[CLUE-Tech] Reliable writing editors?

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 02-16 09:42, Jeffery Cann wrote:
> 
> > On 02-02 14:09, Jeffery Cann wrote:
> > > Maybe I should try LyX and stop worrying about formatting.
> 
> On Sunday 02 February 2003 02:41 pm, Sean LeBlanc wrote:
> > If you do, let me know how that turns out. I took a half-hearted stab at it
> > over a year ago when I was getting frustrated with resume problems in Word
> > 2000. I was not able to get a CV class to be "read", IIRC. I know nothing
> > about TeX/LaTeX, so that probably wasn't helping, either. :)
> 
> LyX is definitely cool.  I have been writing with it for a week or so.  It's 
> easy to use and after reading portions of the tutorial, I think the LyX 
> paradigm makes sense to me - i.e., don't worry about formatting.
> 
> To use it, you simply need to use the left-hand selection to apply a different 
> style.
> 
> Also, for your resume problem, LyX will export to PDF format.  This is a good 
> enough reason to eschew MS.
> 
> Matt Gushee commented on the document templates and the XForms GUI toolkit.  I 
> don't mind either.

Maybe I'll have to revisit LyX, but probably not for my resume. In
retrospect, not worrying about formatting seems like a paradigm that's not
really the best fit for a resume - I don't know about you, but whenever I
get to editing my resume, it always seems to end in an exercise in
anal-retentiveness, even if it didn't start that way.
Must...control....layout! :) When I first read about LyX, it didn't seem so
bad. I just figured I'd find the right resume class/template and go from
there...maybe it wasn't the best foot to start off on with LyX. 

About exporting to PDF, that is nice, but based on personal experience with
resumes, I still have to maintain the resume in Word or "port" the resume to
Word, for the simple reason that I've had recruiters/HR people say they
cannot read the PDF, and some job postings specify "resumes in Word format".
You'd think the scanning software so many of these folks use would allow
text just as well as Word for the input, but... 

I know, I know. The fact that these people are recruiting technology talent
and can't open a PDF attachment boggles the mind, and requiring Word is
silly, but since I don't have a job, and programmers are openly viewed by
recruiters/HR as "a dime a dozen", I'm not about to lower my chances even
further of winning the lottery^H^H^H^H^H^^H^Hlanding a job.

As I mentioned earlier, I did find a solution. It's not all automated (I
have to import the HTML version into Word and clean it up a bit), but it'll
do for now. I can get it into PDF, Text, HTML or Word without too much
trouble.

BTW, do you know much TeX/LaTeX, or are you just using the GUI for now, and
delving into the internals later? What sort of stuff are you writing, using
what templates?

-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at americanisp.net  
http://users.americanisp.net/~seanleblanc/
Get MLAC at: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mlac/
An apology for the devil: it must be remembered that we have heard one side of 
the case. God has written all the books. 
-Samuel Butler 
(contributed by Chris Johnston)