Word Alternatives

>>55321852
Emacs

Notepad

/thread

LaTeX

>>55321868
I second this if you don't need word processing stuff.

The only really viable alternative to Word seems to be LaTeX. this is taking into account things like "product quality" (is the final output good enough for turning in to an instructor, conference, journal, etc...?) as well as community support (if something isn't working right, can you get help?)

OS X pages is a good example of maybe producing sufficiently high quality documents (*maybe*), but with nowhere near the support you would want/need for most cases.

I really like latex. give it a try. the learning curve is steep, but once you get comfortable enough to know how to look things up effectively, you'll find that there's a certain amount of boilerplate you can obviate away and the rest is just pleasant (various features are really nice in latex).

>>55321932
>>55321884

Hold on guys, let me clarify: I'm pretty casual. I'm a student who just needs a free alternative to Word.

LaTeX seems to be for those who are quite tech savvy, no?

>>55321990
LaTeX is a lot like HTML: you can make it as complicated as you want, or else it's a pretty straight markup system.

Despite having MS Office and iWork, I find myself using Google Docs more and more just because it's so convenient. It's there on any device I'm in front of, and my documents are too.

>>55321852
Libreoffice
also
S E M O N
D
E
M
O
N

Libreoffice works fine

see if your university provides office 365. Mine did and it allowed me to install a office 2016 on both my mac and desktop.

Or LibreOffice. Neither of these are small or efficient though.

>>55321868
>>55321874
>>55321884
>Putting word processors and text editors in the same basket

Well, at least people like you will never have a job.

>>55321852
Google Docs might do the trick for you.

>>55322161
neither will you

>>55322161
>not knowing what LaTeX is
Unfortunately, people like you are probably responsible for most software development.

>>55321852
L a T e X
a
T
e
X

>>55322066
As is iWork if you go to iCloud.com

File: Screen Shot 2016-06-29 at 10.53.17 AM.png (787KB, 2880x1800px) Image search: [Google]

787KB, 2880x1800px

>>55321990
it definitely has that reputation, and it also definitely has the capacity to support very tech savvy/highly technical people, but i think the difficulty is slightly exaggerated.

see pic related. you also can't see but in sublime text with certain plugins you get a dropdown menu when you go to cite things, so it really makes citing stuff a million times easier.

this is all bibtex, not quite latex, but it's all sort of interrelated and one of the major benefits of using latex - that you get access to this stuff too.

>>55322242
Never tried the HTML version. Is it decent?

>>55321884
I second this.

>tfw peasants struggle to generate table of contents in their Office suite
>\tableofcontents
>hear of students who literally spend a whole weekend doing what I do in 180 seconds

>>55322279
Look at the spacing between LaTeX and if.

You need to put a backslash after LaTeX to space the word.

>>55321852
pen and paper

>>55322279
>>55322806

Word can do all of this if you use it properly. If you use heading styles, all table of contents is done for you, just pick the look you like. Also true for table of figures/references etc.

Referencing is also piss easy, just add all your sources and it's as easy as clicking 'insert citation' at the appropriate point. You can have any style you like (APA, Harvard, etc)

All this was certainly true in the past, but ms word doesn't have these downsides anymore.

the only thing I've found that is unnecessarily awkward in word, but easy in latex is setting margins for binding, but that's doable in word too once you've figured it out.

>>55321852
>>55321884
>>55321990
Just use LyX, an editor that compiles in LaTeX. Results are quite professionals.

>>55324180
Word isn't free as in freedom nor is it free as in beer. I don't know why any sane individual would willingly choose it over other alternatives.

>>55321852
I just use LibreOffice and nano

>>55322279
I'm sorry man I like LaTeX but I would never recommend it to a non tech savvy normie.
You can stumble on issues that are way too complicated to solve.
Another problem is popularity, if they don't know how to do something you can't ask anyone. With word you are sure there's at least one person who knows how to solve the problem.

>>55321852
What OS are you running OP?

>>55322161
but latex is literally the best. I work in a university and everyone writing papers uses Latex.

>>55327575
>judging things based on their popularity
i bet you also think java and c++ are the best too, don't you?

>>55327726
No actually, Java is shit and just like Java Word is both way more popular than Latex and also way more shit.

>>55327770
i was trying to make you argument on your sentence.
you can't say latex is "literally the best" just because researcher use it.

the guy was right: you can't put word processor and markup languages on the same spot.
also, latex is fine only if you like what it do. if you try to change something, like placing a picture exactly where you want, it's a complete disaster.

it's used by researcher just because it works well on math, that's it.

LOOK AT THE SIZE OF HER MARKUP TAGS