LyX too complex? ... Re: Automatic page numbering in OpenOffice

[Todd Denniston]

Fernando Cassia wrote, On 12/23/-28158 02:59 PM:
> On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 1:46 PM, Hiisi <very-cool at rambler.ru> wrote:
>>> From: Fernando Cassia <fcassia at gmail.com>
>>> On Sat, Sep 12, 2009 at 4:03 AM, Hiisi <very-cool at rambler.ru> wrote:
>>>> If you just want to create quality looking documents and you want it
>>>> easy try LyX. It's TeX based document processor
>>> ROFL!! You could also tell him to use vi and type postscript by hand.
>>>
>>> Someone is complaining that he finds OpenOffice "hard" to use and you
>>> refer him to even more obscure applications that only math freaks
>>> love...
>>>
>>> FC
>>>
>>>
>> I'm not freak. I have a lot of complexes but not a complex of idiot.
>> ...
> ...
> However I am heavily against forcing users to adapt to complex
> applications with user-hostile interfaces in the age of modern,
> user-friendly apps like OpenOffice.
> 
> FC

I should probably let it go... And this does not even attempt to answer the OPs question of how to 
do the thing in OOo...
FC, what is your favorite Word Processing program? (some how I get the feeling that you have at 
least dabbled in other WPs than word a-likes, and I am curious.)
* LyX, Complex as compared to Word/OOo? As long as I am only changing the font size and color, 
Word/OOo MIGHT win.
* I am not a math person.
* I have given up on trying to write anything other than the big (32pt font) red "don't open this 
door on penalty of death." signs with word or open office, because I use lists quite often (ugh, I 
am even doing it here :) and doing lists in word/OOo is (to me) only a path to madness (especially 
nested lists).
* have you tried LyX (lately)?

LyX is not vi, and it is not an emacs front end to TeX. Knowledge of (La)Tex is not required for 
normal things. I think that for most things a person could get to creating usable documents by 
typing the text of one of their documents in and then learning what effects choosing other than 
'Standard' in the drop down box has on each line of their text. or take the easy route and read
Help -> Introduction
and
Help -> Tutorial
... Total of 47 pages if a person reads them all instead of just picking the bits of interest.
and if only chapter 2 (7 pages) of the Tutorial was read, the AVERAGE word processor user could 
probably accomplish most of the USEFUL things they do in the average word processor fairly quickly.
Granted I also believe the _average_ word processor user does not read any manual unless some one 
makes them, and I did not read much of the LyX docs until I wanted to do some less than normal things.



BTW thanks to Rex we can `yum install lyx` and have a taste quickly.

-- 
Todd Denniston
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane)
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter