LaTex: Is It Still Relevant for Physics Students?

[Dopplershift]

As a current Physics student, I am wondering if LaTex is still worth learning?

How often is LaTex still used, and do you think WYSIWYG editors like Microsoft Word has replaced the need to learn LaTex?

I appreciate your opinions. Thanks

 

[dipole]

Everyone uses [itex] \LaTeX [/itex], and the basics are very simple.

 

[Hector Mata]

LaTeX is probably worth learning even if you are not a physicist, if only for the sake of producing ordered, clean, structured documents. You can achieve any result of Microsoft Word with LaTex (though sometimes it takes creativity and some coding skills), plus there's lots automated functions built in (LaTeX keeps track of numbering and names of chapters, sections, figures, equations, etc. for you, so you can focus on the content of your work and not the layout or referencing). Also, many journals expect you to submit a LaTeX document and usually provide a LaTeX template for you to use.

 

[Dopplershift]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I will learn LaTex then.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

It's what we use here :)

https://www.physicsforums.com/help/latexhelp/

 

[e.bar.goum]

Thanks for the detailed reply. I will learn LaTex then.

Just a warning: After you've learned LaTeX, you'll never go back to Word!

It's not too hard to learn, incredibly powerful, and it gives, oh, so pretty results. Frankly, I wouldn't use anything else to typset a serious document.

However, there are WYSIWYG editors for LaTeX that remove some of the learning curve for you. Personally, I don't use a WYSIWYG editor, but I know those who do, and they seem to like them well enough. There are also dedicated LaTeX (non-WYSIWYG) editors like Kile that are pretty great.

 

[micromass]

How often is LaTex still used, and do you think WYSIWYG editors like Microsoft Word has replaced the need to learn LaTex?

It's very easy to see when a math document is made by word. It usually makes me think less about the document. The result with LaTeX is so much more beautiful. Whenever I receive an email attachment and it's Word, it puts me in a bad mood.

#LaTeXDieHard

 

[Dopplershift]

I just started to learn LaTex, and the first few minutes, it seems pretty easy. To be honest, it's easier to type equations with LaTex than it is with word, and you are right, the equation output is so much more beautiful than Word. I always thought that Word made equations look fairly ugly.

Thanks for the replies everyone! :)

 

[JorisL]

What's nice too is that if you ever have to produce x letters which are personalized toward the receiving party (address line and name for example) you can use the commandline to produce them in minutes. (Unix-style terminal emulators do exist for windows)

Oh and did I mention the beauty of the output? ^_^

 

[Hepth]

Also, there are some decent packages (beamer) for presentations rather than powerpoint. Takes longer to make for sure, but you can copy-past equations out of papers easily, and it always looks nice. Everyone seems to use beamer in physics.

 

[JorisL]

Beamer has a bit of a learning curve.
After 2 presentations it's just as fast (maybe even faster because you have absolute control over positioning) as powerpoint and the likes.
At least that's my opinion.

 

[SF49erfan]

LaTeX is probably worth learning even if you are not a physicist, if only for the sake of producing ordered, clean, structured documents. You can achieve any result of Microsoft Word with LaTex (though sometimes it takes creativity and some coding skills), plus there's lots automated functions built in (LaTeX keeps track of numbering and names of chapters, sections, figures, equations, etc. for you, so you can focus on the content of your work and not the layout or referencing). Also, many journals expect you to submit a LaTeX document and usually provide a LaTeX template for you to use.

I'm currently undecided on a major (having taken math, computer programming & science, and sociology courses heavily the past year), but would LaTex be useful to non-STEM fields or general everyday life?

I've wondered also if I should take it up.
Thanks.

 

[micromass]

I'm currently undecided on a major (having taken math, computer programming & science, and sociology courses heavily the past year), but would LaTex be useful to non-STEM fields or general everyday life?

I use LaTeX for every document I need to make, so yes I think it's useful. Now, when typing a regular (non math) document, then word can do everything LaTeX does, but LaTeX is still prettier.

 

[e.bar.goum]

I use LaTeX for every document I need to make, so yes I think it's useful. Now, when typing a regular (non math) document, then word can do everything LaTeX does, but LaTeX is still prettier.

Especially with

\usepackage{microtype}

in your preamble...

 

[H Smith 94]

As a current Physics student, I am wondering if LaTex is still worth learning?

How often is LaTex still used, and do you think WYSIWYG editors like Microsoft Word has replaced the need to learn LaTex?

I'm also a physics student and I use ##\LaTeX## for all my reports. There's just something about the way LaTeX documents look that screams "professionalism," which is an important thing when trying to stand out from the crowd (there are lots of physics students nowadays.)

I've found that while working in my current job I've been less likely to read papers or articles written in word: equations written in Word's equations editor stand out like a sore thumb compared to the beauty of LaTeX equations. I suppose LaTeX suggests the author has more scientific competence in some way.

I have also found that my lab reports are graded by an extra 10-15% when typeset in LaTeX, whether consciously or not on the examiner's part. It's certainly a useful tool to know how to use.

