Ubuntu Desktop Starter Guide

[Alan McKinnon]

On Wednesday 07 June 2006 05:53, Chanchao wrote:
> Latex!!!!!!?  You mean there's anything in that document that can't
> be formatted just using Abiword or OOo Writer?

Perhaps you have never tried to write an entire book in OOo

I did once, to see if OOo was up to the task and the load.
Did I manage it: yes
Should I have done it: no

The reason is that it takes a very disciplined person to avoid using 
custom formatting, and stick to style sheets. The style sheets 
themselves are hard to work with, you have to have them open for 
editing, add the changes, save, and re-load the original document. 
You get one chance and only one to get this step right, if you fluff 
it, the document de-attaches the style sheet and you get to have fun 
with a huge copy-paste exercise into a blank document to fix it. If 
you edit the document on a different machine and the style sheet 
isn't in the right place, you get a similar result.

With LaTex, DocBook and other proper typesetting software, you 
concentrate on the content and simply mark portions up as to what 
they are (headings, chapters, quoted text, etc). The look is defined 
elsewhere and applied when the content is rendered. Word processors 
are designed for small documents using the WYSIWYMG theme.

Word processors are the wrong tool for a starter guide in the same way 
as a motorcycle is the wrong transport to go to the supermarket for 
grocery shopping. It can be done, but you shouldn't.

-- 
If only me, you and dead people understand hex, 
how many people understand hex?

Alan McKinnon
alan at linuxholdings dot co dot za
+27 82, double three seven, one nine three five