software.newsforge.com — If you've ever considered writing a book, you may have looked at the layout capabilities of OpenOffice.org Writer, AbiWord, KWrite, or other word processing programs. While these tools can produce adequate results for many types of documents, it's also worth considering LyX, an open source (GPL) desktop publishing application.
Aug 24, 2006 View in Crawl 4
Closed AccountAug 25, 2006
LyX is a fantastic piece of software. I now do all of my papers in it and I get comments from my teachers that they look professional! It does indeed have support for complex equations in a GUI.
doubtfulsalmonAug 25, 2006
How do you do references and citations in Lyx? Is there some sort of support for a citation manager? By way of comparison, I'm writing all my papers now using OpenOffice.org Writer and bibus ( and open source 'endnote'-like program <a class="user" href="http://bibus-biblio.sourceforge.net/">http://bibus-biblio.sourceforge.net/</a> ) to manage citations. While I'll obviously benefit from better document layout with Lyx, how will I go with citations (and in particular citation library management)?
sq377Aug 25, 2006
Your lucky to have have migrated from indesign... I came from pagemaker 6.5 (who can live with only being able to hit undo once?!). Scribus is an awesome program, and does everything much better than pagemaker. I've been using it for most all of my publishing needs. I just looked at this Lyx program and it seems to be a bit lacking when compared to scribus.
doubtfulsalmonAug 25, 2006
I should also have mentioned that what I liked best about bibus is that it supports storage in my choice of SQLite or MySQL databases. My wife and I are using it with the MySQL option, and since our research areas overlap a bit, we can share our citations, abstracts, etc. Also means we can both work on the same citation database at the same time, from home or the office, etc, etc.
alanyxAug 25, 2006
LyX supports jurabib -- it's one of the options in the configuration dialog, and jurabib has full support for MLA-style citations. (It also does legal citations.) Look into jurabib.
3monkeysAug 25, 2006Submitter
Cool, I got the response I was looking for. My personal preference is is DocBook DTD with my own customizations. Anyone have experience with this approach over LyX? I'm just now taking a look at LyX.
nirvdrumAug 25, 2006
I gave LyX a go, but wasn't able to spellcheck or grammar check documents. Granted, such tools are not a replacement for actually proofreading a document, but it'd be nice to catch some of the most obvious errors. What are other LyX users using? I can't imagine writing a book without some sort of help in this dept.
wraezorAug 25, 2006
Interesting, although I use FOP instead for the books I've published (digitally and in print). Can't beat the automation and flexibility of XML, XSLT, & XSL-FO.<a class="user" href="http://xml.apache.org/fop/">http://xml.apache.org/fop/</a>
devilishAug 26, 2006
Pet Peeve #4 -- When a software's examples don't work."The document uses a missing TeX class : Chess " or docbook ...Spent an hour re-installing MiKTeX getting the classes and it still doesn't work.!! anti-digg !!
webcrumbAug 31, 2006
You need to reconfigure LyX so that it knows about the new classes. It's under Tools.
webcrumbAug 31, 2006
I've started creating all my course notes in LyX. It allows me to focus on the content, not faffing with the formatting. It's amazingly liberating, and I keep trying to find excuses to use it for everything I can. I just need to work out how do references...LyX + Inkscape + Dia = sweet freedom.I just wish the version on the Ubuntu Dapper repo would be updated to 1.4.2 instead of languishing at 1.3.7.
John DoeOct 1, 2006
Awesome program! It definitely needs to be more popular!
mydaveJul 29, 2008
oh I have never write any book, but if I will this article will help me. thank you.<a class="user" href="http://yara-online.org/junior_reviews/reviews_2002/boy_lost_face.htm">http://yara-online.org/junior_reviews/reviews_2002 ...</a><a class="user" href="http://sooslic.com/?id=523">http://sooslic.com/?id=523</a>