What are the best paid Tex editors for easy typing, similar to MS Office Word?

[MathematicalPhysicist]

Before entering next year to graduate studies (Msc), I would like to know what are the Tex editors which cost money, but you can type as easy as in MS Office Word?

Iv'e looked at BaKoMa Tex, but I would like to hear about other platforms too.

 

[minger]

Why are you not interested in freeware latex editors? Have you used them before and found them unsatisfactory?

 

[nbo10]

Kyle or TeXworks

 

[Hepth]

i love LED

 

[D H]

TeXShop, if you have a Mac, is very nice. Some of my coworkers swear (vociferously!) by LyX (Linux, Mac, Windows).

 

[fatra2]

If you are looking for something like MSWord, I know a great software. It is not free and the firm that makes it makes a bundle out of it: MSWord.

Fact is that you will not find a LaTeX compiler that works like Word, simply because LaTeX is not a word processor, it is made for typesetting.

Why choose something like MSWord, when MSWord is on the market since a while.

Cheers

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

minger, I have in my computer installed Texniccenter, but I prefer something that will let me type like a word processor, without all the hassle of writing the code myself, which is quite irritating, and time consuming (for me at least).

 

[matonski]

Mathematica has good typesetting capabilities and is very useful for many other things in physics.

 

[fatra2]

Hi there,

I prefer something that will let me type like a word processor, without all the hassle of writing the code myself, which is quite irritating, and time consuming (for me at least).

But it avoids making stupid mistake, like printing the document a gazilion times instead of increasing the width between the line, by pressing the wrong button.

I get right back to where I was before. Why do you want to have LaTeX, since you are really looking for a word processor. Just choose the one that you prefer, proprietary or not: your choice. Then you would truly have what you asked for.

Cheers

 

[D H]

Theses have to be written in TeX at many universities, fatra2. Word is not an option.

Besides, Word bites.

 

[fatra2]

Besides, Word bites.

We both know that. I am just saying that what is asked here also bites. Either, you choose the simplicity of Word, without convincing results, or you choose to put in a bit more effort, and the results also show. I also believe that if you take a version of LaTeX/editor that does just what is desired, than the results will also be just like in Word. LaTeX gives outstanding results for one main reason: it avoids you making stupid mistake, because you have to type in the command yourself, therefore you have to really think about the result you want.

The same discussion could be done on OS. But I will leave that out for now.

Cheers

 

[D H]

Have you worked with LaTeX? It doesn't look like it.

Besides, you are ignoring the issue. The OP probably has no choice but to use LaTeX.

 

[fatra2]

Have you worked with LaTeX? It doesn't look like it.

I have been a freak of LaTeX for the past 15 years. I wrote many different books, reports, articles, and letters in LaTeX. My PhD thesis was written in LaTeX. I even enjoyed making some developments, by making packages, or changing the behviour of some packages to suit my needs. I worked with LaTeX on different *nix plateforms, in MS Windows, in Mac OS X. Being an ex-teacher, I gave some classes on how to use LaTeX, and I helped some students writting their masters thesis with this tool. Therefore, I consider myself quite good with this tool.

This is the reason why I believe in one very important rule in LaTex that will always give outstanding results: stick to the basis. Write your code using most, if not only, the basics rules of LaTeX, think about what you want to write without worrying about the output. LaTeX compiler knows much better than me about topographical rules. Therefore, why would I challenge the expert on this subject. I will focus on what I have to say, without worrying about what it will look like.

I have also seen some people looking for an easy way out with LaTeX. Without knowing the ground rules of the tool, how can you try to make your life easier. The few experiences I have with tools that make your life easier, also give much, much, much (I could repeat that word for a long time) poorer results, ending up with results that are close to what you can find with MSWord, if the code compiles at all. In these moments, either the student is ready to lose some points for topology, or they turn to someone that has to spend so much cleaning up the code. I did that also, and spend almost a week cleaning the code of a student, because it did not compile. Therefore, I believe in emacs or vim to write my codes.

Cheers

 

[D H]

This is the reason why I believe in one very important rule in LaTex that will always give outstanding results: stick to the basis. Write your code using most, if not only, the basics rules of LaTeX, think about what you want to write without worrying about the output.

Hmmm. I tend to macroize my math, heavily.

The time derivative of the inertial-to-body attitude quaternion is
(see section \ref{sec:quat_time_deriv})
\begin{equation}
  \QBIdot =  \QxQ{\quatsv 0 {-\frac 1 2 {\framerelvect B \omega I B}}} {\QBI}
  \label{eqn:spec:QBI_dot}
\end{equation}

It may look like greek, but that LaTeX code also looks a lot like code. It also looks right.

TeXShop is a nice package; I prefer it over vim/emacs. It's a bit minimalistic, and I make it more so (I don't use its pulldowns), but it is very nice to press a button and *presto* there's my pdf file.

 

[trambolin]

If you want to see what you are doing LeD is the one for you.

Also, TexnicCenter is working like a charm. I just understood their point of view after using LeD, WinEdt for a loooong time. It is really meant for the least trouble.

Only thing I miss is the automatic environment closing in WinEdt when you type \end{{ .

Try if you are not familiar with the this shortcut, open any environment like \begin{document} then type \end{{, it will try to find the most inner environment and close it.

 

[minger]

Right, I personally use LEd and love it. The batch pdf creation is awesome, as is the semi-live dvi viewer. It helps with the coding, but does give you font style drop downs as well as a few other things.

You're not going to get away from some of the coding, especially if you're writing a scientific-based paper/thesis. I mean, due to the different packages and things like that for graphics/etc, I really just don't think you're going to get away from all the coding.

 

[MathematicalPhysicist]

But at least minimizing my coding would be benificial, cause writing with it as I said is time consuming.