I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Alexandra Ribeiro]

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Hi,

I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis.

 

I'm completely new to TeX and of course to Context but I'm convinced that Microsoft Word is far away from being the right tool for writing a long document. Well, in the past I had some big big headaches.

 

At this moment I've to make a choice: continue using Word or start learning a new tool, which will probably consume much of my time. So, I'm in a dilemma. That's why I'm asking for help.

 

Is it really worth learning Context? I mean, does this package deal efficiently with some important things like TOC, cross-references, bibliography, figures, math, .? Is it too hard to learn (for a mere mortal, of course)? What about support for different languages, in particular for Portuguese?

 

If I choose Context, can some somebody give me some guidelines/advices? 

 

I've already downloaded mswincontext.zip and I'll start studying/testing Context.

 

Thank you.

 

Alex

alex.r@netcabo.pt

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Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Christopher Creutzig]

Alexandra Ribeiro wrote:

> At this moment I’ve to make a choice: continue using Word or start 
> learning a new tool, which will probably consume much of my time. So, 
> I’m in a dilemma. That’s why I’m asking for help.

  Off the top of my head, I'd say you have to ask yourself at least the 
following questions:

- How much time are you willing to spend on a tool?
- How much do you *really* bother about the final appearance?
- What formats is your PhD advisor happy with?
- Assuming you would like to reuse some parts of your thesis for
   independent publications, what formats do the journals in your
   field accept?
- How much help do you need when learning?  How much of this
   can come from a mailing list (and its archives), how much
   must be presented in book format and how much face-to-face
   introduction do you need?  What do people around you know
   and use?

> Is it really worth learning Context? I mean, does this package deal 

  It depends.  For me, definitely, but I've long reached the area in 
LaTeX where doing what I want to do means hacking around the design 
limitations of that system – and that probably implies that I'll have a 
hard time being satisfied by InDesign, OOo or whatever program limited 
by the WYSIWYG approach.

> efficiently with some important things like TOC, cross-references, 
> bibliography, figures, math, …?

  Certainly.  (You did not mention footnotes and multiple indices, but I 
regard those as crucial in any typesetting tool, too.)

>                                 Is it too hard to learn (for a mere 
> mortal, of course)?

  It depends.  The worst thing about ConTeXt is its almost complete lack 
of error diagnostics.  Forget a curly brace somewhere or mistype the 
name of an option and you'll probably spend hours looking for it, the 
first couple of times.  It certainly helps to have some programming 
experience.

>                      What about support for different languages, in 
> particular for Portuguese?

  I don't know any Portuguese, but multiple languages are supported.

> If I choose Context, can some somebody give me some guidelines/advices?

  Do read the manual.  Print it and have it next to your computer.  Make 
notes in there.

  After reading the manual, go to contextgarden.net and click on “Random 
Page” a couple of times.  Do this every morning – you will find a lot of 
things which are completely irrelevant to you (and solve problems of 
others, which is why they are there), but the occasional gem is worth 
the time.


Christopher

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Jörg Hagmann]

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Hi Alex,

I am in a similar situation, just a few months ahead of you. I am 
writing a textbook and decided to do that in Context, without having 
had any experience with TeX or LaTeX.
So far, I am pleased with my decision (my experience covers figures, 
math, tables, footnotes, text and figures in margin - a lot of it 
default stuff - but not yet bibliography, index, fonts (except greek) 
and table of contents).
The discussion group helped me when necessary and politely ignored some 
premature idiotic questions. However, the level of the discussions is 
way above my head, and I at times get the feeling of being an obnoxious 
intruder.
The most important thing: it is fun and often a welcome change from 
writing. It reminds me of old-style photography, where you exposed the 
film and then had to wait, wondering whether the picture would come out 
as hoped or not. But if one doesn't like that, the effort is probably 
too much for a PhD thesis.
Cheers, Jörg.

Prof. Dr.med. Jörg Hagmann-Zanolari
Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics
DKBW, University of Basel
Mattenstrasse 28
CH-4058 Basel
Switzerland
Phone +41 (0)61 6953049

On Jun 17, 2005, at 11:49 AM, Alexandra Ribeiro wrote:

