[fnordfnordfnord]

This just goes to show you the shabby general state of word processing software. I've been looking for something better than OO/Libre/MSWord/etc for years and avoided using LaTeX because the workflow is _so_ 80's. However, having recently decided to give up, and switched to using LaTeX, my worksheets, course notes, exams, and presentations have never looked better, and take about the same time, or less to create. I'll also be able to do things like randomize the order of exam questions and create individual grading keys in a way that makes sense to me.

To be fair, I would advise almost no one to do the same. Something better is needed[1], but I think that most potential competitors know better than to attempt to challenge MS Word.

[1] And, indeed Google Docs is usually passable and offers some advantages.

[porker]

Has no one here tried Lyx? http://www.lyx.org/

[ShirtlessRod]

> avoided using LaTeX because the workflow is _so_ 80's.

I've never understood this way of thinking. Either it works or it doesn't work -- the age should have nothing to do with it.

[fnordfnordfnord]

I don't like drawing circuits in LaTeX. Here, a simple circuit example:

  \item   
  \begin{circuitikz}[american voltages]
  \draw 
    (0,0) to[battery, l=12V](0,3)
    to[R, l=$150\Omega$ ](3,3) 
    to[D,l=$D_1$](3,0)
    to[short](0,0)
    ;
  \end{circuitikz} 

It makes perfectly nice looking circuits, so it passes a definition of "works" but it is an archaic way of describing circuits. if I had to do serious electronics work in that manner, I might not bother. Yes, I can include drawings created by other software, and do so for more complex circuits.

[ShirtlessRod]

I can understand that as a reason. In this case it sounds like there is a newer, more efficient format that has superseded the old one. (I'm no expert in circuits, so I'll take your word for it.)

If some new technique/workflow/whatever is newer and more efficient, then I'm all for it. I just don't like the attitude that "newer == better" that has seemed to become more and more prevalent in recent years. (I'm not saying you were doing that, but the phrasing you used is something I typically see in that situation.)

[Gormo]

Didn't you know that everything is style and nothing is substance?