 

[H Smith 94]

Especially with

\usepackage{microtype}

in your preamble...

Oh wow, my eyes approve. Great suggestion!

 

[e.bar.goum]

Oh wow, my eyes approve. Great suggestion!

It's just so great, isn't it? I only found out about it a few weeks ago, and I'm a big fan.

The other package I make sure everyone knows about is "todonotes". It's extremely useful, especially for longer documents.

 

[epenguin]

It's just so great, isn't it? I only found out about it a few weeks ago, and I'm a big fan.
.

Maybe Latex awareness is a generation thing? I have been using it for some years, but only for writing mathematical formulae on PF - and then only when I have to - i.e. when straight text like (ax + b)/cx + d) would be unacceptably hard reading. Because I find it time-consuming hard work, and depending what device I'm using there can be a bit of hassle in fetching characters like {} etc. and wysiwyg it isn't.

But anyway I have in this way used it for a number of years for writing mathematical formulae.

The generation thing is that till today I thought that was all it was used for!

 

[JorisL]

It's just so great, isn't it? I only found out about it a few weeks ago, and I'm a big fan.

The other package I make sure everyone knows about is "todonotes". It's extremely useful, especially for longer documents.

It's also very useful when you're working on the same document with 2 persons

 

[gfd43tg]

I know how to type latex on these forums, but I never knew about latex document programs that function similar to Microsoft word. What should I download? I'm interested to try it out

 

[Silicon Waffle]

As e.bar.goum suggested, you can use Kile on both Windows and Linux.

 

[micromass]

I know how to type latex on these forums, but I never knew about latex document programs that function similar to Microsoft word. What should I download? I'm interested to try it out

I would advise you to stay away from those. Not being WYSIWYG is an advantage.

 

[gfd43tg]

I don't know what WYSIWYG is. Do you have something in mind that maybe you use?

 

[micromass]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WYSIWYG

 

[gfd43tg]

nevermind, this thing seems like more trouble than its worth. Don't fix something that isn't broken !

 

[jedishrfu]

Here's one for Open Office:

http://ooolatex.sourceforge.net

and old discussion on PF for MS Word:

https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/can-i-use-latex-with-microsoft-word.28095/

 

[Chestermiller]

In my humble opinion, the LaTex equation editor sucks compared to the Microsoft Word equation editor.

Chet

 

[micromass]

In my humble opinion, the LaTex equation editor sucks compared to the Microsoft Word equation editor.

Chet

What is the LaTeX equation editor?

 

[Chestermiller]

What is the LaTeX equation editor?

What I mean is the composition of equations in LaTex compared to using the Word equation editor.

 

[robphy]

In my opinion, it depends on what you are doing.
In some cases (especially the simple ones), the Word Equation editor is okay.
In others (especially in a sequence of steps in a derivation), the LaTeX markup is better and offers more fine control.
In full MathType (not just the version they built for Microsoft), you can compose equations in LaTeX and still use the toolbar.
I haven't played with the new Equation Editor in the newer versions of Word (on Windows)... since I use MathType.

(Looking back to the old thread (from 2004) that was posted,
I'm still waiting for a handwriting-to-typeset equation feature.
Microsoft did come out with a crude one... but it only generated an image, not an equation-type object that can be edited.)

 

[Chestermiller]

In my opinion, it depends on what you are doing.
In some cases (especially the simple ones), the Word Equation editor is okay.
In others (especially in a sequence of steps in a derivation), the LaTeX markup is better and offers more fine control.
In full MathType (not just the version they built for Microsoft), you can compose equations in LaTeX and still use the toolbar.
I haven't played with the new Equation Editor in the newer versions of Word (on Windows)... since I use MathType.

I've used LaTex quite a bit in Physics Forums and I've used Microsoft Word Equation Editor quite a bit professionally. Many of the equations that I composed with the Microsoft Word Equation Editor were pretty complicated (in my judgement). The big advantage of the Word equation editor is that the equation looks like an equation as you are composing it. In LaTex, the final equations are beautiful, but the composed text of the equations is, in my opinion, often very hard to relate to, particularly if there is lots of nesting of different kinds of parenthesis.

Chet

 

[H Smith 94]

What should I download? I'm interested to try it out

Download MikTeX and TeXstudio to get started with WYSIWYM LaTeX/TeX.

Unless you're looking for a WYSIWYG LaTeX editor, in which case there are not many good ones. The best is probably BaKoMa TeX, which costs money and is still not very stable in my opinion. LyX is not WYSIWYG but is close to it. It's a very popular option for TeX newbies.

 

[DrClaude]

There is a WYSIWYG LaTeX equation editor: EqualX

 

[Dopplershift]

I know how to type latex on these forums, but I never knew about latex document programs that function similar to Microsoft word. What should I download? I'm interested to try it out

As for downloading, I do not know. But there are plenty online ones. The one that I've been using and like is Overleaf. It's an online LaTex editor.

 

[JorisL]

Sharelatex is nice too