Graham Smith wrote:

Derek

>How are you dealing with the word wrap issue (Section 14)?

The org.mode
defaults to using longlines.el and I have been using this mode for my experimentation
with emacs, so haven't had to think about it that much.

I can't remember off hand but there's a keyboard combination which I believe worked by default. Esc-w? Could be wrong - I can't remember what packages I had loaded by default. Anyway I had it set up so that when I hit the combination, sentences were wrapped (or re-wrapped) in the current paragraph.

Its been a while. I'm enjoying your posts. I lived in this program for about 10 years. It was rare for me to have to leave it for anything major. It can take care of email (I recommend VmMail), news groups, pretty much everything. Its practically bug-free, too. Probably the best program I ever used.

Tom S.

Tom,

I can't remember off hand but there's a keyboard combination which I
believe worked by default. Esc-w?

Alt q word wraps an existing paragraph, but I can't find the command to unwrap.

I lived in this program for about 10 years. It was rare for me to
have to leave it for anything major. It can take care of email (I recommend VmMail),
news groups, pretty much everything. Its practically bug-free, too. Probably the
best program I ever used.

I read people saying things like this years ago and duly installed Xemacs on my windows box. It completely lost me, firstly it installed dozens of programs I didn't want. Like Cygwin, Ghostscript etc,which made it something like a 400Mb install (I think) and then I couldn't make it do anything useful. In fact if I remember correctly I couldn't make it do anything !!! Of course I now understand why the extra programs were installed, but I was annoyed at the time.

I quickly uninstalled it, and remained at a loss as to what was special about it. Obviously from my posts here, I now have a rather different view.

The obvious question is why don't you still use it?

Graham

Graham Smith wrote:

The
obvious question is why don't you still use it?

I occasionally do for text editing. But I live in a Microsoft world and I got tired of fighting it. I pretty much live in Office now.

Its OK. Despite my reservations at the time, I still do get things done. ;)

Tom S.

Tom

occasionally do for text editing. But I live in a Microsoft world and I got tired of
fighting it. I pretty much live in Office now.

Don't we all, and for the most part I too have given up, but I also do a lot of work where it doesn't matter what I use, and I am always looking for something that bit more efficient and versatile than MSs offerings.

I am particularly impressed with Lyx, as I regularly see hours and days wasted trying to get the formatting right in Word, and it still not look right even when it goes out the door.

Being able to let the technical staff focus on the writing and letting Lyx look after the formatting seems one of the most promising business productivity tools I have ever come across. Of course once I have used it more extensively, I may not be so impressed.

Graham

Graham (and Tom),

Thanks for your comments about the word wrap issue. Using longlines.el seems to be the way to go. I'll experiment with any issues it may create when the time comes.

Having said that, I bought Crossover office when I was using Linux and I had MSoffice running happily in Linux. Didn’t try anything else, and not all programs work with crossover office as it is only emulating Windows. But, of course there are also programs like Win4lin that run Windows inside Linux.

Something like this could be the answer. I've heard reports that Zoot runs under Win4lin (but not under Wine, unfortunately).

Good luck with your foray into Lyx and emacs

Thanks. I'm looking forward to it.

Derek

Derek

Something like this could be the answer. I've heard reports that Zoot runs
under Win4lin (but not under Wine, unfortunately).

You would expect it to run under Win4Lin of course as it is then running in Windows. I am sure that Tom could get it to run under Wine if he had the will - maybe his next job after Zoot32

When I reinstall Linux, I think I might go the Win4lin route anyway. I have a WIN2000 CD, so it only cost me the the price of Win4lin. While there are some programs around that are XP only, most still run on WIN2000.

I enjoyed my brief flirtation with Linux last year.

Graham

Graham -

Linux is on my list this year, after persistent problems with XP's automatic Windows update, its authentication procedures and so on.

I am sure that Tom could get it to run under Wine if he had the will - maybe his next job after Zoot32

Yes, I look forward to that. It should be easier to get Zoot to run in Linux once it is a straightforward 32-bit program (but I'm no expert on this - needless to say!).

Derek

Derek

Linux is on my list this year, after persistent problems with XP's
automatic Windows update, its authentication procedures and so on.

Yes, I plan to re-install it this year, its all part of my two millionth attempt at getting myself sorted out !!

I have to say that discovering Lyx and Emacs has helped as I can see these becoming my two core programs and of course they are multi-platform. I have just received the O'Reilly book on using Emacs and I am even more amazed by the capability of Emacs. I just can't remember the key strokes so its a bit frusutrating at the moment. However, I have never been a fan of using a mouse because of how it slows everything down, so I will be persevering with the key strokes.

> I am sure that
Tom could get it to run under Wine if he had the will - maybe his next job after Zoot32


Yes, I look forward to that. It should be easier to get Zoot to run in Linux once it is a
straightforward 32-bit program (but I'm no expert on this - needless to
say!).

