thesis word vs latex

LaTeX vs. Word: Main Differences

Last updated: March 18, 2024

1. Introduction

Microsoft Word and LaTeX have been fundamental tools for crafting and presenting our written content.

In this tutorial, we’ll discuss the differences between Word and LaTeX regarding user interface, use cases, collaboration, and version control features.

2. Software

Two products of Microsoft offer Word editor:

• Microsoft Word: This is the official software developed by Microsoft for creating, editing, and formatting documents. It’s part of the Microsoft Office suite and is available for both Windows and macOS operating systems
• Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365) : This subscription-based service provides access to the latest version of Microsoft Word along with other Office applications, cloud storage, and various productivity and collaboration tools

To work with LaTeX, we’ll need a TeX distribution and a LaTeX editor:

• TeX distribution: This includes the LaTeX typesetting system as well as various tools and packages. Some popular TeX distributions include Tex Live and MikTeX
• LaTeX editor: While it is possible for users to create LaTeX documents using a plain text editor (e.g., NotePad or NotePad++), specialized LaTeX editors provide a more user-friendly interface with features like syntax highlighting and error checking. Some LaTeX editors include TeXShop (for macOS users); TeXworks , TeXstudio , LyX (for both Windows and Linux users); or Overleaf (an online and collaborative LaTeX editor that doesn’t require local software installation)

3. User Interface

Microsoft Word’s user interface is renowned for its intuitive design and ease of use , making it one of the most popular word-processing applications worldwide. Its user-friendly ribbon interface neatly organizes a plethora of powerful features into easily accessible tabs, enabling users of all levels of expertise to create and edit documents effortlessly. The following figure shows the screenshot of a Word template provided by IEEE for conference proceedings:

Additionally, its robust spell-check and grammar-check capabilities and real-time collaboration features through cloud integration further enhance its usability. In most cases, it serves as a broad category encompassing all word-processing software that immediately displays the final output. Having this characteristic, Word is usually called a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editor  rather than requiring initial file processing .

This may seem intuitive and user-friendly for beginners at first, especially when you use Word for elementary purposes like typing a document, making a list, formatting, or choosing fonts. However, when it comes to editing a large document or taking an uncommon command, e.g., creating a table of references or an index list, users tend to Google to figure out how it could be done.

On the other hand, LaTeX’s user interface is distinct from conventional word processors, as it relies on a markup language for document creation rather than a graphical interface . While its learning curve may appear steep for newcomers, it offers a unique level of control and precision in typesetting documents. The following figure shows the screenshot of TeXmaker opening a LaTeX template provided by IEEE for conference proceedings, which has the same format as the above Word template:

LaTeX may be complicated for beginners, and its ease of use only becomes apparent once users become familiar with its syntax and commands. It excels in handling complex mathematical equations , bibliographies , and multi-lingual documents , making it a favorite among researchers, academics, and technical writers.

The famous (yet unknown source) figure below shows the learning curve for users of Word and LaTeX. These curves show how LaTeX becomes easier to use relative to Microsoft Word as the task becomes more complex. On the contrary, for a simple document like taking notes, a simpler tool like Word (or even Notepad) is easier for users:

To sum up, while it may not be as immediately intuitive as WYSIWYG editors like Word, LaTeX’s power lies in its ability to produce consistently high-quality documents with a minimal margin for error, especially for publications, research papers, and theses. For those willing to invest time in learning its intricacies, LaTeX rewards them with unparalleled document typographic control and professionalism.

4. Use Cases

Microsoft Word is commonly known as a general-purpose document creation software . With its suitability for most office tasks, Word is widely used in both schools and offices. Collaboration and real-time editing in Microsoft Word have become significantly more accessible and efficient thanks to its cloud-based features and collaborative tools. Microsoft Word’s collaboration and real-time editing features have made it a versatile tool for teams and individuals who need to work together on documents, making it easier to create, review, and finalize content efficiently and effectively.

Unlike Word, LaTeX is generally considered as a typesetting system commonly used for producing documents with high-quality typography, particularly in fields like academia, research, and technical writing . Because of its ability to handle complex mathematical equations and references, LaTeX is often preferred by scientists and researchers.

Furthermore, graduate students often use LaTeX to format their theses and dissertations. Many universities provide LaTeX templates for students to ensure compliance with formatting requirements. Since it has great ability in writing, controlling page layout, fonts, formatting, and ensuring a professional and consistent appearance, LaTeX is also an excellent tool for publications with complex formatting requirements.

The following figures show the output of Word:

We can see the mathematical symbols produced by LaTeX are higher resolution than that of Word.

5. Collaboration and Version Control

Collaboration and version control in Microsoft Word has become more streamlined and efficient with the integration of cloud-based tools and collaborative features . Real-time collaboration via Microsoft 365 has enabled users to simultaneously access and work on the shared document.

Also, collaborators can leave comments and suggestions on the document. These comments are visible to everyone, and you can reply to them, accept or reject suggestions, and have threaded discussions. Moreover, Word supports real-time co-authoring, where multiple users can work on the same document simultaneously without conflicts . This ensures that all changes are automatically incorporated into the latest version.

Although collaboration and version control in LaTeX can be achieved using various tools and workflows, they may not be as seamless as Word . To collaborate on a LaTeX document, it’s common to use version control software like Git . Git allows multiple authors to work on the same document, track changes, and merge edits seamlessly. Popular online platforms like GitHub , GitLab , and Bitbucket provide hosting and collaboration features for LaTeX projects.

Alternatively, LaTeX users can use Overleaf as an online platform to do collaborative work with their colleagues. Overleaf also supports various academic templates for scientific journals and conferences of different organizations like IEEE or ACM . Nonetheless, Overleaf may be inconvenient since they limit real-time collaborations (only one collaborator for the free license). Complex tools like real-time track changes or full document history and versioning are only available in the premium features.

6. Conclusion

In this article, we discussed the differences between Microsoft Word and LaTeX.

LaTeX often presents a more challenging initial learning curve when contrasted with Word, which constitutes one of its primary drawbacks. Nevertheless, it provides numerous advantages that can enhance the efficiency, professionalism, collaboration, and scalability of research writing. Researchers, book authors, editors, or journalists are those who benefit most from LaTeX.

In contrast, if you just need to write a simple document, a short letter, or a report, Microsoft Word is a better option for its user-friendly typesetting system. Your choice of software depends on your specific needs, familiarity with the tools, and the type of documents you want to create.

Why Should I Use LaTeX over Word for Writing My Research? | Orvium

Researchers have long been split on whether to use Word or LaTex for their academic papers. The fact is, you can achieve results with both, and considering the latter is more complex, most don’t understand why LaTeX is so good.

Today, let’s look at the differences between the two and present LaTeX in an objective view, taking into account the benefits it presents as well as the things that aren't so great - such as the big issue with learning LaTeX.

What Is LaTeX?

LaTeX (/ˈlɑːtɛx/, often pronounced lay-tech) is a writing software centered around document creation, allowing users to input commands and add unformatted text. The UI is split between an Edit window, where users can write text and code, and a Typeset Window, which appears after the first save, allowing users to see the results of their work and how the document will look in real-time.

Compared to Word or Word-like document processors, LaTeX is fairly complex. The coding element can be a big hurdle for most researchers or students who are used to the simplicity of opening a document and simply starting to write. However, this issue can be easily overcome through an instructional video:

Benefits of LaTeX over Word for Research

1. Professional typesetting

LaTeX is specifically designed to produce high-quality typesetting, which makes your documents look professional and polished. This is especially important for academic writing, where the appearance of your document can affect how seriously your work is taken.

LaTeX is great because it’s not simply a word processor but rather a typesetting application designed for ultimate freedom when creating documents.

