Techno News

Office package based WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) has become the industry standard in the use of office space, the Secretariat, and administrative. Microsoft Office, iWork, Libre Office and Open Office are some of the standard application for that.
However, in scientific writing, it turns out the office of WYSIWYG is not the only option in writing scientific articles. LaTeX is also available for the purpose.

According to the definition here, LaTeX is a markup language or document preparation system for the TeX software. Then, for what is LaTeX? What is the difference with Office applications? Let us refer to!

The Use Of LaTeX

This is a programming language, not a WYSIWYG application. The code must be compile it to produce documents. It is no different from other languages such as C++ and Java.

A commonly used Format is Portable Document Format (PDF) and Postscript. If you are familiar with the markup language such as HTML, it will be very easy to understand the LaTeX.

A simple example of the use of LaTeX is like this:

\begin{abstract}

\footnotesize The genomic inventory of proteins domains is an important indicator of an organism's regulatory and metabolic capabilities. Existing gene annotations, however, can be substantial modifications ascertainment was plagued by biases that make it. ..

\footnote{\small 4 $ ^ {th} $ German Conference on Bioinformatics. Jena. September 19-22, 2011}

\end{abstract}

The explanation, the tag ' \begin{abstract} ' signifies the start of writing the abstract, which ended by the tag ' \end{abstract} '. In the meantime, ' \footnotesize ' and ' tag ' is \small which shows the size of the letters in the sentence.

\Footnote ' Tag ' function to the footnote in the text. So a brief explanation about LaTeX.

Wah, so LaTeX is no different from other programming languages because they have to do some coding? Would it be difficult to used dong? It turns out not to be so, because LaTeX can compiles it using the GUI-based front end. MacTex, for example, commonly used on MacOSX.

Meantime, MiKTeX can be used on the Windows platform. On Linux, there is also the GNU TeXmacs packages for both are similar. And if we just do a bit of googling, it's widely available tutorials which can help us understand the LaTeX.

Templates for scientific articles, dissertations, even presentation (beamer) are also available, and we only do minor adjustments before compiling. LaTeX is also supported by a strong community in various mailing lists, which are always ready to help anyone who is interested.

Reference Manager LaTeX

Well, for those who are accustomed to using an Office application, it's likely been using Reference Manager (RefMan) such as EndNote. By default, RefMan for LaTeX needs to be coding, and compile it as well, just as the main document.

BibTex is a standard format for citations references in LaTex. However, we do not need to worry to set the command code, as already provided RefMan that can help our work.

Some common RefMan used for Office applications, such as Mendeley Desktop, and others, can now export the citation to BibTex format. RefMan used by JabRef is, which is a Java program, which is multiplatform.

JabRef features automatic citation, which allows us to do the automatic search of citations in Medline/PubMed database. So, citations can be automatically stored in BibTex format. It's like, with so many options for RefMan citations, it should be easily arranged, according to our tastes.

& LaTeX Math Formulas

Well, at this point, according to many opinions, advantages of LaTeX look real compared to the Office application. Although Office applications also have the Equation Editor, many argue that however LaTeX is more superior to handle mathematical formulas.

But despite the debate on the superiority of each package, it should be emphasized that the Office should not and LaTeX compared to apple to apple.

In the field of study that does not require much use of a mathematical formula, perhaps an Office application is enough to help. While, if the fields of study we intersect with science and technology, especially hard core computation, Theoretical Physics and mathematics, it feels a lot more LaTeX that can play a role here.

Then how to make formulas in LaTeX? The trick is no more the same as those referred to above, i.e. using tags and symbols are then compile it. However, it is difficult to write the formula in LaTeX? It turns out not to be so, because the front end GUI is also available for writing mathematical formulas.

On MacOSX, for the available LaTeXiT. Even wikipedia provides a complete list of LaTeX mathematical formulas commonly used here. Tutorials and templates the formula is also very widely available on the web.

LaTeX is not for Displacing Office

In fact, Office and LaTeX do not compete in the same market. The second package has its own niche, though of course, the Office has a much larger niche.

Submission of articles to scientific journals generally are also given the option in PDF format. Of course this is very welcome if compile with LaTeX, since we also provide the source code and image files to a Publisher.

Besides submission to a scientific journal, writing thesis/theses/dissertations is also a commonplace thing did with LaTeX.

The author himself never wrote the thesis and scientific publications with Office and LaTeX, and found that the second package has its advantages and disadvantages of each.

However during the programming skill is not a problem, LaTeX can also be enjoyed, as well as its Office. However, no matter where the user more like.

In the context of academic selection, use of Office and LaTeX are pure is the policy of the Peer Group research is concerned. Therefore, it can vary among institutions, one with another, and cannot be generalized.

Meanwhile, in the world of business/corporation, of course the package Microsoft Office is the de facto standard for productivity applications.

But if in the end forced to also Office and LaTeX compared to apple to apple, user will profit, too. Office applications, such as Libre, Neo and Open Office is an Open Source application, while clear LaTeX is Open Source.

In the end, ' benchmarking ' among LaTeX and Office, if placed in glasses of Open Source, always will benefit the communities who use it.