LibreOffice to LyX

Charlie taotraveller at gmail.com
Tue Oct 5 22:07:28 UTC 2021


	Virgil Arrington informed me regarding: Re: LibreOffice to LyX
	on Tue, 5 Oct 2021 16:51:44 -0400

> On 10/5/2021 2:45 PM, Dr Eberhard Lisse wrote:
> > Virgil,
> >
> > I have shortened and reformatted slightly for ease of reference.
> >
> > Actually constant misunderimprovements are one of the mistakes one
> > often makes in presentations.
> >  
> I suspect you're right, but I just can't leave things alone. I also 
> think there's some virtue in variety. In fact, one of the things I
> like about LyX is that I can change the total look and feel of a
> presentation by simply changing a theme name. That is sooooo much
> quicker than giving an LO Impress presentation a makeover.
> 
> > The query
> >
> > https://www.google.com/search?q=lyx+text+color
> >
> > returns 1260000 results, the very FIRST of which
> >
> > https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/33225/color-text-in-lyx
> >
> > explains this quite nicely.  
> 
> > As xcolor is loaded by LyX I just add something like
> >
> >     \definecolor{MyBlue}{HTML}{000040}
> >     \definecolor{Firebrick4}{HTML}{8b1a1a}
> >
> > to my preamble
> >
> > [...]
> >  
> Here, I think you're actually supporting my point in several
> respects. While I didn't find your specific StackExchange thread,
> what I did find said the same things. It first said to add
> \usepackage{xcolor} to the preamble, which I did, adding the
> [dvipsnames] option, which produced the error message I reported
> earlier. Even setting this aside, adding your color redefinitions to
> the preamble is only helpful if you know what the color codes
> "000040" and "8b1a1a" actually mean. LibreOffice's method of pointing
> to a color in a palette on the toolbar is certainly easier and
> quicker than making all these preamble modifications.
> 
> That said, I will concede that once these preamble changes are made
> in LyX, you're good to go on any future documents.
> 
> >
> > It seems you have an aversion towards RTFM :-)-O, even though one
> > only needs to do this once.   
> 
> If you mean "Read the F* Manual," I have no such aversion. In fact, I 
> enjoy printing out and reading online software documentation. But,
> you have to admit, LaTeX manuals are massive. The xcolor manual is
> some 115 pages long. My favorite LaTeX package, Microtype, comes with
> a ~250 page manual. Even the LyX manuals included in its Help are
> voluminous. There are simply not enough hours in the day to read all
> there is on LyX/LaTeX. This is why I typically do an online search;
> that way I can hone in the issue I need resolved.
> 
> But, this only highlights my frustration. Part of me says I shouldn't 
> *have* to do online searches to accomplish what LibreOffice lets me
> do with a few points and clicks. Thirty years ago, in the days of
> MS-DOS, I had an IT manager tell me that his test for quality
> software was that good software didn't need a manual. I'm not sure I
> agree with him, but I will repeat that, with LibreOffice, I can
> usually solve all quandaries within the program itself without
> needing to search for answers on the web. In fact, I can't remember
> the last time I needed to do any kind of search to solve a problem
> with LibreOffice. With LyX/LaTeX, it's common practice.
> 
> 
> >
> > And, in case someone is interested I attach the template I use if I
> > have to write something for our weekly Continuing Professional
> > Development/ Continuing Medical Education sessions.
> >  
> Your template is both beautiful and an example of what one can do
> with a LaTeX education. I'm impressed. But, I was curious when you
> said you use a modified Metropolis theme. I've never seen Metropolis
> in any list of Beamer themes (see, e.g., Beamer Themes - Full List -
> LaTeX Beamer (latex-beamer.com)
> <https://latex-beamer.com/tutorials/beamer-themes/>. What is
> interesting is that Metropolis *is* included in LibreOffice Impress
> templates, although it looks quite different from your LyX
> presentation.
> 
> Just for fun, I wanted to see how much work it would be to add a
> slanted date background to a LibreOffice Impress slide presentation.
> I have never added such a background to a slide presentation before,
> so I was working cold. Without doing any research, I simply added a
> textbox, inserted my text, resized it, colored it gray, and then
> grabbed the textbox corners and turned to box to my liking. It then
> magically fell into the background of my main textbox containing my
> slide's content. The whole process took minutes and was very
> intuitive. Admittedly, I don't know if I did it the "right" way as
> LibreOffice usually has two to three gazillion ways of doing things
> (one drawback to my thinking), but my method worked and I got the job
> accomplished very quickly. My resulting slide presentation is
> attached as a pdf. This is what my slides generally look like for the
> Sunday school class I teach.
> 
> Thank you for sharing your template. It has a wealth of information
> in it and could save a user a ton of research time in learning how to
> do what you already know.
> 
> You have inspired me to play more with Beamer. I'm impressed with
> what you have accomplished.
> 
> Virgil
> 


	Replied thus:

	I would like to thank you both, Virgil and Dr Eberhard Lisse
	for your interesting, informative tutorial.

I can not gainsay that sometimes it takes a great deal of searching and
reading, thus time to find the best way to do something in Lyx/Latex.

Nor can I say sticking with all the eggs in one program basket is
necessarily a good thing. But someone once said, "Linux, the lifetime
learning experience" In my autumn years; believe this to be correct,
and find it keeps my mind active.

As an aside: Retired? I was never as busy, nor learned more, before I
was retired.

Thank you both again.

Stay well,
Charlie

	East Gippsland Wildlife Rehabilitators Inc..
                           http://www.egwildlife.com.au/

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