In academic writing, the aspect of your final document matters a lot. And since you’re essentially writing code, you can meticulously fine-tune your document to look exactly the way you want it or in accordance with the highly specific requirements some journals have.

Example: LaTeX automatically generates consistent and visually pleasing formatting for sections, equations, figures, and citations.

2. Efficient handling of large documents

Unlike Word and Google Docs, which lags up when editing large documents, LaTeX is optimized for minimal resource utilization. This allows researchers to work more efficiently on large documents with many equations, figures, images, and cross-references (think dissertations, books, or studies).

LaTeX also generates a table of contents, a list of figures, and a complete list of references which you can manually edit in code. I’m sure you know trying to edit and correct your references in Word is a buggy nightmare, and just the thought of it is enough to raise your levels of anxiety.

Another cool feature for large documents is the autosave option. That way, there is close to 0 risk of losing your work due to crashes or faulty equipment. Once you save your initial file, TeXShop, one of the tools in the LaTeX suite, automatically saves your work regularly.

Example: In LaTeX, the \input and \include commands allow you to split up sources in a controlled way, effectively making large documents into smaller files that can be managed separately.

3. Easy version control

Since LaTeX operates with plain text files, the level of control you have as a user is beyond what traditional word processors can offer. This can prove very handy when collaborating with multiple authors on a big project, as it allows you to use tools like Git or SVN to implement version control and track changes.

4. Wide range of packages and templates

LaTeX comes pre-equipped with multiple packages and templates that allow researchers to work on different types of projects, such as multiple kinds of math papers, articles, letters, memoirs, and more.

Furthermore, you can use online repositories such as the Comprehensive TeX Archive to find more packages and templates specifically made for diagrams, coding, tables, and more.

Example: The "tikz" package in LaTeX allows you to create professional-looking diagrams and illustrations.

5. Portable and platform-independent

Don’t you hate it when there's an issue with old versions of word documents? Or when you’re trying to edit a Word doc on a Mac and it doesn’t initially work? LaTeX removes all those headaches with compatibility.

The plain text docs you work on in LaTeX are portable and platform-independent. This makes sharing documents a breeze, regardless of the operating system or software setup. And it’s especially useful if you need to collaborate with colleagues or co-authors who use different systems.

Comparison Table: LaTeX vs Word

Who Benefits Most from Using LaTeX

To sum up, LaTeX is better than Word for:

• Scientific researchers - from math to physics to chemistry and beyond. Anything that prominently features equations, tables, figures, or other designs is best completed via LaTeX.
• Academic dissertations and doctoral theses - from the reference system to the automatic and efficient table of contents, LaTeX makes working on gigantic projects such as these very easy. By comparison, researchers using Word frequently save chapters in separate documents to keep the software from lagging up or crashing and thereby losing their work.
• Textbook writing and editing - if you’re authoring math, physics, or other scientific textbooks, your best chance is with LaTeX, and students will thank you as the equations alone will look miles ahead of what Word can accomplish.
• Any other book authors and editors - for general authors, LaTeX might be a bit complex but worth the learning curve. Editors, however, tend to need a more professional tool to polish the final document for printing, so LaTeX is the better, more logical choice.
• Journalistic investigations - once again, the reference system in LaTeX can easily help journalists keep track of their sources, but it might be too complex on the go.

Overall, LaTeX frequently has a steeper learning curve compared to Word - which is also its biggest disadvantage. However, it offers many benefits that can make research writing more efficient, professional-looking, collaborative, and highly scalable due to its many templates.

If you’re looking to publish your research via Orvium, you should know that our platform is compatible with the LaTeX documents thanks to our integration with Overleaf. But if you want to suggest even more features we should implement in the future, don’t hesitate to reach out.

Learn more about our initiatives and stay up-to-date with the latest news and product features by following us on Twitter , Facebook , Linkedin , or Instagram .

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Antonio Romero

Led several big-data and ML projects for the R&D between CERN and multiple ICT market-leaders. His work accelerating predictive-maintenance and machine-learning solutions at CERN

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Word or LaTeX typesetting: which one is more productive? Finally, scientifically assessed

One of the main goals for anyone in the Academia, for any research group, is to publish the results of their research . Therefore, enormous amounts of time and effort are devoted to producing manuscripts which will be evaluated for publication in scientific journals or international conferences. Being this goal so central to the career of many people, it is more than reasonable trying to employ the right tools to achieve the best results in writing, measured in terms on quality vs. time devoted to writing.

We can take for granted that the reader knows Microsoft Word, but perhaps some of you are not familiar with that LaTeX thing . LaTeX (yes, it is always capitalized like that) is a sort of “programming language”, a markup language actually, pretty much like HTML. So, if one want to write a bold sentence, instead of selecting with the mouse and clicking, one must type a specific command around the sentence. The same applies to any other document element: images, tables, section headers, etc. there are commands that must be memorized for every element. It may seem cumbersome . Indeed, it is. It is really cumbersome, at the beginning. I stillr remember how much I protested when a Professor forced me to elaborate an assignment in LaTeX during the PhD courses. But once one overcomes the (steep) learning curve of LaTeX , the realization of its advantages means that there is no turning back:

Mathematical equations of unbeatable quality.

Easy generation of all kind of indices, bibliography, cross references, etc.

It allows you to focus on the text content, instead of its appearance. In theory, a text prepared according to the guidelines of a specific journal may be made to fit another’s style by just using one external style file. In practice, sometimes one finds some incompatibilities, but in all cases it is orders of magnitude faster, cleaner and easier than manually changing all the formatting details in Word.

At least, these are the advantages that we, part of the researchers, see in LaTeX: the call to pick among Word or LaTeX has become one of those endless, “religious” discussions. One support one or the other just like people support different football teams .

But finally here comes a space for objectivity in this debate. A group of researchers on Experimental Psychology from the University of Giessen (Germany) has addressed the problem by measuring the pros and cons of each typesetting system 1 . Next we summarize the experimental setup and their findings.

The experiment consisted in asking a group of volunteers to typeset a number of texts using either Word or LaTeX, provided they had 30 minutes to end the task. In order to characterize the performance for all kinds of texts, the researchers proposed three different texts: (1) a long, continuous text, (2) a text with some tables and (3) one plenty of equations (as one typically found in Mathematics, Physics, Engineering…).

Regarding the volunteers, they were 40 users selected such that there were 10 experts and 10 novices in each typesetting system (Word and LaTeX). The intention was determining whether the efficiency improved or not as users gain experience in each system.

Afterward, the researchers measured the amount of typeset text and the number of mistakes. Text length was such that only about 90% of experts could type it entirely. Ah! The motivation of volunteers was boosted by means of prizes of up to 150€ for the best one in each category.

The results

We start with the manuscripts comprising just long blocks of continuous text, in which is clear that Word is unbeatable : even the (relatively) novice Word users perform really far better than LaTeX users in both, the quantity and the quality of the typeset text. Regarding the existence of orthographic errors, we must highlight that LaTeX users were allowed to use their favorite IDE with any desired plugin or additional tool, thus their errors cannot be attributed to the intentional privation of any of those helps.

Regarding table editing, Word wins again… and this is not big news to anyone who ever tried to enter a table in a LaTeX document. How can something so easy in a WYSIWYG editor and so incredibly complex in LaTex? How many visits to TeX – LaTeX Stack Exchange does it take to create a decent LaTeX table?

As can be seen in Figure 3, the study found that it is not only less efficient to typeset tables in LaTeX, but that the number of mistakes skyrocketed as well. However, the large standard deviation in LaTeX mistakes reveals that it is possible to make it right… but there are so few people capable of such an achievement!

And finally we get to LaTeX comfort zone: texts with plenty of equations. In this last experiment, it is demonstrated that even untrained LaTeX users make fewer mistakes and are more productive than expert Word users.

