I’ve been reading a lot about the “document processor” LyX. The idea is that you use pre-defined styles for your document, and so you never have to mess with font size, margins, etc. Basically, it’s an intuitive and smart template system. And since it uses LaTeX for it’s rendering, the output is fantastic.

Seems like it would be a great way to work on my next research paper and bibliography, but there are some problems. Namely, there are no pre-defined styles for Turabian format. I’d have find an existing template that’s pretty close, and then I’d have to tweak the Lyx & LaTeX code to make it work…and honestly, that’ll probably take a lot longer than just doing it in OpenOffice.Org.

Alternatively, I thought about writing my paper in Vim and using LaTeX markup to style the text…but once again, the learning curve is really putting me off. I love to write in simple text editors, but it seems like my next paper will be OO all the way.

I will, however, be exploring the template options for OpenOffice, and thinking about how to make my experience writing even more productive.

Filed under: OpenOffice.Org