What have you used LyX for? [closed]

Question

What have you used LyX for?

What problems have you faced?

Would you use it again for that?

Answer 1

I used LyX (version 1.6.4) for my undergraduate thesis and I would definitely recommend it.

LyX is a very nice piece of software, because it makes easy things simple and difficult things possible. Some examples:

• In math mode, there are useful keyboard shortcuts, autocompletion of LaTeX symbols and a comprehensive toolbar.
• There is built-in support for quite a few of LaTeX packages.
• Inserting TeX code (for example, to use packages not directly supported by LyX) is easy.

And, most important of all, you can export your document as a clean LaTeX file and abandon LyX altogether.

Answer 2

Some letters and a resume attempt. Straight LaTeX is generally more reliable than Lyx. Would not use it again.

Answer 3

I tried to use lyx for documents in a linguistics class, where the ability to type in IPA symbols would be very helpful. Unfortunately, there were a few issues with this. The latex package that I used to get IPA typesetting functionality (TIPA) was very annoying to install at all, and figuring out how to enable the package in the lyx document was not fun. Furthermore, Lyx's support for entering native latex commands (like a function call, which was required for this package to output IPA symbols) was very clunky to use.

These problems caused me to abandon lyx for latex, for this particular use.

I've also used lyx for formula typesetting, in a physics setting. I didn't use it long enough to feel comfortable with the commands, but I liked how the program immediately showed the formulas formatted as they would appear in the document, as opposed to in raw code form.

Finally, I've attempted to use lyx for general notetaking, but that's not a good idea. In the end, for general notetaking, I used emacs because that's all the functionality I needed.

Answer 4

I've used it as a word processor more than 5 years ago. Look, I remember it as one of the worst pieces of software I've ever used. It was so horrible I convinced myself that the idea of building a build a WYSIWYG editor on top of Latex is completely flawed. To finish my work I had to abandon LyX and edit the produced Latex by hand but it was so messed up that at the end I never used the two anymore.

But I repeat, that was more than 5 years ago, I hope things have improved. They have a nice site with promising screenshots now.

Answer 5

I used Lyx to type my assignments for my Drama Appreciation course. Lyx defaults to very narrow margins (which costs you in paper). To fix this, I looked the page margin settings for OpenOffice and then copied those into Lyx by going to the Documents menu then Settings and then Page Margins.

Hope that helps.

Answer 6

I am currently having problems with using a bibTex bibliography with Lyx:

http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/5197/using-jabref-generated-bibliography-with-lyx

It works with straight LaTeX. I enjoy the WYSIWYG properties of Lyx and have gotten other complex things working in writing my master's thesis in Lyx, so I hope to fix this problem and continue using Lyx. Because of the import export ability of Lyx I tend to bounce back and forth between Latex and Lyx, depending on what I am trying to do. Lyx is still better for adding content (ie. writting as opposed to formating a table).

Answer 7

I use LyX for all my word proccessing needs. It took me almost a month to realise I hadn't installed open office on my new laptop.

Mostly it is notes for maths classes, and reports for engineering classes.

On occation it is faster than handwritting. in particular for repeditive working (such as tablau manipulation), at worse as fast as most peoples handwritting. this did take me a few months to achieve. It is significantly better than Word 2007, which is what I migrated from. Word, tends to lose its mind when you put in more than 20 or so equations in 1 document.

I have dysgraphia so handwriting is hard(/painful) for me.