Finding the Best Software for Writing a Thesis

[plasmon]

I am about to write a thesis. I was just wondering whether Scientific workplace is the best software to write a thesis or MS Word. Any advice wouuld be welcome.

 

[cristo]

I don't know what Scientific Workplace is (is it some software based on latex typesetting?), but I would not use Word. Of course, it depends what sort of thesis you are writing; i.e. whether it's mostly mathematics, or mostly words.

 

[mrandersdk]

I think most people would recommend that you learned LaTeX, it has the most posibilities and it always looks good. It can be a bit difficult in the start, but as you learn it (as you clearly will writing a whole thesis) it will become very fast.

 

[bravernix]

As mentioned, LaTeX is the standard. You could simply learn the syntax itself or use a processor such as LyX (http://www.lyx.org/).

 

[ZapperZ]

I am about to write a thesis. I was just wondering whether Scientific workplace is the best software to write a thesis or MS Word. Any advice wouuld be welcome.

Your question here is a bit vague because you did not really give further details on what and where. Note that for most schools here in the US, there is a certain requirement on the format and typesetting that every thesis produced at that school must follow. This includes the width of all the margins (left, right,top, bottom), the font size, the spacing, the formatting of formulas, the numbering of equations, etc. In fact, a lot of schools have a ready-made template for students to use, be it a Word template or a LaTex template. So unless you are indicating that your school does not have such a requirement, then your question can't really be answered because you actually have no choice in what you can use.

I would use Scientific Word or Scientific Workplace to format complicate LaTex equations or tables that I then insert into a LaTex document. If you do not have a specific formatting or typesetting requirement for your thesis, then I suppose you can use anything you like.

Zz.

 

[Andy Resnick]

The only recommendation I have for writing a thesis is to use EndNote or something similar- keeping track of 250+ references (including the format) required me to set aside a whole month.

 

[ks_physicist]

I did it in Word, but I would have preferred to do it in something that worked better. There were a lot of strange kludges to work through in getting things to work right in Word.

I never had a class or experience with TeX, and no one around me knew it, so I was dead in the water there. I didn't even know at the time whether it would be easy or hard to adjust a TeX document to conform to the thesis standards at my university.

If you do it in word, I'll be glad to give you some tips from my recent (last few years) experience.

 

[Choppy]

I've used LaTex and MS Word. In general, LaTex has a steeper learning curve and required you to write code and then compile the document (at least the version I used many moons ago) - which was annoying. Once you get the hang of it though, it's pretty straight forward and it eliminates a lot of the fiddling and tweaking necessary with MS Word necessary to come out with a nice looking document.

MS Word on the other hand was pretty straight forward. I wouldn't use it without something like ENDNOTE thought. Keeping track of references by hand is a collossal waste of time and energy. ENDNOTE is also handy for conducting quick literature searches.

 

[vociferous]

I would use Corel WordPerfect and Mathtype (Latex/MathML typesetting program). In my opinion, which I think is very well factually based, WordPerfect is much better for typesetting and managing large documents than Word, although they both have a similar set of features. WordPerfect also has the advantage of converting to a PDF without extra software.

But, if there is an electronic submission format requirement, you should use whatever the native program is for that format (for instance, you cannot count on WordPerfect to keep a document with complex typesetting intact when converting to Word format).

Also, the reference manager suggestion seems very good.

If you are going to be making an extremely complex document, you might want to use desktop publishing software instead of a word processor. WordPerfect seems reasonably good at typesetting. Word seems barely adequate. Something like PageMaker is more ideal for extremely graphically complex work.

 

[dsb5092]

LaTex is the most accepted and once learned the easiest.

Its mainly used on Linux OS but it sounds like your running windows.

You can download Latex online for free. emacs is a good editor for windows and MikTex has a lot of packages for windows. there's plenty of books on learning this. Check out Leslie Lampoon's book (I think that's her name).

 

[Dick]

Leslie is not a she. http://research.microsoft.com/users/lamport/ Regrettably, but profitably, employed by microsoft, I hope. LaTex is likely to outlive any MSWord format. It's the technically superior option.

 

[vociferous]

LaTex is likely to outlive any MSWord format. It's the technically superior option.

Maybe it is because Microsoft Word switches formats every three to five years, and conversion is less-than-ideal.

