Latex and word comparison

LaTeX and Word are two different types of text editing and processing systems, each of which has its own strengths. To make a comprehensive evaluation of the text editing performance and ease of use, Word is superior to LaTeX, only "What you see is what you get" means that Word will win the vast majority of users, but the evaluation results will be different only in academic reports and scientific papers:

 

 

Start from scratch

Word features "What you see is what you get", and its basic functions are easy for beginners to master. Many Word users have no knowledge of their own. However, as the length and complexity increase, the effort and time spent on the document format will increase significantly, as shown in the blue diagram. Because creating custom numbers, cross-references, indexes, and references is not "What you see is what you get", you have to be able to read the Word online help repeatedly or help with related software.

For beginners of LaTeX, it is a very simple article in orchestration. It also takes a lot of effort and time to learn those boring commands and syntaxes, especially to write mathematical formulas, which often lead to errors, compilation fails for multiple times, so many beginners are discouraged. However, once mastered, the documents will be completed skillfully and quickly regardless of the length and complexity of the documents. The previous effort to learn LaTeX will be rewarded, as shown in the red diagram.

　

Energy and time consumption

File size and complexity

　

Content and Style

When writing with Word, it takes a lot of effort to repeatedly choose and compare text parameters such as page layout, Chapter style, font attributes, alignment, and line spacing, especially long articles, the style format is inconsistent due to negligence. When one chapter or chapter order is inserted or deleted in the manuscript, the titles, charts, formulas, and other numbers of each chapter must be modified by hand. A duplicate or skip sign will appear if you are careful. You are both an author and an editor.

If you have no special requirements for using LaTeX for editing, you only need to tell LaTeX the document type (article, report, or book), and you can write articles with your mind, all the details of the Document Style are centrally planned by LaTeX, which is very thoughtful and meticulous. When you modify the manuscript, the positions of the chapters, charts, and formulas can be adjusted as needed, no number is required, because there is no number in the source file. All numbers in the file are automatically added at the end of the compilation, so there is no error.

In other words, Word integrates the content and style of the document, while LaTeX separates them. The author only needs to focus on the content of the document, and the style of the document is almost unnecessary, laTeX is your smart and loyal text secretary. If you have special requirements, you can also use commands to modify the settings. LaTeX will automatically update related settings.

Most of the publishers that accept LaTeX articles have their own document style templates, mainly a type file package, referred to as a class package. If the manuscript is not used by publishing house A, you only need to change the name of the class package in the first sentence of the manuscript from publishing house a to Publishing House B, and the style of the entire article will be automatically converted. In one sentence, Word cannot be simple. However, Word cannot do this because of the original "system.

　

Mathematical formula

Word has a public editor that allows you to edit common mathematical formulas, but it is inconvenient to use and has poor appearance and cannot be automatically numbered. In particular, it is difficult to be part of the text and integrate it into a certain line, most of them are dedicated to one line. Complex mathematical formulas are difficult to edit. Some users have to install the tool Math-Type that can be embedded into the Word environment to make up for this deficiency.

One of LaTeX's specialties is mathematical formula editing. The method is simple and intuitive, and the formula looks exquisite and delicate. The more complicated the formula is, the more obvious it is. The regular single-line formula can be inserted between lines like plain text. The following three examples are compared. Word is divided into two situations: one is the screen display effect of the doc format, and the other is the effect of converting the DOC format file to the PDF format through Acrobat:

　

Word:
LaTeX:

　

Word, not properly connected, wide line spacing:

LaTeX, neatly integrated, with the same line spacing:

　

Word:

LaTeX:

　

Although by default, the arrangement of mathematical formulas can be exquisite and beautiful, LaTeX still provides many adjustment commands to make more minor adjustments to the appearance of the formulas to make them perfect.

　

Insert Graph

Word has a drawing tool, which is simple and intuitive, but has limited functions. Most of the complex graphics in this paper are drawn using powerful drawing software such as Visio and Photoshop, and then inserted into Word.

LaTeX itself also has simple drawing functions, such as calling Various Drawing macro packages, which can draw very complex graphics. The disadvantage is that it is not intuitive, the command format is cumbersome, and it is not easy to master, actually programming. You can also use Visio to draw a drawing and paste it to Adobe Illustrator. After further processing the image details, store the drawing in PDF or EPS format. Finally, use the illustration command to call the LaTeX source file, the effect is more refined.

　

Create references

Word currently does not have the ability to manage references. Users generally use Reference Manager or NoteExpress and other external tools to solve this problem.

Creating references is LaTeX's strength. LaTeX comes with a Helper Program. It can search for one or more document databases based on the author's search requirements, and then automatically creates a list of required references for the document. If other files use the same references, you can directly reference this database. You can set the style and sorting method of references.

Many well-known Science and Technology Publication publishers, academic organizations, and TUG websites provide related documents database files, which can be downloaded for free.

Display and Output

In terms of text alignment, font conversion, spelling check, Word spacing control, automatic Word breaking, and automatic line feed, Word is almost the same as LaTeX after several upgrades, however, the typographical effect is different. Take the Times font as an example. In Word, the spacing between "Ta" and "PA" is loose, as shown in. LaTeX further optimizes and adjusts the letter spacing of various spelling combinations to make the text more neatly and uniformly.

　

Word:
LaTeX:

 

When changing the line, LaTeX can not only automatically break words according to the syllable, but also set the word breaking according to the author's requirements. A word can be set with multiple word breaking methods, it is especially suitable for the repeated specialized words or thumbnail writing in scientific papers. This ensures that word spacing is even and is not easy to misunderstand.

