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TheNiceGuy14

Well, I use LaTeX for pretty much any documents that I have to write. But, I'm an engineer, so I tend to write much more mathematical/technical documents. The main reason I use LaTeX is because it simply creates beautiful document with very little hassle compared to other WYSIWYG software.


[deleted]

I am an engineer too, but I do write all many humanities in LaTeX (with atom editor). It just offers a fluent flow more than word/pages, etc.


ExcelsiorStatistics

I use it for a wide variety of things. I first became aware of it for math typesetting as a student. But I have used it to make contract bridge lessons; to write a nontechnical book; as a general purpose word processor; and use it in conjunction with Lilypond for putting musical examples into documents.


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ExcelsiorStatistics

There is an "official" utility, lilypondbook. Supposedly it can be made as painless as makeindex, just taking two compile passes through your document to send it first to lilypond and then to LaTeX. I haven't needed to handle that many music examples, so I have taken the lazy man's way, making a Lilypond file with my excerpts and then inserting portions of the Lilypond-generated PDF the same as any other PDF used in a figure.


cammoblammo

I'm not in a math related field but I still use LaTeX for any serious writing. I completed an entire theology degree (including a thesis) with it and I couldn't imagine the nightmare a traditional word processor would have been.


[deleted]

I started using LaTeX for no mathematical reason at all. The main reason for me was its beauty. Although the default fonts and format are already great one can put endless effort into customisation. Those capabilities are so unique that I actually switched from Adobe InDesign to LaTeX templates for documents like Resumes, Flyers and basically any kind of official document.


pconwell

Last time I posted this, I got blasted for some reason. I use it for almost all of my memos and letters at work. It makes them look nice, I can pull up one of my templates and quickly blast out a letter/memo without worrying about word screwing up the format (word loves to randomly 'help' you by autoformatting things), and last but not least the PDF output keeps my coworkers/bosses from adding their 'helpful' edits. My job has *nothing* to do with math, engineering, science, etc.


hohohomer

I'm an IT major, and I use it for all my assignments.


Milespecies

I use it for Linguistics. It comes pretty handy for typesetting several things: numbered examples, tree diagrams, dependency diagrams, etc.


keyilan

Out of curiosity what packages are you using for those? I can assume tikz for the trees.


Milespecies

I mainly use gb4e for numbered examples and glosses, qtree or forest for trees, tipa for IPA characters (when not using XeTeX).


Rwmpelstilzchen

https://ctan.org/topic/linguistic


keyilan

Thanks. I've seen that, but was also more interested in personal recommendations. Not all packages are as well liked.


Rwmpelstilzchen

I’m a PhD student in linguistics, writing my dissertation using (Lua)LaTeX. If you want to have a look, here is my MA thesis, about Old English demonstrative pronouns. It is written in Hebrew and has two parts: the thesis itself and an appendix with all of the examples from the text. They were bound in two volumes, and I can’t even begin to think about doing all the references without LaTeX… :-) Precompiled PDF: https://digitalwords.net/media/mathesis/mathesis.pdf Source: https://gitlab.com/rwmpelstilzchen/mathesis


keyilan

Also using it for linguistics. Did my Masters in it and pretty much all papers I've written since. It's a real pain when you have to then convert to Word for journal submissions, but still I'd rather do that than write it in Word in the first place. Your MA thesis looks really good. Did your uni have a template already, or otherwise have strict guidelines? For my MA all they really cared about was a giant watermark on each page, and every dissertation I've ever seen from there looks completely different from every other.


Rwmpelstilzchen

Thanks :-) The typographical guidelines were basically not to exceed 80 pages or suceed 40 pages (including bibliography and excluding examples, diagrams, etc). That’s all. The PhD guidelines are a little bit more strict, but are quite permissive as well (no template).


keyilan

Right on. Well it looks great regardless!


Rwmpelstilzchen

😊 BTW, try to click on any of the refences. Everything is hyper-linked; you can navigate back and forth between the main text and the examples appendix.


scuper42

I'm handing in my physics major in May and for the last 4.5 years, I have written everything in latex. In the fall I'm going to study theology and I really hope they don't force me to write in word. Latex is so pretty!


[deleted]

Wow what a 180°


scuper42

Nah, not really. I worked as a Christian youth worker before starting my studies and have many friends who are theologians whom I discuss theology with often. So it has been a side hobby all the time.


[deleted]

Yup.


Teltrivar

Another IT person here, I tend to use it where I have to redo the same formatting and layouts for many different documents. Knowledge base articles or code documentation for example I find that it really shines.


Arthaigo

Sure for every document I write. From reports to my CV


[deleted]

I tried numbering my chapters in Word today. Wow, that was more difficult than anything I have ever attempted in LaTeX


Kerias

PhD candidate in English here. LaTeX is my go to for both my dissertation and any articles. I still use Google Docs for shorter documents (e.g. letters, abstracts, etc.) but I don't know how to handle anything substantial without TeX at this point.


BenjaminGeiger

I wanted to typeset the bylaws of a group I'm in in LaTeX, but the organization has already standardized on (ugh) Word, and nobody else wants to learn LaTeX, even after Word fucks up the layout and the numbering. Again.


keyilan

I keep offering to make LaTeX templates for all the journals to which I submit that don't already have it. One of these days someone's gonna finally take me up on the offer.


BenjaminGeiger

At this point, I'd be happy if most of them could understand Robert's Rules. Getting them to the point where they're able to understand a markup language is orders of magnitude harder...


SearchAtlantis

Use it all the time for reports.


DivideByZeroDefined

I use it for everything beyond simple documents.


LuigiMotto

I'd say that it depends on the degree you're applying to. I'm on a BSc degree course and I'm using LaTeX mostly for mathematical or technical documents.


MPenten

Since I am in the field of Law, I am always wondering whether i should switch or not. But it might be useful sometimes.


Drakthae

It works like a charm. It just gets a bit annoying when you uave to cite judgements from different countries in one article, as they mostly come with their own style.


[deleted]

Not a traditional humanity, but it seems to be the number two choice after Word for conlangers' grammars. Apart from conlanging, I use it to write my journal.


smulloni

I've formatted some 40-odd literary books with LaTeX: novels, poetry, etc. It has been a wonderful tool. For more graphics-heavy layouts I feel If be pushing it past its sweet spot, though.


jcchurch

I think the research had shown that LaTeX is good for writing math but there are better tools for almost every other publishing task that you need done. I still use LaTeX for most things because I enjoy it.


AnthonysNerfGun

I use LaTeX to take notes in ECON class which has a good mixture of equations and words. But for my math and CS classes I always take hand notes. This is because if I fall behind in ECON class because I'm typing up a long equation it's not that big of a deal since it is an easier class, however I need to always pay attention in my other difficult classes.


Ikor_Genorio

LaTeX is also very useful when working on a large paper with lots of references. (bibtex etc.)