OOF, WordPerfect, LaTex are a lot more consistent in comparison. Even PDF is mostly backwards compatible with earlier versions (minus some newer features). Try opening an Office 2007 document in 2003 or Office XP.

 

[Dick]

Maybe it is because Microsoft Word switches formats every three to five years, and conversion is less-than-ideal.

OOF, WordPerfect, LaTex are a lot more consistent in comparison. Even PDF is mostly backwards compatible with earlier versions (minus some newer features). Try opening an Office 2007 document in 2003 or Office XP.

All true. But you really can't beat TeX for typesetting complicated math formulae. You can kludge them in any system if they aren't so complicated. Just ask Donald Knuth, it was made for this. The others weren't. Sure, there is a learning curve. You'll get over it.

 

[Hootenanny]

For those who aren't comfortable with writing documents using latex by hand, Open Office 2.4 can generate decent latex code (including all formulae, images and diagrams) from a standard Open Office Document.

To export a latex2e .tex file:

File > Export > latex2e

Note that this still only outputs the latex source, you still would need to compile the document (into PDF, PS, DVI) using a compiler.

 

[ks_physicist]

Hoot, why would you export from OOo to LaTeX? I mean, I can see doing so if you're comfortable in LaTeX and you want to convert a file, but I don't see why you would do that just so you can compile the document. Why wouldn't you just print to PDF or print the document outright from OOo?

 

[Hootenanny]

Hoot, why would you export from OOo to LaTeX? I mean, I can see doing so if you're comfortable in LaTeX and you want to convert a file, but I don't see why you would do that just so you can compile the document. Why wouldn't you just print to PDF or print the document outright from OOo?

To be honest when I wrote the previous post, I didn't consider the possible motives for doing so, I just thought that it was a neat feature. However, I would say that Latex produces nicer looking mathematical formulae than Open Office. Perhaps it would also be useful if you were writing a report as part of a collaboration, in which the final report was to be outputted as Latex.

 

[Mororvia]

Just to throw another option on the table...

When I wrote my thesis I used MS Word and bought an addon called Ribbit which allows you to write things in LaTeX and input into Word as an image. Worked pretty well for me and it was a lot easier than trying to figure out one of the free LaTeX programs available. Well worth the money to me at the time.

 

[cristo]

Just to throw another option on the table...

When I wrote my thesis I used MS Word and bought an addon called Ribbit which allows you to write things in LaTeX and input into Word as an image. Worked pretty well for me and it was a lot easier than trying to figure out one of the free LaTeX programs available. Well worth the money to me at the time.

I don't really understand how so many people are scared of latex; it took me a day to get used to making a document, and probably a week or so to feel completely comfortable. After that, it makes things way easier than using word or any equivalent.

 

[Asphodel]

the best software to write a thesis...MS Word.

The only recommendation I have for writing a thesis is to use EndNote or something similar- keeping track of 250+ references (including the format) required me to set aside a whole month.

Definitely. Nothing more fun than getting to the end of a huge paper and noticing something is wrong with your citations.

LaTex is likely to outlive any MSWord format.

*cough*markuplanguage*

I don't really understand how so many people are scared of latex

It looks big and scary if you haven't done anything with code or markup. It's really easy to learn, at least at the basic level. Getting complicated formatting to work out can take more effort if you're new to it. On the other hand, would you rather spend a bit of time learning how to make LaTeX do what you want, or try it in Word and have it move your figure captions to random places?

 

[Moonbear]

Your question here is a bit vague because you did not really give further details on what and where. Note that for most schools here in the US, there is a certain requirement on the format and typesetting that every thesis produced at that school must follow. This includes the width of all the margins (left, right,top, bottom), the font size, the spacing, the formatting of formulas, the numbering of equations, etc. In fact, a lot of schools have a ready-made template for students to use, be it a Word template or a LaTex template. So unless you are indicating that your school does not have such a requirement, then your question can't really be answered because you actually have no choice in what you can use.

I would use Scientific Word or Scientific Workplace to format complicate LaTex equations or tables that I then insert into a LaTex document. If you do not have a specific formatting or typesetting requirement for your thesis, then I suppose you can use anything you like.

Zz.