> Hi,
>  
> I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis.
>  
> I’m completely new to TeX and of course to Context but I’m convinced 
> that Microsoft Word is far away from being the right tool for writing 
> a long document. Well, in the past I had some big big headaches…
>  
> At this moment I’ve to make a choice: continue using Word or start 
> learning a new tool, which will probably consume much of my time. So, 
> I’m in a dilemma. That’s why I’m asking for help.
>  
> Is it really worth learning Context? I mean, does this package deal 
> efficiently with some important things like TOC, cross-references, 
> bibliography, figures, math, …? Is it too hard to learn (for a mere 
> mortal, of course)? What about support for different languages, in 
> particular for Portuguese?
>  
> If I choose Context, can some somebody give me some guidelines/advices?
>  
> I’ve already downloaded mswincontext.zip and I’ll start 
> studying/testing Context.
>  
> Thank you.
>  
> Alex
> alex.r@netcabo.pt_______________________________________________
> ntg-context mailing list
> ntg-context@ntg.nl
> http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context

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Hi Alex,


I am in a similar situation, just a few months ahead of you. I am
writing a textbook and decided to do that in Context, without having
had any experience with TeX or LaTeX.

So far, I am pleased with my decision (my experience covers figures,
math, tables, footnotes, text and figures in margin - a lot of it
default stuff - but not yet bibliography, index, fonts (except greek)
and table of contents).

The discussion group helped me when necessary and politely ignored
some premature idiotic questions. However, the level of the
discussions is way above my head, and I at times get the feeling of
being an obnoxious intruder.

The most important thing: it is fun and often a welcome change from
writing. It reminds me of old-style photography, where you exposed the
film and then had to wait, wondering whether the picture would come
out as hoped or not. But if one doesn't like that, the effort is
probably too much for a PhD thesis.

Cheers, Jörg.


Prof. Dr.med. Jörg Hagmann-Zanolari

Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics

DKBW, University of Basel

Mattenstrasse 28

CH-4058 Basel

Switzerland

Phone +41 (0)61 6953049


On Jun 17, 2005, at 11:49 AM, Alexandra Ribeiro wrote:


<excerpt><fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>Hi,</smaller></fontfamily>

 

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>I need some
advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis.</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller> </smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>I’m completely new to TeX and
of course to Context but I’m convinced that Microsoft Word is far away
from being the right tool for writing a long document. Well, in the
past I had some big big headaches…</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller> </smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>At this moment I’ve to make a
choice: continue using Word or start learning a new tool, which will
probably consume much of my time. So, I’m in a dilemma. That’s why I’m
asking for help.</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller> </smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>Is it really worth learning
Context? I mean, does this package deal efficiently with some
important things like TOC, cross-references, bibliography, figures,
math, …? Is it too hard to learn (for a mere mortal, of course)? What
about support for different languages, in particular for Portuguese?</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller> </smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>If I choose Context, can some
somebody give me some guidelines/advices?</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller> </smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>I’ve already downloaded
mswincontext.zip and I’ll start studying/testing Context.</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller> </smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>Thank you.</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller> </smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>Alex</smaller></fontfamily>

<fontfamily><param>Arial</param><smaller>alex.r@netcabo.pt</smaller></fontfamily>_______________________________________________

ntg-context mailing list

ntg-context@ntg.nl

http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context

</excerpt>

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Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[luigi.scarso]

Alexandra Ribeiro wrote:

>Hi,
>
>I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis.
>
> 
>
>I'm completely new to TeX and of course to Context but I'm convinced that Microsoft Word is far away from being the right tool for writing a long document. Well, in the past I had some big big headaches.
>  
>
Here some useful pdfs :

   1. mp-cb-en.pdf:  a first guide to commands;
   2. cont-enp.pdf:   The manual;
   3. metafun-p.pdf: a beautiful book on graphics.


    * mtexexec.pdf:  explain at least how to make pdf from your tex
      document;
    * mtexfont.pdf:   how to install new fonts;
    * mtexutil.pdf:    sometimes I need it to make some works.


You can find them starting from
http://mirror.contextgarden.net/document-1.htm


luigi

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Willi Egger]

Hi Alexandra,

I would say that Christopher and Jörg showed a good deal of the 
implications you will encounter when you start using Context. Still I 
believe, that it is really worthwhile to give it a try. - I do not know 
which OS you are using. Whatever, I strongly recommend you to install a 
minimal distribution from the Pragma site. Those distributions are 
working out of the box and this prevents you from dealing with a lot of 
hassels other distributions might cause. As a next step print the 
beginners manual (mp-cb-en.pdf). Try to setup some simple texts while 
working through these pages. Hereafter if your appetite grows you will 
find more and detailed info in the main manual (cont-enp.pdf).

The mailinglist is always willing to help you getting started.
The Wiki on Context (http://contextgarden.net/Main_Page) contains a lot 
of helpful information.

