[texhax] MS Word & Mathtype to TeX

[John C Frain]

At this stage I feel that I must refute some of the points in case
they cause any other person to decide against using a LaTeX/TeX based
type setting system.  You are entitled to your opinions but errors in
fact must be corrected.

> By comparison, I consider MS Word very stable. I currently still use the
> 2000 version,
>
> since I cannot afford an upgrade.
>
An 11 year old version of a program does not change in 11 years.  Some
time you should have alook at the 2007 version and then consider if
the program is stable.  If you want a more modern WP program you
should look at OpenOffice, LibreOffice or Abiword.  Any way if a
journal editor insisted on a current MS Word format you could not
produce it with Word 2000.

>
> It is that bewildering mess of strange filenames with file endings (like .gz
> ??)
>
> that cannot be opened by any program on my (Windows-based) computer
>
> NOT by any program it tries to locate out on the internet
>
> that has put me off from TeX,
>
Yes TeX systems do generate a lot of file extensions.  Most of these
are of no concern to the user. If you are concerned about .gz files
then google "gz Windows" and get about 63,800,000 results.  Nearly
everything on the first page of results provides a solution to the use
of these files. I have not looked at subsequent pages.  I recommend
7-Zip which is my main program for expanding and creating compacted
archives.   If you follow my earlier advice you will have no need to
do anything with .gz files.



> that has caused me to download TeX half a dozen times in the past 20 years,
>
> give up, get no farther than that, then delete it from my computer.
>
You are going about this the wrong way.  You should try Protext.  To
quote from the proTeXt web site
"proTeXt aims to be an easy-to-install TeX distribution for Windows,
based on MiKTeX. After downloading, it guides the installation via a
short pdf document (available in English, French, German, and
Italian), which provides clickable links to install the various
components, along with explanations".

This installation proceeds like any other Windows installation.  On
the proTeXt web page (http://www.tug.org/protext/) there are links to
intoductory online documentation and tutorials.

>
> If you think I am asking a lot of questions and making a lot of responses
> now,
>
> if I were to get into this whole TeX thing
>
> I'd be contacting the TeX support group TWENTY times as often with
> questions,
>
> even just to find something if you direct me to a help menu or help log.

If you read even some of the documentation on the proTeXt introductory
documentation link I don't see where you will have the problem.  If
you sit and look at something and continually say that you can not do
it then you will never do it.  If you consider that WORD 2000 is the
optimum solution for you then that is your decision.  I don't think
that you will persuade anyone else on this list that you are right.

Best of luck with your editors.

John

-- 
John C Frain
Economics Department
Trinity College Dublin
Dublin 2
Ireland
www.tcd.ie/Economics/staff/frainj/home.html
mailto:frainj at tcd.ie
mailto:frainj at gmail.com