Apart of measuring the efficiency of typesetting in such an objective way, the researchers also asked the volunteers to fulfil a usability questionnaire (results shown in Figure 5), from which we must highlight the emotional aspect : LaTeX users claim to enjoy much more than Word users while writing (5.2±1.4 vs 3.6±1.7), while also reporting feeling less frustration and tiredness.

These findings are coherent with the well-known popularity of LaTeX among researchers of the more technical areas, where writing equations is typically a significant effort if attempted to do in Word. I would like to remark (making clear that this is a subjective opinion) that aesthetics is another important factor : Word equations are far less “elegant” than those obtained from LaTeX, which “look” totally professional.

Quantitatively, we can point out another work 2 which asked the Editors of several Scientific Journals for the prevalence of each format in received manuscripts . They found that LaTeX rules in the areas of Mathematics (97%), Statistics (89%) and Physics (74%) , then followed by the group of Computer Science (46%) and Astronomy-Astrophysics (35%), with the rest of areas totally dominated by Microsoft Word.

• Knauff, M., & Nejasmic, J. (2014) . An Efficiency Comparison of Document Preparation Systems Used in Academic Research and Development. PloS one , 9 (12), e115069. ↩
• Brischoux, F., & Legagneux, P. (2009). Don’t Format Manuscripts. The Scientist, 23(7), 24. ↩

35 comments

[…] (Artículo traducido de una colaboración con MappingIgnorance.org […]

I really think that both programs are to different. As it is stated in the post, for writing long texts Word is unbeatable, but for equations it is the other way around. The discussion comes when you have a long text, few equations, and a lot os references and figures. In this case Latex is better, because it manages the bibliography in a better way, but the time needed to learn how to use Latex is also much longer and it is not clear to me if it is worthy.

What is absolutely true is this sentence: “the call to pick among Word or LaTeX has become one of those endless, “religious” discussions. One support one or the other just like people support different football teams.”

The same happens with Linux VS Mac VS Windows…

[…] edonork egiten dio galdera hori bere buruari. José Luis Blancok agian argibideren bat ematen digu Word or LaTeX typesetting: which one is more productive? Finally, scientifically assessed […]

This is an interesting study but I think the Word/LaTeX dilemma will soon be overcome in many fields. For example, for data analyses made in the free R environment one should seriously consider using knitr and R Markdown. It has both the benefits of dynamic reports (if you change a single data point all tables and figures are authomatically updated for you) and easiness of use. No need to know LaTeX to get comparable results. And of course it’s infinitely many times better than using Word, which is a text editor and nothing more.

[…] ¿Merece la pena el esfuerzo de aprender LaTeX o con lo que sé de Word me apaño para lo que tengo que hacer? Esta es la pregunta que se hace cualquiera que necesite escribir documentos y dotarlos de un […]

This study was very effectively rebutted by Daniel Lemire some time ago. It does not test tasks that are representative of what scientists do, and it does not address the difference in output quality of word vs. LaTeX.

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[…] by omegaender [link] […]

I don’t see how you can test anything of interest in 30 minutes especially for something like LaTeX. In 30 minutes you are not even remotely going to reap benefits from using LaTeX over Word. If I decided to use LaTeX right now I’d probably spend at least 30 minutes just setting up templates, add ons etc.

LaTeX shines when you work on large documents over several days. The ability to split into multiple files and version control it with great version control systems like git is a real benefit. Also as you write more you can benefit from easily copy pasting and modifying styles or things you need.

Also I don’t get how LaTeX user could bomb so badly on tables. If you really need to have control of this you can use a GUI tool which generates the LaTeX for you. Lots of editors has such capabilities. But for a 30 minute assignment most might not consider it worth it to use any special tools to make a table.

[…] https://mappingignorance.org/2015/04/06/word-or-latex-typesetting-which-one-is-more-productive-finall… […]

Well office 2013 and onward comes with a built-in TeX interpreter, previous version has plenty of addins that did that same so it’s not really a question any more.

Word offers the easy high level editorial capabilities and low level TeX syntax editing when you need it.

Typesetting is the final act in publishing. Writing is where the bulk of the effort lies. LaTeX addresses 10% of the effort effectively (typesetting) and is cumbersome and gets in the way for 90% of the effort (writing). This is especially true for editing and collaboration where Word’s track changes is required.

“untrained LaTeX users make less mistakes and are more productive than expert Word users” -> “untrained LaTeX users make fewer mistakes and are more productive than expert Word users”

This study is poorly constructed if it did not use the Microsoft Math Add-in for office. This official add-in makes equations dead simple.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36777

I wonder what exactly qualifies as a “Word Expert” here? Many people who use Word regularly aren’t typing in a lot of formulae, so are likely to do it in a clumsy way via the mouse and find it unnecessarily difficult. Indeed most of the students I knew who were using Word for documents containing math were surprisingly unaware of Word’s Math Autocorrect feature, which lets you type in a very LaTeX like format. If you use it often, papers containing math are basically on par with type in ordinary text documents.

I didn’t read the paper but it seems to me like there are some obvious methodological flaws. As pointed out later on; to be an expert in LaTeX – one is also likely to be highly trained in Mathematics. Tables are indeed the most annoying thing in LaTeX but it’s just a markup language! The real problem here is that there is no better table handling in some of the popular editors like TexStudio. Also — in case it wasn’t obvious; it does make sense to separate the structure and content of manuscripts from their presentational style in much the same way web authors do with HTML and CSS. Most academics want to get their work published in a context where its formatting will be standardised. LaTeX and git is a really powerful way of collaborating and managing revisions on manuscripts — would you trust Word to do that? I didn’t think so.

It also misses out another important point, vital in maths and computer science, but also increasingly in other fields: how easy is it to use macros and/or construct parts of your document by script? I had lots of tables for my PhD (computer science + linguistics), so I constructed macros to help me write them in a meaningful way. I’ve also used PERL (in the past) and PYTHON (more recently) to transform data straight into LaTeX tables.

I’m a bit surprised, as Word has a formula editor since Office 2007 which is nearly identical to LaTeX, that the latter has such a profound advantage.

When last I visited this comparison, the issue we had with Word had nothing to do with user mistakes or relative ease of use. The core problem we encountered was more sinister and debilitating. As our manuscripts grew, the likelihood increased that Word would drop portions of the text, lose or change formatting, crash, or in some cases refuse to open a working document. As you can imagine, a lost manuscript was a substantial defeat for Word. Some chose to break their manuscripts into chapter documents to reduce their risk of outright loss, but this tended to make the inter-document references more complex. Our conclusion, was that if you wanted to graduate on time, better to depend on LaTeX.

I wrote my MSc and Phd (Physics) in LaTeX (ca. 90′) . Also convinced my girlfriend to do the same.

What did I gain? Peace of mind. I just did not care anymore about formatting, numbering, fonts, etc. because I did not know LaTeX enough to modify them. The numbering was always right, even if inserting a picture was a nightmare.

I now work in a company which uses Word and when thing go well, they go well. When things go wrong, they go terribly wrong. But what the heck, the tracking mode is fantastic. (please do not tell me about diff for LaTeX – I am an uber-geek and administred unix for many years, I would not even remotely approach tracking with LaTeX.

But this is not very much relevant anymore, the future is with Web publishing in a collaborative mode.

I would also suggest to add lyx (www.lyx.org) to this trial… it is more intuitive than latex but still has most of its advantages!

Does Word papers result in overall accuracy?