Personally I started to use Context a couple of years ago when I had to 
get a large number of figures typeset in a long text. Yes, it took me 
some time to get it all setup. In the meantime I hardly use any other 
typsetting software. I prepare letters, labels, invoices, articles, 
presentations, books, greeting-cards etc. all with this great tool.

Kind regards

Willi

Alexandra Ribeiro wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis.
> 
>  
> 
> I'm completely new to TeX and of course to Context but I'm convinced that Microsoft Word is far away from being the right tool for writing a long document. Well, in the past I had some big big headaches.
> 
>  
> 
> At this moment I've to make a choice: continue using Word or start learning a new tool, which will probably consume much of my time. So, I'm in a dilemma. That's why I'm asking for help.
> 
>  
> 
> Is it really worth learning Context? I mean, does this package deal efficiently with some important things like TOC, cross-references, bibliography, figures, math, .? Is it too hard to learn (for a mere mortal, of course)? What about support for different languages, in particular for Portuguese?
> 
>  
> 
> If I choose Context, can some somebody give me some guidelines/advices? 
> 
>  
> 
> I've already downloaded mswincontext.zip and I'll start studying/testing Context.
> 
>  
> 
> Thank you.
> 
>  
> 
> Alex
> 
> alex.r@netcabo.pt
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> ntg-context mailing list
> ntg-context@ntg.nl
> http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Peter Münster]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005, Alexandra Ribeiro wrote:

> At this moment I've to make a choice: continue using Word or start
> learning a new tool, which will probably consume much of my time. So, I'm
> in a dilemma. That's why I'm asking for help.

Hi Alex,

I don't know MS-Word very well, but *all* of my colleagues use it. I can
see how they use it, the resulting documents and how much time they spend.

With this experience I'm quite sure, that ConTeXt is much easier to use
for a thesis, than MS-Word. After about 4 or 5 days reading the
documentation, you should be able to write a thesis with a standard layout
and all the automatically generated lists (table of contents, of figures,
of tables, of bibliography and so on), automatic references, automatic
placement of figures and much more.
None of my colleagues, even those with several years of experience with
MS-Word, is able to do that.

Another important thing: *only* MS-Word can read your Word-document, and of
course only the right version (M$ won't guarantee, that Word-2005 prints
out your document the same way as Word-2000).

Cheers, Peter

-- 
http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Henning Hraban Ramm]

Am 18.06.2005 um 18:06 schrieb Peter Münster:

> With this experience I'm quite sure, that ConTeXt is much easier to  
> use
> for a thesis, than MS-Word. After about 4 or 5 days reading the

Don't know if it's easier (for a programmer, sure), but much more  
reliable -
MSW is famous for destroying huge works like books or theses.

A German computer magazine (I think it was c't) recently tested the  
ability of
different word processors to process big documents with footnotes,  
registers,
lists etc, and MSW became bad grades - if you choose to use a word  
processor,
use OpenOffice.org!

> None of my colleagues, even those with several years of experience  
> with
> MS-Word, is able to do that.

It *is* possible if you know how and are very careful (split the text in
chapters, safe and backup often etc.), but OpenOffice.org is better  
for that -
besides any TeX, of course. ;-)

> Another important thing: *only* MS-Word can read your Word- 
> document, and of
> course only the right version (M$ won't guarantee, that Word-2005  
> prints
> out your document the same way as Word-2000).

That's not true since about Word 98; and there are a lot of other word
processors that can import MSW-Docs (e.g. OOo again).


Grüßlis vom Hraban!
---
http://www.fiee.net/texnique/
http://contextgarden.net

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Peter Münster]

On Sun, 19 Jun 2005, Henning Hraban Ramm wrote:

> Am 18.06.2005 um 18:06 schrieb Peter Münster:
> 
> > With this experience I'm quite sure, that ConTeXt is much easier to  
> > use
> > for a thesis, than MS-Word. After about 4 or 5 days reading the
> 
> Don't know if it's easier (for a programmer, sure), but much more  
> reliable -

Hello Hraban,

imagine someone with a one week Word-experience producing a document with
200 pages, dozens of citations, figures and so on. I can hardly believe,
that the result would be similar to a ConTeXt-document.
About 3 years ago, my fellow students wrote their thesis with Word, each
chapter in one file. At the end they lived about 10 days of night-mares
because of wrong figure placements, problems with the bibliography and so
on. I didn't try it myself, but it seemed to me very very difficult, and
they spent a lot of time with these problems.

> MSW is famous for destroying huge works like books or theses.

I can confirm. My fellow students had also such problems.

