[Wylug-discuss] Digital scrapbook ideas?

[John R Hudson]

On Tuesday 10 January 2012 14:39:59 Dave Fisher wrote:
> On 10 January 2012 12:42, John R Hudson <j.r.hudson at virginmedia.com> wrote:
> > With many use cases, Tomboy might be what you need; but, if your main use
> > case is writing - which is mine - I store all references and URLs (as
> > @MISC - example below) in a BibTeX file and enter one line ideas as a
> > section heading in a LaTeX file; then I use the LyX outliner to move,
> > promote or demote them.
> > 
> > LyX 2 is greatly improved as a writer's tool and its LaTeX import/export
> > has worked flawlessly for me so far - in contrast with the earlier
> > versions. So it would be fairly painless to set up a LaTeX file with
> > each idea as a section heading and then import it into LyX 2 to
> > manipulate them.
> > 
> > @MISC{hpcregulation,
> >   author = "{Health Professions Council}",
> >   title = "Position statement: regulation of psychotherapists and
> > counsellors",
> >   howpublished = "{\url {http://www.hpc-
> > uk.org/mediaandevents/statements/psychotherapistscounsellors/}}",
> >   month = "10~" # "December",
> >   year = 2009,
> >   note = " ",
> > }
> 
> Thanks John, I think I might look into this option.
> 
> Despite (or maybe 'because of') being a long-standing LaTeX fan, I
> truly hated Lyx in its early incarnations,
> 
> I've barely considered giving it another look, but good import/export
> for real LaTeX/TeX definitely makes the idea more attractive.
> 
> What's the learning curve like?
> 
> Dave
When Matthias Ettrick first produced LyX he deliberately tried to hide all the 
LaTeX elements; the team that took over about five years ago (after LyX had 
been in the doldrums for a couple of years) have turned this philosophy on its 
head and made the LaTeX elements much more obvious and accessible - and where 
a LaTeX feature isn't directly supported in LyX  have explained in the Help 
files how to add the relevant LaTeX commands.

The main problem with the learning curve is the multiplicity of options in the 
drop-down menus and where to look for them.

Have a look at Document>Settings to get an idea of the settings that mostly go 
in the Preamble and Tools>Preferences if you want to customise the look and 
feel of LyX (as opposed to the LaTeX code).

Document>Outline opens the outliner and View>View source displays the LaTeX 
code in a separate window - though you cannot edit it in the window.

Otherwise most things can be found in the drop-down menus (the Labeling 
paragraph style is the same as you get in KOMA-Script) and there are lots of 
short cuts for the common things.

There is a paper at 
http://bradlug.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/LyX_2_the-
ultimate_document_software.pdf 
(mind the wordwrap)
which introduces LyX 2 to complete beginners. Section 5 gives a whistle-stop 
introduction to LyX 2.

John