I have written many ISI papers in MS Word. Yes the writing part and formatting were easy, but during revisions I always came up with hundreds of mistakes and headaches:

– Wrong equation numbering – Missing headers – addition of new sections –> required entire document modification! – addition of new images would deform most pages, –>required entire document modification! – adding footnotes was odd – writing simple inline math required many clicks – adhering to ISI formatting standards was difficult – choosing proper fonts was subjective

Each technology targets specific audiences. Latex targets academic and researchers while Word targets the rest of the society.

If you write a lot, LaTex is definitely worth the effort. Clicking in Word requires to know the menu. Certainly knowing the menu is considerably less effort than knowing the commands in LaTex. Hence, it is clearly a question of proficiency. If you suck in LaTex, LaTex is horrible.

After I reached a certain skill level in LaTex I started to use it for plotting and drawing figures as well. MATLAB and other math plot programs just cant hold up to the standards LaTex produces – Word does play in this league at all.

In fact LaTex is the most complete solution.

[…] Word or LaTeX typesetting: which one is more productive? Finally, scientifically assessed […]

[…] Luis Blanco discusses a scientific experiment determining which typesetting tool is more productive. Turns out that Word is unbeatable – when it comes to long blocks of continuous text and […]

SIMPLY: Word rules

LaTex produces good looking quality documents especially with Math. However, in the real world you do not work alone—You work with almost ~90% MS Word user! You need to collaborate, share comments with people who do not use LaTex and this quickly becomes a problem. You cant force people to start using LaTex…In the end it’s useless to use LaTex when in the end someone else (e.g. colleague) will need an editable Word document not PDF to work with.

Most people dont know Word!

Just let me repeat; most people have no idea how MS Word works.

There is no great tutorial for learning Word as an expert while for Latex there are numerous books and most users are forced to learn Latex.

What are Word options rarely people use? How can we make Word act logically?

1- You can easily typeset Latex-style mathematical equations in Word. Just enter your equation like Latex and press space. There it is! (You can also use Asana Math font in Word)

2- Use styles. Styles make everything coherent and easyto manage.

3- Use citations and cross-references. They are dynamically updated and easy to manage in Word.

4- Use Bilbliography. It is so easy to manage citations and Bibliography in word. You can apply numerous styles to them easily.

5- Use Headings for sectioning. Table of contents are easily generated based on the headings.

**6- Use page breaks and section breaks to avoid formatting an entire document because you have inserted a new content somewhere in Word.

**7- Use “keep text together” as a style in paragraph to keep all paragraph text, image captions and heading together and not distributed across two pages.

Tell me how many of people know the mentioned options in Word and then lament Word for what it can’t do.

Hamzed, your comment is absolutely perfect. The comments above lamenting Word are from people who seem to have no idea about styles, headings, references, breaks, the Math functionality, fields, etc.

I’m an attorney spending most of my time in Word and Adobe. Sure, I don’t write equations. But I can instantly transform a several-hundred page contract using styles correctly. I can update my table of contents easily. Headers and footers, sections, images, these are a breeze. It took some learning, but reading a couple of blog posts about the nuances of Word is far less of a headache then learning a new markup language.

OK ! it’s right for a simple document. But try this for a thesis or even for a paper. Don’t need to speak about changing the format from a journal to another. I’m a word user for more than 20 years and I actually still using it but only for docs no more than 3 to 5 pages. I happely discovered LaTeX and I’m using it for about 10 years. My feeling is that Word can beat you at any moment, I d’ont trust it at all. Just make attention for long documents

I have tried both of them, basically most of the LaTeX function are available in MS Word but people don’t know how to use it. Basically it has every shortcut right from heading, numbering figure or table or equation, referring them in text (cross references), citation, automatic list of table , figure and table of content, bibliography, typing equation like LaTeX. If you are interested you should look a video See this youtube video and you will never use LaTeX instead of word

I used LaTex to write my Mathematics PhD thesis and a few papers, and the beauty of equations and the automation of references etc is clearly very very impressive. But the steep learning curve (which, on a light note almost got vertical with tables) almost made me late to complete. With time, and with the recent versions of Word upping their game, I have found no real incentive to constrain myself to the lonely world of LaTex. I am lately using Word, so easily available and effortless to use, much more often. Latex is great. So is a beautiful wife (gender protocols observed!). But is the beauty the only criterion for a lifelong union? Just a metaphor. On a second thought, the very idea that any program can be compared with Latex at all is enough proof that the gap is closing and the technical demarcations are getting blurred. Very soon, Word will be able to do all (or most) of what LaTex can do.

If you write math professionally, or want to use it professionally, there are two requirements for your software that most people are not aware, and that were not tested in this ‘experiment’.

1. Inline math. You need to be able to use little chunks of math in your normal text. Word does not do this well – for one, math is treated like an image, and it’s baseline is treated like an image, and is often not the same as the normal text, in particular when you use certain fonts. It often looks ugly, misaligned etc.

2. Number and cross-reference equations. LaTeX just does it. It’s in its DNA. No fuss, no hang-ups. Word… not so much. Try it. I’ll wait. It’s an experiment in frustration. Alone formatting the equation number correctly can be difficult, and if the index for the numbers fails (and it does if you actually work with your document), you need to do what LaTeX does, and what you chose Word for because you do not wanna do it: Re-Compile! And if you start twitching at that step, you should. Frequently, Word does … weird … things when you need to do that that can result in complete formatting change of your document. Not to mention the needlessly complex workflow to pick cryptic labels from a pop-up/down list etc. Did I say LaTeX just does it with no fuss whatsoever?

It’s not enough to be able to typeset formulae if you want to use math and not come off as a buffoon.

This study was a fundamental mistake and fluffy. The author might have never worked on a project that requires to produce dozen of reports which could be over 100 pages and a lot of repetition. MS word is suck when coming to this point. Users of MS Words have to manually edit table, figure, and format whenever there is smt changed in hundred of pages. With Latex, you dont even need to care about it. It saves incredible amount of time to prepare reports for both academia and business. This is regardless of whether the content is heavily math or just plain word. Latex is always far more better and productive.

I find all your comments highly entertaining. In the real world (outside academia and writing fancy lab reports) no-one uses Latex, except for gloves and condoms. MS Word is the standard. It can do everything your Latex language can do, and more, with a few quick mouse clicks. Plus change tracking and collaboration.

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Should I Use LaTex Or Word For My Dissertation?

Published by Alvin Nicolas at April 9th, 2024 , Revised On April 9, 2024

The decision of which software to use for writing your dissertation can feel overwhelming. Two popular options are Microsoft Word, the familiar and widely used word processor, and LaTex, a typesetting system known for its technical prowess and professional output. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and the ideal choice depends on your individual needs and preferences. 

This guide will discuss the key factors to consider when deciding between LaTex and Word for your dissertation. Let’s discuss further. 

LaTeX is a typesetting system used for high-quality document preparation, especially in academia and scientific publishing. It provides precise control over formatting and layout, particularly for complex documents like research papers , theses, and technical reports . LaTeX uses markup language to structure documents and is known for its professionalism and consistency.

Strengths Of LaTex

The advantages of using LaTex for your dissertation include the following:

Professional & Consistent Formatting

LaTex excels in producing high-quality, professional-looking documents. Its focus on typesetting ensures consistent formatting throughout your dissertation, from equations and figures to citations and references . This consistency is crucial for academic writing, where a polished presentation matters.

Superior Handling Of Equations & Math

If your dissertation involves extensive mathematical elements, LaTex is the clear winner. It offers a wide range of mathematical symbols and packages like Tikz that allow for the effortless creation of complex diagrams and figures. Word, while capable, can struggle with complex mathematical notation and formatting.

Efficient Bibliography Management

LaTex integrates seamlessly with bibliographic management software like BibTeX. This allows for effortless citation management and automatic generation of reference lists in various referencing styles like Harvard , saving you countless hours of manual formatting.