> > None of my colleagues, even those with several years of experience  
> > with
> > MS-Word, is able to do that.
> 
> It *is* possible if you know how and are very careful (split the text in
> chapters, safe and backup often etc.),

Of course it's possible, but the question is, with how much effort?

> > Another important thing: *only* MS-Word can read your Word- 
> > document, and of
> > course only the right version (M$ won't guarantee, that Word-2005  
> > prints
> > out your document the same way as Word-2000).
> 
> That's not true since about Word 98; and there are a lot of other word
> processors that can import MSW-Docs (e.g. OOo again).

It's in the details. At my job I have to read each day some Word-documents,
and I open them always at first with OOo. But often, I have to start a
M$-system, because of wrong fonts, wrong figures and other problems with
OOo. And unfortunately, it's still true, that different Word-versions print
out the pages differently: sometimes I find a section title on another
page, than the guy, who wrote the document and other things.

It's quite possible, that working with OOo is more pleasant, than working
with M$-Word. But when speaking only about M$-Word: the only guys I know,
who are happy with Word, have never known anything else.

So, for the original poster, Alex: if you want to compare Word with
ConTeXt, then count the people who have switched from Word to ConTeXt
without regrets, and those who have switched from ConTeXt to Word (if you
find them...).

This is one reason, why I've switched from LaTeX to ConTeXt: I found a lot
of people, who have switched the same direction, but nobody the opposite
way.

Of course, Hraban is right: OOo could be an alternative for you.

Cheers, Peter

-- 
http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[andrea valle]

>
> It *is* possible if you know how and are very careful (split the text 
> in
> chapters, safe and backup often etc.), but OpenOffice.org is better 
> for that -
> besides any TeX, of course. ;-)
>

  I like the idea of OO, but I have to say  I have always found strange 
behaviour in OO. I switched to latex (and then very probably to 
context) because on Macosx in the version I tried of OO I wrote 
italics, I printed italics, but I didn't see on the screen italics. So, 
if I have to use a non-wysysyg, oh well, I use TeX. As a word processor 
AbiWord is interesting.

>> Another important thing: *only* MS-Word can read your Word-document, 
>> and of
>> course only the right version (M$ won't guarantee, that Word-2005 
>> prints
>> out your document the same way as Word-2000).
>
> That's not true since about Word 98; and there are a lot of other word
> processors that can import MSW-Docs (e.g. OOo again).
>
>

I do not agree. Microsoft always changes in some unpredictable and 
bad-documented way their file format. I've *always* found enormous 
difficulties in opening with other word processors M$ files, even when 
they should be rtf. It is simply not possible, if you want to retain 
the exact document information.
So, I switched to latex...

Question:
One of the main feature I appreciated in latex was a very simple but 
effective latex2rtf converter. It is very useful if you have simple 
document to be shared with other non-tex people, especially during 
preliminary work on a project. You write the context (with structure: 
section, subsection, etc,), share it, modify it, and finally control 
the typographic stuff in details. Is anything similar for context?

Best


-a-


Andrea Valle
Laboratorio multimediale "G. Quazza"
Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione
Università degli Studi di Torino
andrea.valle@unito.it

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[andrea valle]

>  You write the context

(I meant: "You write the text". Evidently I'm appreciating more and 
more ConTeXt...)

-a-

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Peter Münster]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005, Alexandra Ribeiro wrote:

> At this moment I've to make a choice: continue using Word or start
> learning a new tool, which will probably consume much of my time. So, I'm
> in a dilemma. That's why I'm asking for help.

Another point, that you should perhaps consider when choosing between
something like Word/OOo and LaTeX/ConTeXt:
It's often a great advantage to have plain text files instead of binary
format! With versioning systems such as SVN you can merge changes, you can
process your files with simple scripts, you can use database-backends, you
can make a lot of automatisations and a lot more, that's impossible or
difficult with binary files.
Or just: you would have more control with plain text files!
Cheers, Peter

-- 
http://pmrb.free.fr/contact/

Re: I need some advices/guidelines before start writing my PhD thesis

[Alexandra Ribeiro]

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Hi to all,

 

Thank you to all of you. I really appreciated your opinions/advices. I'll give Context a try. I've already installed the minimal distribution (for MS Windows XP) from the Pragma site and printed the beginners' manual.

At the beginning, I'm sure that I'll post some silly questions. Be patient please!

 

I've another question. What is the best way to deal with a big document in Context, to save each chapter in a single file and at the end include them in a "main document", or is there a better way? 

 

Best regards,

Alexandra

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