Neither am I, but it is interesting to see that Info select are specifically advertising the capability to run under Wine (or was it cross over office) so maybe Linux is becoming a bit more mainstream and more worth the effort for Tom.

Graham

Graham -

However, I have never been a fan of using a mouse because of how it slows everything down, so I will be persevering with the key strokes.

Same here, and I've been making special efforts recently to cut down on mousing. The problem is that I didn't get the opportunity to touch type at school, and my efforts over the years to do so have always been frustrated by the need to hunt and peck to earn my daily bread while struggling to work through Mavis Beacon's exercises.

Derek

However, I have never been a fan of using a mouse because of how it slows
everything down, so I will be persevering with the key strokes.

But the mouse is faster: http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html

David

But the mouse is faster:
http://www.asktog.com/TOI/toi06KeyboardVMouse1.html

Mmmm, sounds like a wasted $50 million. Seriously, the web page is meaningless without some background on what they were studying, and how it was designed.

The real speed benifits from the keyboard come from not having to think about the key strokes, they just become part of the typing flow - once you have remembered them of course. The idea of it taking 2 secs to work out what key strokes you need is obvious nonsense.

Plus, was the comparison made with the almost unusable joystick/touch pad found on my Thinkpad.

The mouse has its place, and I would be lost without one available, but I will take a lot of convincing that a mouse cenred approach is overall quicker to use than a keyboard centred approach.

Graham

Derek Cornish wrote:

The problem is that I
didn't get the opportunity to touch type at school, and my efforts over the years to do
so have always been frustrated by the need to hunt and peck to earn my daily bread while
struggling to work through Mavis Beacon's exercises.

I often tell people that the only worthwhile thing I learned in high school was touch typing. I am ever grateful that I did!

Steve Z.

Derek,

didn't get the opportunity to touch type at school, and my efforts over the years to do
so have always been frustrated by the need to hunt and peck to earn my daily bread while
struggling to work through Mavis Beacon's exercises.

I think I suffer the same problem in using Miracletype to learn, but then being so slow, that my impatience gets the better of me so instead of building up speed touch typing for real, I revert back to hunt and peck.

But I am trying again.

Graham

Steve -

In the UK we never got the chance to learn to type (or drive) at school. I'm still suffering from the consequences as far as typing is concerned. As for my driving...

Derek

Graham -

I took a new look at typing programs yesterday but didn't find anything that called out to me, although I might try KAZ (http://www.kaz-type.com/ MiracleType looks good, too, but I think it may only be available for the UK English keyboard, judging from notices here and there on the website. Both programs appear to be UK-based, though. Unfortunately both also seem to be designed as "buy-before-you-try" offerings, although at least MT has a 10-day evaluation for business users.

This plain text business has taken us far and wide, eh?

Derek

My, female, chauvinist, high school counselor would not let me sign up for typing... some female secretary would do that for me. Anyone have a spare, free, female secretary?:

-c

Typing was probably the most important class I took in high school. Even if I did have to unlearn a few things later ("The Mac Is Not A Typewriter" summarizes these).

(The mouse is still faster except for entering characters though.)

Derek

MiracleType looks good, too, but I think it may only be available for the UK English keyboard,

Yes the faq says it is only for UK English keyboards, not sure how much of a difference that would make for 90% of the training, but it would be nice to try before you buy.

This plain text business has taken us far and wide, eh?

It certainly has, I am finding that I am completely re-thinking my entire working philosophy, now that text has become the common factor across the programs. Unless I change my mind ( and I never do that !!) I think my "core" program list for 2007 will be very very different to the list I would have produced in 2006.

Graham

Derek Cornish wrote:

Steve -

In the UK we never got the chance to learn to type (or drive) at school. I'm
still suffering from the consequences as far as typing is concerned. As for my
driving...

Derek,

Wow, you've made me flash back 34 years to my high school Driver's Ed classes, and my driving instructor. His name was Mr. Weiss, and I can picture him perfectly: Short and slender as a rail -- looked like he wore padding on his shoulders and a bad hair piece. He always had a tan, but an unhealthy one, as if he'd spent way too long in a tanning booth or got a little too excited smearing on the Man Tan. He also smoked like a chimney... I guess I would too if I had to drive around all day with a succession of snotty teenagers behind the wheel. The one thing I learned from him is don't become a Driver's Ed instructor.

Steve Z.

Can I claim the prize for starting the most diverse (or is that most off topic) thread we have ever had on Outliners :-)

Graham

I'm looking for an alternative to Word+EndNote to format and typeset (and possibly write) academic papers (no need for maths notations).

So far LaTex by way of Lyx came up as a possible replacement. What would be the most user-friendly bibliographic setup to use?

I've come across Lyx+Zotero that looks interesting, using the Lyz add-on in Firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lyz/

Has anyone used it here? Any other options?