Version Control & Collaboration

Online LaTex platforms like Overleaf offer version control and collaboration features, enabling you to track changes, revert to previous versions, and collaborate with supervisors or peers easily.

Weaknesses Of LaTex

While LaTex does offer several benefits, here are some of the disadvantages of using it for your dissertation. 

Steeper Learning Curve

LaTex requires learning its syntax and commands, which can be challenging for users unfamiliar with coding or markup languages. The initial learning curve can feel daunting, especially for those accustomed to the user-friendly interface of Word.

Limited WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) Editing

Unlike Word, LaTex doesn’t offer a direct WYSIWYG editing experience. You write the code, and the final formatted document is generated separately. This can make real-time editing and visualisation of formatting changes less intuitive.

Fewer Built-in Templates

While LaTex offers a variety of templates, the selection pales in comparison to the vast array of pre-designed templates available in Word. This can be a disadvantage if you prefer working with a pre-formatted structure and customising it as needed.

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Microsoft Word is a widely used word-processing software that allows users to create, edit, and format documents with ease. It offers a range of features such as spell check, grammar correction, and various formatting options. Word is part of the Microsoft Office suite and is popular for its user-friendly interface.

Strengths Of Word

Here are some of the advantages of using Microsoft Word for your dissertation. 

User-Friendly Interface

Word boasts a user-friendly interface that is familiar to most users. Its point-and-click features and visual editing make it easy to learn and navigate, even for those without experience.

This can be a significant advantage, especially for individuals tight on time or unfamiliar with coding concepts.

Extensive Built-in Features

Word comes packed with features like built-in citation management tools, track changes, and collaboration tools. While not as robust as LaTex’s integration with BibTeX, it offers a sufficient level of functionality for most dissertation projects.

Wide Template Availability

Word offers a vast selection of pre-designed templates specifically crafted for academic writing, including dissertation formats. This can save you significant time and effort in setting up the initial document structure and formatting.

Weaknesses Of Word

Following are the disadvantages of using Microsoft Word for your dissertation. 

Inconsistent Formatting

While Word offers formatting options, achieving perfect consistency across a complex document like a dissertation can be challenging. Manual adjustments are often necessary, which can be time-consuming and error-prone.

Challenges With Complex Equations

While Word can handle basic equations, it can become cumbersome and visually unappealing when dealing with complex mathematical expressions and symbols. LaTex offers superior handling and presentation in this regard.

Less Efficient Bibliography Management

Word’s built-in citation management tool can be adequate for simple projects. However, for complex dissertations, LaTex’s integration with specialised software offers greater efficiency and accuracy.

Additional Considerations

Consider these elements before choosing a tool. 

Departmental Requirements

Some departments may have specific formatting requirements or software preferences. It’s crucial to check with your department advisor or consult any available guidelines to ensure your chosen software meets any established standards.

Existing Skills & Preferences

Consider your technical comfort level and personal preferences. If you’re comfortable learning a new system and prioritising consistent formatting and efficient tools for mathematical expressions and citations, LaTex might be the better choice.

However, if you prefer a user-friendly interface and prioritise ease of use, Word could be a more suitable option.

Ultimately, the decision between LaTex and Word for your dissertation is a personal one. Weighing the strengths and weaknesses of each option in light of your specific needs, technical comfort level, and departmental requirements will ensure you make the best choice for successfully completing your dissertation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the advantage of latex over word.

LaTeX offers precise control over document formatting and layout, particularly for complex documents like research papers and theses. It excels in handling mathematical equations, references, and bibliographies seamlessly. Additionally, LaTeX produces high-quality output and promotes consistency, making it favoured in academia and scientific publishing over the more flexible but less precise Microsoft Word.

Should I use latex or Word?

Choose LaTeX for complex documents requiring precise formatting, such as academic papers or technical reports. It offers better control over layout and is preferred in academic and scientific circles. Use Word for simpler documents or collaborative work, benefiting from its user-friendly interface and compatibility with common office environments.

Should I write my thesis in Word or LaTeX?

Consider LaTeX for thesis writing due to its superior control over formatting, especially for complex structures like equations and bibliographies. LaTeX ensures consistency and professional presentation, which is crucial for academic work. However, if unfamiliar with LaTeX or collaborating with others using Word, choose based on personal preference and practical considerations.

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MS Word vs LaTeX: Which is Better to Write Your PhD Thesis?

Choosing Between Microsoft Word and LaTeX: Finding the Perfect Tool for Your Academic Writing Needs

The world of academic writing can feel overwhelming, and the tools you choose can significantly impact your experience. Two titans in this arena are MS Word and LaTeX , each offering distinct advantages and posing unique challenges. This article, iLovePhD explains the difference between MS Word vs LaTeX debate to help you pick the champion for your PhD thesis.

Let’s discuss the difference between MS Word vs Latex to write your research paper , thesis, assignments, and more.

Microsoft Word: The Familiar Choice

For many, MS Word is a household name synonymous with user-friendliness. Its WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) interface lets you see the final formatted document as you type, making it perfect for beginners. With its vast features for formatting text, adding images, and creating tables, Word offers impressive versatility for various documents, from simple letters to complex reports.

Another big plus for Word is its compatibility . .docx files can be effortlessly shared and opened by anyone, making it the go-to choice for collaborative work in many academic settings.

LaTeX: Precision and Professionalism

If you crave unparalleled typesetting quality and precise control over formatting , then LaTeX is your knight in shining armor. While it has a steeper learning curve compared to Word, LaTeX excels in crafting high-quality documents, particularly for technical and scientific writing such as research paper writing , thesis, formulas, and so on.

LaTeX shines when dealing with complex documents like academic papers, theses, and books, where consistent formatting and layout are paramount. Mathematical typesetting is another area where LaTeX reigns supreme, making it a favorite in fields like mathematics, physics, and engineering. Additionally, LaTeX files being plain text makes them ideal for version control systems like Git, a boon for collaborative writing and change tracking.

Choosing the Right Tool for You

The MS Word vs LaTeX decision hinges on your specific needs and comfort level. If ease of use and compatibility for general documents are your priorities, Word is the way to go. However, if you demand precise typesetting control , especially for technical or academic writing , LaTeX is the preferred champion.

Some PhD students even adopt a hybrid approach , using Word for initial drafting and then switching to LaTeX for final formatting. Ultimately, the best choice depends on your unique workflow and preferences.

Highlight: MS Word vs LaTeX

• Microsoft Word : User-friendly and compatible, ideal for general documents and collaborative work.
• LaTeX : Precision typesetting and mathematical prowess make it a favorite for technical and scientific writing.
• Decision Time : Prioritize ease of use with Word or opt for precision with LaTeX, based on your needs.
• Best of Both Worlds : Combine Word for drafting and LaTeX for formatting to optimize your writing process.

In the digital writing age, selecting the right tool is crucial for academic success. Both MS Word and LaTeX offer distinct advantages, catering to user-friendliness or precision typesetting . By understanding their strengths, you can make an informed decision that enhances your writing process and elevates the quality of your PhD thesis . So, whether you choose the familiarity of Word or the precision of LaTeX, rest assured that both tools are invaluable assets in your academic writing journey.

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• Artificial intelligence

Should scientific papers be written using Word or LaTeX?

Most papers are written using Microsoft Word or the LaTeX document preparation system. Is one better than the other?

Virtually all researchers use Microsoft Word or LaTeX to write their papers, and so do students who are taught how to… well, write. Most computer science and software engineering graduates prefer the latter ( and so do I ), but is LaTeX really the best tool for the job? Let’s find out!

Word and LaTeX, for laymen

Microsoft Word is a graphical word processor that’s based on the “What you see is what you get” (WYSIWYG) paradigm, which means that users see their document on the screen as it will appear on printed pages. This makes Word relatively easy to learn.