In the manuscripts of Scientific and Technological works, you can often see that some of the arguments are accompanied by instructions, origins, or research; or some paragraphs are written with black bars to indicate deletion; or you can write supplementary texts in the blank area. Using annotation in the LaTeX source file can completely preserve the above content for future use, which is not visible in the compiled PDF file. Scientific research papers must be reviewed and modified multiple times. The comment function is very practical. The Word "What you see is what you get" does not have this function, and the content it deletes will be desired again.

In a paper, the appearance of Word la s differs greatly from that of the ox, and "What you see is what you get" has become a major disadvantage, because Word itself cannot help the author beautify the work and what you arrange, that is: "What you get is what you see", just like painting on white paper, all based on your understanding and inspiration. LaTeX beginners and experts have very little difference in their typographical appearance. They only have different speed and can reach the professional publishing level. This is a major advantage of LaTeX. As long as they have consistent ideas, they can get the same results, that is, "What you think is what you get ".

At present, the PDF format has become the publishing standard for various organizations around the world to distribute and exchange electronic files more securely and reliably. Most scientific papers use the PDF format. LaTeX can directly output PDF, PS, or DVI files; while Word outputs DOC files, you must also purchase Adobe Acrobat software to convert DOC to PDF; in addition, the mathematical formula in the image or the mathematical upper and lower mark in the text often have problems such as the larger position offset after conversion.

　

Scalability

You can expand functions of LaTeX or add new functions like building blocks. For example, loading a CJK macro package can process Chinese characters. Calling the eucal macro package can change the characters in the mathematical formula to the Euler's writing body. If you are not satisfied with the effect of a macro package, you can open it and modify it, or even write it by yourself. The vast majority of these appendable macro package files can be downloaded from websites such as CTAN for free.

Due to the design prefix, the TeX \ LaTeX program system has not been changed for decades, and due to its scalability, LaTeX will remain advanced, that is, learning and using LaTeX will never be outdated. For example, by calling the relevant expansion macro package, LaTeX immediately has the ability to typeset high-quality and high professional levels like chess, five-line music, or chemical molecules. For LaTeX's flexible, simple, and free scalability, Word can only look at the dust.

　

Stability and security

A Science and Technology paper contains dozens of pages and hundreds of pages, many of which contain graphs and formulas (Word processes formulas as graphs). It is precisely because Word "What you see is what you get ", all the images in this paper must be completely inserted into the page. As the size of a file increases, the processing speed slows down significantly. Writing a thesis requires countless times to open, save, and close. It often takes a long time to wait, or even shut down, or the document cannot be opened. Therefore, Word often prompts "file recovery, however, the image is likely to be lost and replaced by a small Red Cross. Splitting a file into multiple sub-files can alleviate this problem, but it may be difficult to automatically create directories, indexes and references; if the unit, chart, and formula need to be changed between subfiles, the numbers are all messy.

LaTeX is a plain text file, and all images are transferred at the final compilation. In the same article, the LaTeX source file is only a tenth of the size of the Word file. Therefore, the length of LaTeX source files does not significantly affect the file access and editing process. LaTeX also allows multiple sub-files. Chapters and charts can be added or deleted at will. LaTeX summarizes and sorts all sub-files at the final compilation, generate a Unified File page number, title number, chart and formula number, and various directories.

Word has been constantly updated since its launch, and it is often required to download patches to prevent virus attacks. LaTeX and its predecessor TeX have not found any system vulnerabilities in the last two decades. Even if there is a vulnerability, the risk of source file damage is minimal. So far, no macro contains viruses.

　

Version compatibility

Word has been in multiple versions for more than a decade and can only be backward compatible. Old files are opened in the new version, and problems such as changing the font and text positions often occur.

LaTeX also has several versions over the past 20 years, but they are compatible with each other. The old files are opened in the new version, and the text is not distorted at all. In addition, new features can be added, such as hypertext links and PDF bookmarks that have been popular in recent years.

　

Versatility

With the improvement of computer hardware and software performance, more and more users are using Unix/Linux, Mac OS or other operating systems on PC. Because the program source code of the LaTeX system is open, people have developed versions for various operating systems, and all LaTeX source files use internationally accepted ASCII characters, therefore, LaTeX and its source files can be used and disseminated across platforms and systems without hindrance.

Word can only run on Windows operating systems.

　

Professor Gartner once said: the primary goal of the TeX typographical system is high quality. The effect of file printing is not only good, but also the best. LaTeX is the software designed specifically for high-quality typographical papers. Of course, the performance in this aspect is very outstanding. In the opinion of many LaTeX fans, LaTeX is not only a text editing and typographical tool, but also an art that gives us beautiful enjoyment. However, the pursuit of perfection requires a certain price. If it is worthwhile, you have to say it!

LaTeX editorial department

　

 

I hope to die before I have to use Microsoft Word.
D. E. Knuth

 

Latex vs. MS Word

For those people who have never used anything other than Word for pro-ducing a document will be in for a shock when it comes to writing their first La-tex document.

　

The beauty of LaTeX

Compares font rendering and typographic accuracy in WYSIWYG word pro-cessors (like Microsoft Word) and LaTeX.

　

Whether to use LaTeX

LaTeX (or TeX) may be "overkill" if you 've never used it and are only pro-ducing a newspaper or a novel or a slick advertisement or a letter to Aunt Henrietta. that can be done with Word or Quark or FrameMaker etc.

Colorado University

　

Why LaTeX?

Advantages and disadvantages of using LaTeX versus Adobe Pagemaker and Microsoft Word.

　

Word Processors: Stupid and Inefficient

Compared with TeX or LaTeX, this article analyzes in detail the defects of commonly used "WYSIWYG" word processing software.

Allin Cottrell

　

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