Generalco-editing LaTeX documents in Word (or similar)?

LaTeX specific issues not fitting into one of the other forums of this category.
Post Reply
dax42
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 1:07 pm

co-editing LaTeX documents in Word (or similar)?

Post by dax42 »

Hi there,

I've just started to write my PhD thesis in LaTeX. Of course my supervisor wants to read and edit it, but he doesn't use LaTeX. The only solution I could come up with (except for ditching LaTeX altogether) was to send him the tex document which he would open in Word and make his changes ignoring the commands. I am not actually using many complicated commands (it is not a mathematical thesis), so most of the text is fairly readable. Still, this doesn't seem like a very nice way of doing things. Any better ideas?

Thanks!

Recommended reading 2024:

LaTeXguide.org • LaTeX-Cookbook.net • TikZ.org

NEW: TikZ book now 40% off at Amazon.com for a short time.

User avatar
frabjous
Posts: 2064
Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 12:20 am

Re: co-editing LaTeX documents in Word (or similar)?

Post by frabjous »

Similar topics have come up a lot lately. Perhaps one of these two recent threads would help:

http://www.latex-community.org/forum/vi ... f=5&t=9004

http://www.latex-community.org/forum/vi ... =19&t=9005

If you can convince your supervisor to try LyX, I think that might be the easiest solution on all involved.
meho_r
Posts: 823
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:28 pm

co-editing LaTeX documents in Word (or similar)?

Post by meho_r »

If I may add, in case that your supervisor don't want to try LyX, you may export the document from LyX as OpenDocument format, open it with OpenOffice.org and save it as .doc, if necessary. Export isn't perfect, but works fine for documents that aren't very complex. You may later import it again in LyX (use OpenOffice.org and writer2latex add-on, export the document as .tex than import in LyX).

And, of course, my advice (with which some may disagree) is to send him/her a .pdf file and let them do reviewing with some of PDF viewers which posses reviewing tools (like PDF-XChange Viewer which works great on Windows and Linux). This may seem as a lot of work, but from my personal experience I can tell you it is the safest way.
DaveG
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri Jun 04, 2010 3:29 pm

Re: co-editing LaTeX documents in Word (or similar)?

Post by DaveG »

I agree with Meho.

Let him markup a PDF or a printed version.

Then you own the changes, know what was changed, and keep the formatting from changing, or the pictures, etc., etc.

The review changes stuff in Word - looks good & sounds great, but causes a lot of work when people start editing your* document for you. This has happened to me many times. (I get the document back, they say there are a few changes, and then it takes me hours to get it presentable again.

If he is willing to use LyX (& why not is better than Word in many ways) it might work. I didn't try the versioning facilities.



Dave
* when the candles are burning and it has to be printed at 9am this morning - who is still editing? This person is the owner of the document.
Post Reply