LaTeX (side note: Pronounced “lay-tech” or “lah-tech” ) is based on a very different paradigm that’s called “What you get is what you mean” (WYGIWYM). In other words, the final result isn’t visible until the user compiles their document. Documents are written in a special programming language (side note: It’s kind of like HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but combined into one single language. ) that has a fairly steep learning curve. In return it gives users virtually limitless control over the output.

Word is popular among many disciplines, including medicine, law, business, and life sciences, while researchers in STEM fields, like mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering tend to prefer LaTeX.

There are practical reasons why Word and LaTeX are the two most popular tools. Word likely owes part of its popularity to its use at schools and companies, while LaTeX (or rather its underlying engine, TeX) is very good at rendering mathematical equations. Moreover, many publishers require that papers are submitted in one of these two formats, which further limits the options that researchers can choose from.

Another reason why this duopoly exists is that researchers keep convincing students and junior researchers that their tool of choice is “better”, “more elegant”, “simpler” or “more flexible” than the other, based largely on limited personal experiences, preconceived opinions, biases, and traditions.

What if someone would conduct an empirical study that shows which system is actually more efficient?

Let’s battle it out

The authors of this paper conducted an experiment with 40 participants, in which they compared the usability of Word and LaTeX under realistic working conditions. Most participants were tested in their personal office setting and were free to use their own computers, along with any other editors and plug-ins they’d normally use to prepare documents.

Each participant was assigned to one of four groups (Word novice, Word expert, LaTeX novice, or LaTeX expert) and asked to reproduce three types of text within 30 minutes:

a simple continuous text;

text with tables; and

mathematical text with several equations.

The researchers measured the performance of each participant using three variables:

the number of orthographic and grammatical mistakes;

the number of formatting errors and typos; and

the amount of written text.

Afterwards, each participant completed a standardised usability questionnaire about their tool of choice.

Do we have a winner?

Word users managed to create the best reproductions for the continuous text:

Word users (both novices and experts) made fewer formatting mistakes and wrote more text. Interestingly, Word novices also made fewer formatting mistakes than LaTeX experts.

The number of orthographical and grammatical errors did not differ significantly between Word and LaTeX users.

Word users also did a better job on text with tables:

Word users (both novices and experts) made fewer formatting mistakes and again wrote more text.

Word novices made fewer formatting mistakes and also produced more text than LaTeX experts.

Conversely, LaTeX users were slightly better at reproducing the mathematical text:

LaTeX users (both novices and experts) made fewer formatting mistakes and wrote more text than Word users.

LaTeX users made significantly more orthographic and grammatical errors than Word users.

LaTeX novices did a better job than Word novices, but the difference in performance between Word experts and LaTeX experts was negligible.

The usability questionnaire showed that Word users were less positive about the efficiency of their tool of choice than LaTeX users, but more positive about learnability. Surprisingly, LaTeX users found their work to be less tiresome and less frustrating, and enjoyed using their software more often than Word users!

Overall, this study shows that there is no “best” tool, although in most cases Word is a better choice than LaTeX: there are basically no good reasons to use LaTeX for documents that do not contain complex mathematical formula.

Okay, but what about…

Typesetting quality.

LaTeX users often argue that LaTeX can produce higher-quality text than Word. Although this may be true, it’s also a strange argument to make: the quality of a paper is determined by its contents, not by its appearance.

Moreover, perceivable difference in typesetting quality between the two tools is small. In my personal experience it’s incredibly easy to fool LaTeX users into thinking that a Word document was typeset using LaTeX: all you need to do is swap out Calibri for (La)TeX’s Computer Modern font!

This brings us to another commonly heard argument…

How good it feels

LaTeX users are highly satisfied despite reduced usability and productivity. A possible explanation for this finding is that humans try to avoid cognitive dissonance, which is when their beliefs don’t line up with their behaviour. It’s usually easier to change one’s belief (“no other tool can be as good as LaTeX”) than to change one’s behaviour (making the switch from LaTeX to Word).

Word is more efficient than LaTeX for pretty much any text that does not contain complex mathematical formula

LaTeX users tend to be more content with their tool than Word users (albeit unjustified)

More about science

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LaTeX vs. Word: Main Differences

• By Syed Wahaj

Table of Contents

Introduction

In the world of document preparation, two powerful tools stand out: LaTeX and Microsoft Word. Both are widely used for creating documents, but they have distinct differences in terms of functionality, flexibility, and ease of use. This article explores the main differences between LaTeX and Word, shedding light on their strengths and weaknesses.

LaTeX: The Typesetting Powerhouse

LaTeX is a document preparation system that excels at typesetting and formatting documents with precision. It is particularly popular in academia for the creation of scientific papers, theses, and technical documents. LaTeX operates on a markup language, where users define the structure and formatting using plain text commands.

Word: The User-Friendly Office Suite

Microsoft Word, on the other hand, is part of the Microsoft Office suite and is widely used in various industries for creating documents, from simple letters to complex reports. Word follows a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) approach, allowing users to see the document’s appearance on the screen as they edit.

Document Structure and Formatting

Latex coding for structure.

In LaTeX, document structure is defined using commands and packages. For instance, to create a section, you would use the \section{Title} command. Formatting is achieved by specifying parameters such as font size, style, and spacing in the preamble or within the document.

Word’s Graphical User Interface

In Word, users interact with the document directly through a graphical interface. Headings, paragraphs, and formatting are applied using buttons, menus, and ribbons. While this approach is more intuitive for many users, it may lead to inconsistencies in formatting, especially in longer or collaborative documents.

Mathematical Typesetting

Latex: the standard for mathematical documents.

One of LaTeX’s strengths lies in its exceptional support for mathematical typesetting. It is the preferred tool for creating documents with complex mathematical notations, equations, and symbols. The inline and display math modes make it easy to produce high-quality mathematical content.

Word’s Equation Editor

Microsoft Word has its equation editor, which allows users to insert mathematical expressions. While it covers basic equations adequately, it may not offer the same level of control and precision as LaTeX, especially in documents with extensive mathematical content.

Collaboration and Version Control

Latex: ideal for collaborative writing.

LaTeX’s plain text format is conducive to version control systems like Git. This makes it a preferred choice for collaborative writing projects where multiple authors contribute to a document simultaneously. The ability to track changes, manage branches, and merge edits seamlessly is a significant advantage.

Word’s Track Changes Feature

Word also supports collaboration through its “Track Changes” feature. However, managing changes in a collaborative environment may become challenging, especially in complex documents. The lack of native integration with popular version control systems can be a drawback for some users.

Customization and Templates

Latex: fine-tuned control.

LaTeX provides unparalleled customization options, allowing users to create bespoke document styles and templates. The separation of content and formatting in LaTeX ensures consistency and makes it easy to apply changes globally. Users can define their document classes or choose from a wide range of existing templates.

Word Templates and Styles

Word also supports templates and styles, enabling users to create consistent documents. However, the level of customization may not match LaTeX’s flexibility. Users may encounter challenges in achieving precise formatting, especially for specialized documents with strict requirements.

Document Layout and Graphics

Latex: precision in layout.

LaTeX provides meticulous control over document layout. Users can define custom page sizes, margins, and column layouts, ensuring a professional and polished appearance. The inclusion of graphics is handled through the graphicx package, allowing for the insertion of images in various formats.

Word’s Drag-and-Drop Approach

Word simplifies layout design through its drag-and-drop interface. Users can easily insert images, tables, and other elements, adjusting their placement visually. While this is intuitive for simple documents, complex layouts may require more effort, and maintaining consistency across different sections can be challenging.

Cross-Referencing and Citations

Latex: automated cross-referencing.