I want to emphasize Zz's comments. Use whatever your institution tells you to use. The final version will need to be compatible with whatever system they have for uploading/submitting it (now that that's often done electronically rather than in paper form...when we submitted paper copies, there were even rules on exactly what percentage of cotton the paper needed to be and it had to be watermarked to show that so it would be archive quality).

If there are no institutional guidelines, ask your mentor or committee members, because they need to be able to read the drafts as you send them.

If they for some reason have no preference (and that's highly unlikely), then use the format most likely to be used by the journals where you would submit the final work, since the goal would be to publish each of your dissertation chapters as a journal article.

 

[Dr Transport]

LaTeX is by far the best option for writing technical documents. Now if you are worried about all the references, don't. If you set up your reference file correctly and use BibTeX while compiling your document, as long as you have not inserted the wrong reference name into the text, you'll get everything all correct and when you insert a new reference into the document in between two that already exist, the numbering will automagically redo itself. This freaked out my advisor when I wrote my dissertation because he was all in a snit about my reference list and making sure it was correct.

The best part about using LaTeX and BibTex is that when you go to write something down the road, your reference file is already started and entries are named, for example, you might have referenced Feynman's Reviews of Modern Physics article from 1949. You have named it Feynman:1949 or Feynman:RMP49, you never have to retype the reference and you'll always be able to refer to it using your naming convention. Life is good when you use the correct tools.

 

[ks_physicist]

Is there any sort of command or "database frontend" for bibtex that would let you organize, sort, and modify the bibtex file in a little more user-friendly way?

 

[Dr Transport]

Is there any sort of command or "database frontend" for bibtex that would let you organize, sort, and modify the bibtex file in a little more user-friendly way?

I think that if you are running Linux, there are a couple of front-ends which help you get the data into the file more quickly, but remember this isn't a database file program it is a text file that is included in your file when compiled.

 

[las3rjock]

Is there any sort of command or "database frontend" for bibtex that would let you organize, sort, and modify the bibtex file in a little more user-friendly way?

• http://www.citeulike.org/" for journal papers). It can export any well-defined subset of your database in BibTeX format.
• http://jabref.sourceforge.net/" is a cross-platform (Windows/Mac/Linux) BibTeX front-end written in Java.
• http://pybliographer.org/" is a BibTeX front-end for Linux/UNIX written in Python and using the GNOME desktop environment.
• http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net/" is a BibTeX front-end for Mac OS X.

 

[Geezer]

I think most people would recommend that you learned LaTeX, it has the most posibilities and it always looks good. It can be a bit difficult in the start, but as you learn it (as you clearly will writing a whole thesis) it will become very fast.

I thought LaTeX was quite simple to learn. Of course, I already knew HTML, so I was familiar with tags, etc.

Random Tip: If you're sloppy with equations in LaTeX (e.g., you always seem to drop a curly bracket), try using this (http://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php" ) for an equation editor (very similar to Microsoft Office's equation editor, but much better). After you've set up your equation, you can just copy and paste the LaTeX code into your editor.

FYI: I have a Mac and use TeXShop. So easy to use. To compile, you just click the "typeset" button on top.

 

[Geezer]

I don't know more about "Scientific workplace" but MS Word is fine for writing. One more thing before start the writing need to collect materials about your topic.

One FREE and simple program I use for keeping track of research-related papers is EverNote (www.evernote.com). You can store practically anything in EverNote, from webpages to pdfs. You can even use your computer's webcam to take pictures of something (e.g., a written note) and file it away. EverNote has a search feature so you can search by tags, author name, or even individual words; it's never failed to find what I'm looking for.

The best part of EverNote is that it backs up your data ONLINE, so it's accessible from any computer. So, if you're at school and don't have your laptop handy but need to find a particular paper, you can log onto EverNote's website and get it.

 

[Geezer]

LaTex is the most accepted and once learned the easiest.

I agree about LaTeX being super easy once you've caught on to it. If you're new to it, you can always just copy and paste a header--something compatible with the document style you want--and start from there. Typing text into LaTeX is pretty much like any word processor: you just type and voilà it's there. Leave a completely blank horizontal space (i.e., skip a line) to start a new paragraph. To do equations, something simple like \\begin{equation} ... \\end{equation}" (but with just one slash instead of two) is pretty much all you need. If you want to start a new section, just type \section{name of section} and you're good to go. If you get stuck and don't know how to do a particular something, just Google it and you'll have the answer in no time.