Thoughts on LaTeX

Here is a thoughtful article on what LaTeX is and why you should use it. It includes a link to this list of common typesetting mistakes, which reminds me of Donald Knuth quote in which he partially laments having written TeX, since now he can’t order breakfast without scrutinizing the fonts on the menu. A problem I know all-too-well. Why, oh why, did I ever have to work in the publishing industry? So if you’re interested in learning more about what LaTeX is all about, give the article a read. Then read my tutorial to get started.

I thought I’d actually talk about some situations where it’s inefficient to use LaTeX. The beauty of LaTeX is that is had predefined commands and visual styles for elements common to academic writing — section headings, tables, figures, lists, quotes and equations. If you’re making a document that contains a lot of non-standard formatting, it might be smarter to use a wysiwyg system like Word or OpenOffice.org Writer. For example, there are several classes for making CVs and resumes in LaTeX, but if you have a special format that you want, it could take many times as long to create a custom LaTeX class as it would to just do it in Word. And if you’re not going to be making many documents using that same format, why bother?

I don’t want to give the wrong impression. I think LaTeX is the tool for serious academic writing; it’s smarter, more efficient, and creates better-quality documents. But I also believe in using the right tool for the job, and sometimes advocates of a specific technology can get a little over zealous.