LaTeX’s automated cross-referencing system is a boon for document organization. Labels and references are used to create links to figures, tables, equations, and sections, updating dynamically as the document evolves.

Word’s Manual Cross-Referencing

In Word, cross-referencing is often done manually. While the application provides features for creating links to headings, figures, and tables, users need to update these references manually if changes occur.

Automation and Macros

Latex: macros for automation.

LaTeX allows users to define macros, enabling the automation of repetitive tasks. This is particularly useful for creating custom commands or automating the generation of complex content.

Word’s Limited Macro Support

Word has a macro system, but its capabilities are more limited compared to LaTeX. Macros in Word are often used for automating simple tasks, and creating complex custom commands may require programming skills in VBA (Visual Basic for Applications).

Output and Portability

Latex: high-quality pdf output.

LaTeX primarily produces PDF output, known for its high quality and print-ready format. PDFs generated from LaTeX documents are consistent across different platforms and devices.

Word’s Proprietary Format

Word documents are typically saved in the proprietary .docx format. While Word allows exporting to PDF, some formatting discrepancies may occur when viewed on different systems. Collaborators without access to Word may face challenges in editing the document.

Learning Curve

Latex: steeper learning curve.

LaTeX has a steeper learning curve due to its reliance on markup commands. Beginners may find it challenging initially, but proficiency grows with experience.

Word: Quick Learning Curve

Word’s WYSIWYG interface makes it accessible to users with varying levels of technical expertise. The learning curve is relatively gentle, making it a go-to choice for those who prioritize ease of use.

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How to get started writing your thesis in LaTeX

Writing a thesis or dissertation in LaTeX can be challenging, but the end result is well worth it—nothing looks as good as a LaTeX-produced PDF, and for large documents it's a lot easier than fighting with formatting and cross-referencing in MS Word. Here we provide a guide to getting started on writing your thesis in LaTeX, using a standard template which is pre-loaded into Overleaf.

We have a large number of thesis templates in our online library , and you can upload your own if your university provides a set of LaTeX template files.

We'll assume you've used LaTeX before and so are familiar with the standard commands (see our other tutorial videos if not), and focus on how to work with a large project split over multiple files.

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LATEX or word for thesis

Hello all ,

currently im writing my Bachelor thesis, and i would like to have a perfect research document. So i though of writing it using LATEX, but i have zero experince using it. So is it worth it to learn LATEX or not?

My thesis project will end in june ( so i have around 3 months)

thanks in advance

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Alternatives to Word/LaTeX [closed]

I wrote my undergrad thesis using Word. Overall I managed to get the job done, but as with all WYSIWYG editors, by the end I feel like I had created a bit of a mess. It didn't show, but I know it's there. Soon I'm going to start writing my postgrad thesis, and I'd like to use a tool that gives me more control over the single elements. The obvious choice seems to be LaTeX, but as I'm going to be writing a thesis about humanistic matters, I wouldn't be using all its advanced features. Also, it's something I don't know, and it would take me a while to learn how to use it properly.

But here's what I was thinking. I know HTML. I know CSS. (I used to be a web developer, as a matter of fact.) Is it possible to use them for typesetting in an effective way? I think about XML and how it may be used with a specific schema to declare semantic tags, but of course that would need either a converter or a very complex XSLT.

I'm not asking about a specific software, but rather the approach. I'm not sure if my end is worth learning a new tool, or even creating a new one.

• 3 Related: academia.stackexchange.com/q/17961/13404 –  JiK Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 12:50
• 5 I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because I think it should be migrated to Software Recommendations.SE –  jakebeal Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 13:51
• 2 Note also that "I'd like to hear your opinions" isn't a good fit for Stack Exchange . –  David Richerby Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 14:29
• 9 I hate to be that guy, but... I believe latex is still the way to go. In the sister website, TeX.SX, we have many users with non-engineer background that use latex for their documents. Regardless of your field, latex allows excellent document organization, referencing, and etc. If you feel uncomfortable with latex syntax, you can use Lyx that offers latex advantages but in a more user friendly fashion. –  Pouya Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 14:59
• 3 Depends on your field, but I would still use LaTeX. Why? It allows for automatic referencing of images/tables/etc., automatic page numbering, auto date formatting, easy headers, auto layout (as well as being able to set it yourself), automatic PDF rendering, etc. Plus it is super easy to work with git. It's such an amazing tool that on literally every document I can, I use it. –  Ryan Dougherty Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 15:55

4 Answers 4

HTML and CSS for typesetting?

No, just no. HTML and CSS were designed for looking good on screen, not paper. Although there are CSS styles for page printing, using a medium for a purpose other than its original design will at best be an overkill (if it works) and in most cases a utter source of frustration.

The obvious choice seems to be LaTeX... I wouldn't be using all its advanced features.

This is the basic misconception. You will use all advanced features even in a humanities thesis. You will have inline references, bibliography entries (bibtex), links to bibliographic entries, figures, title pages, perhaps even tables etc. As you see, you are going to use much of the advanced features of LaTeX, regardless of your discipline. LaTeX has an increased initial learning curve, but in the long run it is worth this time investment.

Conclusion: Stick to LaTeX.

• 16 I use LaTeX for a social science thesis (so no equations, etc). It took me about a day out of my whole three year PhD to learn enough LaTeX to get started, and it was well worth it. I use referencing, glossaries/acronyms, chapter and section labels and references, and tables and love that they're all formatted for me! –  Phil Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 15:24
• 3 @Penguin_Knight I would recommend What are good learning resources for a LaTeX beginner? on TeX.SE . –  yo' Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 16:09
• 2 You dismiss HTML/CSS too easily; with the right setup it's perfectly capable of generating sensible printed documents. –  Jack Aidley Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 16:58
• 1 @posdef He didn't say he learned enough to write a thesis in a day; he said he learned enough to get started in a day. As you do new things, you have to learn more, but it doesn't necessarily take that long for you to basically be able to write your text, while having a decent sense of where to look if you want to do something you don't know how to do. LaTeX really isn't very hard to learn; what's hard is mastering it. –  cpast Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 19:31
• 1 @posdef It's very flattering to think so, but I don't think I'm a genius! For the same reason, I doubt you're 'slow'. I wouldn't suggest LaTeX is 'easy', but I was able to use a book template and get it building within one day, with a bibliography. I think that is achievable within a day or two, especially for someone familiar with markup (html). I then use en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX as a comprehensive resources for things I don't know. –  Phil Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 19:38

I personally would stick to LaTeX for a humanities thesis, but that's not a super useful answer. So,

Consider using Markdown + pandoc to generate LaTeX, while being easier to write. Something like this workflow for a Linguistics dissertation: http://linguisticmystic.com/2015/03/04/how-to-write-a-dissertation-in-latex-using-markdown/

pandoc is a powerful conversion tool, allowing you to convert between markdown, LaTeX, Word, etc. It will potentially even allow you to embed certain HTML and/or LaTeX elements into the markdown, giving you occasional access to either domain as necessary.

Regardless of the subject at hand keep in mind that you are writing a long document, that is destined to print and thus you need tools to tailor such a document. Use the right tool for the job!

MS Word and it's spin-offs (Apple's Pages, OpenOffice Writer etc) are good for quickly whipping up a document, where getting the content right is the primary focus.

For good quality publishing you need more than that, which explains the domain which (La)TeX was designed to operate in. If you need a WYSIWYG editor that gives you much better control over individual elements than Word does, you can test Adobe InDesign or similar software. The concept is that you prepare your content elsewhere and design how the content is going to be displayed, then you plug-in your text in the placeholders which you have styled.

The issue here is the learning curve . No matter if you go with (La)TeX or InDesign or anything similar to that (Scribus is a free alternative for instance), it will take you a significant amount of time to get down and dirty with the software and to be able to create exactly what you want to do. So the question is; what would you rather spend your time on, learning how to make a more visually appealing thesis, or generate the content of the thesis.

