only reason it is incredibly painful, is because Microsoft chooses
> to make it so.
<snip>
This is all true, of course. I have 'seen the light', so to speak, and
have learned to use emacs and LaTeX for writing my thesis. But I'm not
going to be able to convince my supervisor to to the same, and she is
so immersed in the WYSIWYG workflow that she cannot bear to review
plain-text: if she can't see the formatting as she wants it the only
comments I get back are formatting corrections.
Add to this the first journal I'm submitting to requires manuscripts
in a WYSIWYG format, preferably .doc, and they require 'precise'
formatting (at least, precise in the Word world).
I'd love to teach my supervisor and the journal editors how to deal
with LaTeX, which I think would be better for everyone in the end, but
since I'm the one who needs their cooperation at this point, and not
the other way around, I'm stuck. I don't know what field you work in,
but in Academia there is a lot of ego and inertia in play, and it
works to restrict innovation to avenues approved of by the people at
the top.
You're right, there are much better tools available for preparing
documents than Word, and the problems with converting between formats
is caused by MS' abuse of monopoly, but it still doesn't change the
fact that I'm afraid I've wasted my time learning a better way to
work. LaTeX will be fine for my dissertation, but the latex ->
latex2rtf -> .doc -> hand-correcting .doc formatting is clawing back a
lot of the productivity I've gained by using the better tools.
Apologies for the rant, but I'm very frustrated after having invested
the time to 'do things right', only to find I have to do things wrong
again anyways.
--
Regards,
Tyler Smit
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