General ⇒ word to latex workflow

[964racer]

I'm in the process of writing a thesis, but I am starting with word 2011 , partially because I need a draft document in word format that others can read/change and partially because I was given a required style template in word.

My plan is to use word to create/edit/check all the text, roughly get figures into place and then finally typeset it in Latex. I'm a beginner in Latex but have tried a few of the thesis tutorials out there, so I have a little experience. My plan was to start with the book or report document class as this was what was described in the tutorial that I went through and make any style modification as needed.

Are there any suggestions out there on the workflow in starting with a word doc and going to latex ? Since I did the tutorial in "vi", my plan was to just use Emacs or vi and just cut and paste the text sections from the word doc into the latex file as I go and use the basic commands in a script to convert/preview a PDF.. Some folks have suggested that I use some other applications to edit Latex code. I'm on a mac.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Johannes_B]

To tell the truth, writing in word and »getting the figures roughly in place« isn't a good way to start a latex document. There are converters from word to latex (or better even going from word to html to latex), but all machine generated code will be bad.

When collaborating with others [1], i would recommend either to stay with one format (word) or all involved change to plain text files, which one person converts to latex.

You can get a running start by reading LaTeX for complete noviced.

[1] Should other people be able to change your document?

[964racer]

I don't think anyone will actually edit or change the document, but they may want to provide comments. The thesis document is not really a collaboration in these same way that a research paper with several authors may be in this case.

I am using word as really a composition tool, mainly to get the language right, do spell checking etc. Since I am on a pretty tight deadline, it is nice to have a backup version available in word, given that may confidence level in producing a finished LaTex document is not very high at the moment because I have only done a simple paper in LaTex. I need to be able to make some style changes and add some complex figures/tables (most of which are complete already, but I am not familiar with all the file format translators available for LaTex.

My main interest in producing a LaTex final is that I am impressed with the quality of the output based on others examples I have seen. If I am spending so much time writing the thesis and doing the research, it would be nice to have a final product that I am proud of and word output is falling short of that