From: Hubert Figuiere (hub@nyorp.abisource.com)
Date: Wed Mar 20 2002 - 17:45:33 EST
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From: Praedor Tempus <praedor@yahoo.com>
To: abiword-user@abisource.com
Subject: suggested feature
Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 15:27:18 -0700
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All linux wordprocessors are indistinguishable from each other as far as
general capabilities go. Some can export or import more file formats than
others but beyond that, there is nothing to make any one of them stand apart.
There is one and ONLY one wordprocessor in linux that is of use to
scientists, researchers, students and that is Lyx. The reason is that only
lyx is able to deal with citations and references.
Word and Wordperfect for windoze and the Mac can do it, via a third party app
like EndNote which plugs seamlessly into the wordprocessor and allows one,
via a separate citations/bibliography window, to select references, read the
abstract for that reference to determine if it is really the one you're
looking for, and then with a simple click of a button, the citation is
inserted into the wordprocessor text. At the end, when you are ready to
print, all you do is select what format you want your references to follow
and select "Format Bibliography" from an EndNote-added menu item in the Tools
menu list (in word...don't know about wordperfect) and viola, the citations
are properly formatted and the reference page(s) are also created and
formatted for you.
Lyx can do this with the aid of Pybliographic of Sixpack, which are similar
in functionality to EndNote. Only Lyx.
I would like to suggest that this functionality be added to Abiword. Either
create a pipe ala Lyx so that apps like Pybliographic could be easily made to
work with Abiword or add this ability to Abiword fully. A wordprocessor with
a built-in bibliography processing ability - THAT would set it apart from all
the others. It would be useful for more than letter writing or other
non-attributed writing. Bah!
As nice as many of the linux wordprocessors are (I have tried Hancom Office,
StarOffice, OpenOffice, Kword, Abiword), none of them meet the needs of
anyone who must write research-based documents. Research papers require
citations/references. It is barbaric to expect people to MANUALLY enter
citations and MANUALLY create reference pages. That is SOOOO typewriter.
Barbarism!
Please bring civilization to a linux-friendly wordprocessor. Lyx is fine,
such as it is, but it flat-out ISN'T user-friendly. Any clown can fire up
Word and EndNote and produce publication-quality papers with proper
attribution. One practically needs a minor in compsci to work with Lyx. Do
better than that...please.
praedor
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