TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange
TeX - LaTeX Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [latex-misc]

Questions about LaTeX which do not fit any of the more specific tags: strongly prefer a more specific tag.

172 questions
807
votes
34 answers

How can I explain the meaning of LaTeX to my grandma?

I wrote a book about LaTeX, and my proud grandma wanted to have a copy. So she got it, said "What a beautiful picture on the cover!" and - "What is this, LaTeX?". She doesn't know Word, never used a computer. But she reads books. How can I explain…
Stefan Kottwitz
  • 231,401
190
votes
23 answers

Why should I use LaTeX?

I have heard a lot about LaTeX, but never used it myself. It is mainly used for typesetting professional research papers. But I am not writing research papers. Is LaTeX for me? If yes, why should I be shifting from OpenOffice to LaTeX? What does…
Lazer
  • 1,204
152
votes
17 answers

LaTeX in Industry

I know LaTeX is used a lot in academia to format papers and dissertations. How is LaTeX used in industry and what are some examples? I am wondering whether knowing LyX will give me a leverage when applying to jobs.
Concerned_Citizen
  • 1,853
77
votes
6 answers

How do package authors find the time?

Not sure if this question belongs here, on the main site, or not on TeX.SX at all. Let me know if it belongs somewhere else. I have recently made some leaps in my knowledge of LaTeX, in particular its packages. I am very impressed by projects like…
gerrit
  • 5,165
51
votes
5 answers

How best to procrastinate and learn LaTeX?

Slightly tongue-in-cheek this one but written in good faith... I am a competent user of LaTeX and use it with Eclipse as IDE, MacTexlive as install, and XeTeX as engine to author my PhD. However, there are times when I like to procrastinate and love…
DGarside
  • 839
28
votes
3 answers

Why are there lowercase letters in TeX and LaTeX?

Notice that the letters here are all uppercase. Is there any reason why we write TeX and LaTeX respectively? Is it for emphasis? Or does it just make it look similar to the staggered lettering of their logos?
Manishearth
  • 949
28
votes
5 answers

LaTeX architecture - how does it all work?

I'm interested in the general application architecture, how it hangs together. I know it was originally written by Knuth, and it's clear others can write plugin packages to achieve certain things, but what is the overall application structure? How…
flesh
  • 1,241
27
votes
6 answers

Would using LaTeX instead of LibreOffice benefit me for writing my dissertation?

I am a complete LaTeX/TeX novice. I know nothing about it and have never used it. I have been reading about it today as it was been recommended to me but I can't work out if it is suitable for my use case. I am still in the planning stages of…
Baldrick
  • 373
25
votes
6 answers

Is LaTeX outdated?

Word processors are getting better these days, and I'm wondering if LaTeX was a solution in the past for a buggy Microsoft Word, and it programmatically gave you the options to do formatting. I'm just starting out with LaTeX, and I find it quite…
alexyorke
  • 1,113
24
votes
3 answers

Just curiosity about the 'LaTeX' name

It's common knowledge that the word 'TeX' was inspired by the Greek word 'τεχ' pronounced "tech". Just for satisfying my curiosity, anyone knows from where comes the letters 'La' in LaTeX?
Paper Eater
  • 241
24
votes
3 answers

What would draw a student of the humanities to (La)TeX systems?

I've been given permission to put up a poster in the campus writing center. The primary users of this writing center are from the humanities—those students who need to write rather long papers on a regular basis. Given that it is strictly…
Sean Allred
  • 27,421
22
votes
2 answers

Get certified in TeX/LaTeX

I was wondering if there are any ways to get certified in TeX/LaTeX? This would be useful, e.g. for providing a way of quantifying the expertise someone has with TeX, LaTeX or other TeX flavors.
digital-Ink
  • 3,083
20
votes
3 answers

Statistics about LaTeX use in the world

Are there any statistics about the use of LaTeX in the world? In which countries? In which journals/fields of research? Number of articles using LaTeX? etc.?
Tal Galili
  • 1,389
18
votes
4 answers

What is the largest work that has been published using LaTeX?

We have showcases of beautiful works using LaTeX. We have talked about beautiful tables, beautiful thesis, beautiful page headers, even beautiful labels. I am curious to know, what is the largest work that has been handled using LaTeX? Those with…
Masroor
  • 17,842
16
votes
1 answer

Why LaTeX2e has this name?

LaTeX2e is, if I don't make any mistake, the successor of LaTeX 2.09, and was published in 1994 (I was 4 year old !). My question is very simple : why has called it LaTeX2e and not, for example LaTeX 2.10 ?
Maïeul
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