[Nfb-science] Formatting: An Inquiry of Resources

[aerospace1028 at hotmail.com]

greetings,
I wish I had known about latex as an undergraduate: not just for the mathematics type-setting either.  I like the content-focused nature myself.  I also apreciate the internal cross-refferencing capabilities.

As Michael pointed out, a major disadvantage is not working in the same system as your coleagues.  There are programs to convert latex source into various outputs (the tex4ht package, I believe, produces open office word doccuments that can easily be converted to MS-doc format), This produces an extra step in compairing peer feedback on your .doc output to the corrisponding location(s) of your latex source.

In my opinion, a critical factor that would influence your decission is the amount of time/effort you have available to learning a different system.  (A) learning the basics of the latex language itself: (b) learning any additional tools (such as tex4ht) to generate .doc output: (c) working out a routine for handling feedback and revisions.

These trade-offs are a personal preference.  The more difficulty/dislike you have with/for office-style word processers, the more latex could be seen as useful.  Or, the more experience and comfort you have with Word, the less worth-while learning something new becomes.

--Paul 		 	   		  
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