[agentultra]

Maybe https://www.writelatex.com/ can help you become familiar with LaTeX? I'm not huge into type-setting myself but there are numerous text editors and markup formats that can export to LaTeX. The bonus is that you can script most of the workflow and cargo-cult what you need to get the document working until you properly figure things out.

[lightcatcher]

I used writelatex to learn LaTex and would recommend it. My first experience using LaTex was to write a research report that ended up being about 15-20 pages and included figures, references, etc. I originally just wrote the report in emacs (without typesetting the math, figures, or references), and then it only took me maybe an extra 90 minutes to typeset the whole thing in LaTeX (previously not knowing any LaTeX). Also, using bibtex for my references saved me a huge amount of time, so the net time difference between writing with LaTeX or familiar tools for me was less than 90 minutes.

Overall, I would recommend using LaTeX because its really not too difficult to pick up.

[jdleesmiller]

I'm a cofounder at wL. If you're new to LaTeX, you might want to check out our online course [1], and we also have a 'rich text' mode that renders equations and some commands inline in the editor, for quicker feedback [2].

[1] https://www.writelatex.com/blog/7-free-online-introduction-t...

[2] https://www.writelatex.com/blog/81

[lightcatcher]

Sorry for being off topic, but I have a writeLaTex feature request/question.

There's only one thing about writeLaTex that convinced me to stop using the service (which I used while learning LaTeX) and to start doing all editing locally. This is the behavior when the connection is lost/dropped momentarily. The red bar appears at the top of the screen, but I'm still able to type, only to have my typing disappear a few seconds later and the cursor reset to the top of the input box. This is incredibly annoying even when it only happens once every 15 minutes. It seems like this could be fixed very easily (just store what I'm typing locally and then sync it to your servers).

Also, this isn't so much a complaint but a feature request: I'd be much less paranoid about writeLaTeX going down when I need to print/access a major report or something if there was a way to automatically save files locally. This could be done using the Dropbox or Google Drive APIs. For an example of these feature, you can try editing a file in Dropbox with https://draftin.com/ .

Thanks a ton, besides these warts I love the product!

[jdleesmiller]

Thanks for the feedback. That should now be better: we remember the cursor position for when the connection picks up again. If there's anything else we can help with, just let us know. :)

[indralukmana]

sounds like a very nice application, i see there are some pricing models (personal, pro, and teaching) which i think is excellent if i am using latex.

but is there a free (limited) plan for someone like me who still trying to learn latex.

[jdleesmiller]

Yes, you can sign up for free (https://www.writelatex.com/signup), and there's a lot you can do with a free account.