LyX ⇒ Justification and Punctuation Problems

[VintageReader]

I have a computer with Vista on it. I downloaded Lyx a few months ago, and finally had time to try it out earlier this month. I decided to try to do a local organization's 20-page quarterly with LyX as an initial project before trying to do a harder, longer project.

To make a long story short, I abandoned the program (after many, many hours of work) because

(a) the quotation marks wouldn't consistently turn the correct way
(b) on some pages justification seemed to be on and on others it definitely wasn't
(c) on some pages a single line went a long way into the margin
(d) at times there seemed to be double spaces after a period and sometimes not.

I thought that LyX was supposed to offer superb typography, and was surprised by the difficulties I encountered. I simply ran out of time to figure out what was causing the problems, but I suspected that perhaps MikTex wasn't installed properly.

I just tried downloading the new MikTex separately and installing it and then downloading the newest version of LyX -- but the newest version of Lyx couldn't recognize MikTex and insisted on downloading an earlier version.

I re-opened the file that I had abandoned in the newest version of Lyx, and all those nasty old problems remain. Does anyone know what is going on?

Before anyone asks, the problems show up both in the DVI view and the PDFs produced from the file.

This is my first time trying to use a LyX/LaTeX program, but I have written html before and used word-processing programs for over a decade -- so I'm not totally computer illiterate.

Thanks for any help/insight that anyone can offer!

[meho_r]

...To make a long story short, I abandoned the program (after many, many hours of work) because

(a) the quotation marks wouldn't consistently turn the correct way

I don't understand right what is wrong with quotation marks actually. You should use two times ` for opening double quotation mark, and two times ' for closing marks. LyX does support direct input of double quotation marks, but you should check in settings if it's set for your language/preference.

An alternative and more advanced way is to use package csquotes with which you can define how quotation marks should appear, define AutoQuotationMarks etc. and as "side-effect" the package will make sure you don't forget closing marks when opening marks are existent. But, for this you'll need to input some code and use ERT boxes.

(b) on some pages justification seemed to be on and on others it definitely wasn't

For this you should provide an example. Justification is on by default on all pages. If you didn't manually break any lines, justification should be on. As I said, provide a Minimal Working Example. Since you're using LyX, not "plain" LaTeX, zip .lyx file and post it here.

(c) on some pages a single line went a long way into the margin

LaTeX is very picky about word spacing. It will find optimal place to break lines, hyphenate the last word etc. in most cases. But, if it cannot find a place to finish the line and start another which is inside allowable boundaries set for spacing, it will simply stick the word into the margin and leave to user to tell it where to make a break. For solving this one, you actually have couple of solutions of which I'll mention three:

1. You can use alternative hyphenation points: Insert > Formatting > Hyphenation Point to tell LaTeX where it may break the word

2. Use \sloppy command in the Preamble (or inside the text). This command makes sure there is no words sticking into the margin, but don't expect optimal word spacing. In fact, you may get a very large spacings which really look bad.

3. This one applies if you're using memoir package: you can use \midsloppy which is less pick than \fussy, but not so much tolerable as \sloppy.

You may use \sloppy in combination with \fussy (which is LaTeX default). E.g. you may use Ctrl+L and input \sloppy before the paragraph which contains problematic word(s) in the terms of hyphenation and line break, and after the paragraph input \fussy in ERT box to activate default again.

(d) at times there seemed to be double spaces after a period and sometimes not.

You may set singlespacing after punctuation by putting the command \frenchspacing in the preamble. Actually, it seems that many typographers today consider doublespacing unnecessary.

I thought that LyX was supposed to offer superb typography, and was surprised by the difficulties I encountered.

Actually, it aims for good typography without need to learn LaTeX. If you really want superb typography, you'll have to learn at least LaTeX basics. LyX is good for starters, but it is a little bit limited comparing to "full-blown" LaTeX editors and working with LaTeX code directly.

BTW, if you plan to use LyX, you really should read its documentation which mentioned all above problems.

Saying all that, learning LaTeX isn't a simple task, but once you went through some basics, you'll see why TeX is the most powerful typesetting system. As I always say, consider learning LaTeX an investment

[VintageReader]

I am considering learning using LaTeX, although I had hoped to start by using LyX and work my way up to LaTeX.

In my more serious writing (not the little quarterly I was trying to produce with LyX) I MUST have the ability to insert endnotes (NOT footnotes). I only see the option to insert footnotes in LyX, but I read somewhere that in LyX there was a way to convert the footnotes into endnotes. Is that true? If not, that's a dealbreaker; I guess I will have to learn LaTeX or abandon the program for something like SoftMaker's TextMaker (or keep using the Atlantis Word Processor -- that's the program that I am using most right now).

I kind of thought (from what is said in the Introduction to LyX) that the whole point of LyX was that you didn't have to worry much about the typesetting. But it sounds like there still would be a lot that I would need to do -- by inserting codes?

To clarify what I wrote about the problems with quotation marks:

I used the book memoir style and specified the Times font, which has "curly" double and single quote marks. I wanted the quote mark to curl to the right at the beginning of the quote, and curl to the left at the end of the quote -- this would be automatically done in any word processing program I have ever used. However, often the quote mark would be turned the wrong way. I saw no way that I had caused this problem, and thus no way to fix it.


I think I need to get a program that can zip files (a family member suggests TugZip, but I'm not sure it works with Vista). I will upload the file when I figure that out -- like I said, I'm not computer illiterate, but I do have quite a few gaps in my education that need filling out.

[analbumcover]

In my more serious writing (not the little quarterly I was trying to produce with LyX) I MUST have the ability to insert endnotes (NOT footnotes). I only see the option to insert footnotes in LyX, but I read somewhere that in LyX there was a way to convert the footnotes into endnotes. Is that true? If not, that's a dealbreaker; I guess I will have to learn LaTeX or abandon the program for something like SoftMaker's TextMaker (or keep using the Atlantis Word Processor -- that's the program that I am using most right now).

This is easy as of Lyx 1.6.

Go to Document -> Settings, and then select Modules on the left side of the window. Select the module 'Foot to End' and click 'Add'. Then hit Save as Document Defaults if you'd like all footnotes to be endnotes. Otherwise, just hit OK to close the window. Now, go to the very bottom of the document and click on the red TEX button up on the toolbar. This will give you a red box in which to put LaTeX code. You'll want to type in

Code: Select all

\theendnotes

which will indicate where you want your end notes to be.

[meho_r]

Regarding quotes, I noticed that when you define the look of quotes before you start writing, you get correct quotes. But, there's no automatic conversion for existing text. The problem with LyX is that Search-Replace doesn't find quotes (or am I missing something?) One more limitation of LyX, unfortunately.