• If you know how to use LaTeX already than just stick with it, despite not needing the "math".
• If you have never used LaTeX and feel like you want your WYSIWYG features, give a try to InDesign.
• If you have no time to learn something new then stick with whatever you know and generate the content instead.

Though in theory HTML+CSS can be used to typeset page based material (e.g. http://www.w3.org/Talks/2013/0604-CSS-Tokyo/ ), I would stick with some other format that can be easily be converted to HTML (I personally use LaTeX for lengthy documents, Markdown for short ones). If you are good at programming, and willing to invest in developing tools to convert your own HTML format to other formats later (it is likely going to be necessary), then go for it. You can be the leader!

The main disadvantage of HTML is the lack of semantic tags. Perhaps an XML with some good XSLT that spits out HTML is better for organization.

• That's kind of what I've been thinking about. I think that XML would actually work great for this kind of stuff, maybe with a schema that includes semantic tags and whatnot. A XSLT or even a plain converter to LaTeX could be very useful in this kind of situation. –  Davide Borsatto Commented Mar 23, 2015 at 18:23

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged thesis software tools .

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Class for my thesis (I am a beginner, just installed LaTeX)… which document class and packages should I consider? [closed]

I am in the process of writing up a PhD thesis (Economics) in the TeXStudio environment, and I'm trying to decide what class/layout to use. I'm new to TeXStudio & LaTeX.

I must say that the documentation is too long and horrible in comparison to mathematical programming languages like R. I still do not have any idea how to get a grasp on features of packages and how to properly use it. It seems like that I have to read all those manuals consisting of >200 pages to understand what is going on... There seems to be no fast 'help' way denoting a half page summary of commands like in R.

Basically, I just want to get the format nice (as nice as I can make it). I want to blow everyone away with a beautiful style with my thesis. Maybe some old fashioned book style? Or report? Or something like memoir or something?

Can you recommend a document class I should use? I have read a bit about the memoir class, but I'm not sure if that is the best option. Alternatively, I have read about KOMA-Script classes, which are maybe another option?

Keen for your insight - because at the moment I'm not sure whether I even should use LaTeX as I do not want any problems with licenses or something, because I want my thesis to not be licensed under anything. My thesis is my thesis. So maybe it is better to just use Word?

• document-classes

• 9 @bmv article is not for thesis, it is for smaller documents, book is more suitable. –  CarLaTeX Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 11:29
• 5 @Frank all standard classes are open source (most are LPPL the same as latex) I'm not aware of any classes the use of which implies any restrictions on the use of the resulting document. That isn't to say they do not exist, can you link an example? –  David Carlisle Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 12:45
• 3 Obviously "better documented" is a relative notion, but as both an R user and a LaTeX user, my experience has been that R documentation (and package syntax) is much worse that most LaTeX documentation. For an absolute beginner, I would actually buy a book. Marc van Dongen's LaTeX and Friends (Springer, 2012) is very good and up to date. The advantage of memoir is that you can do almost everything within the class. The disadvantage with memoir is that you can do almost everything within the class. I wouldn't use KOMA simply because IMO the English documentation is unreadable. –  Alan Munn Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 15:00
• 4 Many universities will have their own thesis class. Here's the first one that popped up in a search: oit.colorado.edu/software-hardware/tex-latex/thesis-class –  jamesqf Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 19:24
• 3 Not an answer, but IMHO learning LaTeX by reading the documentation is will do nothing but make your brain shrivel up; Find a simple template and just start writing, searching online for solutions to problems as you go along. That being said, some packages which are indispensable are booktabs , graphicx , inputenc , fontenc and either natbib or biblatex . –  errantlinguist Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 21:36

5 Answers 5

Don't worry about the length of package documentation, you don't need to read everything!

If you use just the packages present in TeX Live (or MiKTeK or any other official distribution), I don't think you have license problems.

If your faculty already has a template, use it.

If not, just start with:

and in every .tex file put the relative content (for the difference between \include and \input , see here: When should I use \input vs. \include? ).

In your preamble, load your packages, I use:

in general:

to set the page margin:

to set headers and footers:

if you have some math formulae:

if you have some tables:

for figure and table captions:

if you have some graphics:

(to include external images - and not only - also not made in LaTeX)

(if you like to draw your graphics directly in LaTeX)

for the bibliography:

for hyperlinks:

Of course, you'll have to refine their options to your needs.

Then add other packages only if you need them.

Taking a look at The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX2ε or another guide listed here: What are good learning resources for a LaTeX beginner? is surely useful.

When your thesis will be finished, you could use beamer documentclass to create the presentation for its defense.

For any problem, we are here to help.

If you have no time to learn and you are full of doubt, just use Word (even if LaTeX is MUCH better).

Eventually, as marmot said in chat, nowadays it is virtually impossible to write a proper thesis without samcarter's tikzducks package.

• I have a couple of months to prepare my thesis, so I want to explore LaTeX and use it as it seems to be much better than Word. Is it bad to use MikTex? Should I switch to TeXLive? –  Frank Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 13:27
• 1 @Frank Please try, then! Go little step by little step. Read "A short guide to LaTeX" to begin, look at this post: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/11/… ! Happy TeXing! –  CarLaTeX Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 13:32
• @Frank The main differences between MiKTeX and TeX Live are 1) TeX Live install all the package one for all whereas MiKTeX has the on-the-fly installation. 2) TeX Live is managed by TUG. For the rest they are more or less the same. See here: tex.stackexchange.com/questions/20036/… . I had used MiKTeX for many year but switched to TeX Live because MiKTeX server sometimes is down. –  CarLaTeX Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 14:48
• @CarLaTeX MikTeX has options to install "on-th-fly" and "all-in-one". The second one is what I prefer. I would also recommend looking at beamer for presentation. –  Crowley Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 18:37
• @Crowley Yes, I know, I used MiKTeX for years, I only highlighted the differences. I'll add a note for beamer . –  CarLaTeX Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 18:50

Ran out of space in the comment sections, so posting this as an answer instead.

I used memoir as the backbone of my thesis. It worked great, but it might be a bit much for a beginner. If you really want to use it to its potential (and if you don't, you probably don't need it, and the default classes make more sense), studying at least some parts of the manual is probably required. It's a big (and good) manual, so since you mention you'd like to avoid extensive reading of manuals, it might not be quite the right tool for the job here.

The book or report class are potentially more sensible starting points. Some of their finer points which might be of interest, and differences to the article class, can be found in this post .

Lists with generally recommended packages have already been linked by others, so I'll avoid repeating those here. In general, I would recommend not overdoing it with the packages. Start out with the minimum, then add packages if you really need them -- don't just dump 50 packages into your preamble without knowing what they're for or if you even need them (you probably don't).

Also, make sure you know the requirements of your institution for your document, and try to incorporate those from the start (e.g. How does the bibliography need to be formatted? Does the document have to fulfill accessibility requirements for PDF/A? Does your thesis advisor have any special requests/demands? Etc.). Patching them in after you've already done a lot of work can be rather tricky, so it's good to get an early start on this. I was lucky in this regard; our college gave us a lot of freedom. But I know that the requirements in other institutions can be rather more exact. Some even have their own templates -- if yours does, probably best to use that.

As for licensing: The content which is created by you does not need to be licensed at all, or can be licensed under another license than the LPPL -- I licensed my thesis under the MIT license, for example. As long as you stick to default packages from your distribution, you should be fine. If you use packages or templates from other sources, make sure to check the licensing though.

Lastly: Don't panic about reading documentation too much. You almost never need to read all of it, and as you get more acquainted with (La)TeX in general, you'll also get better at finding the important bits which matter for your particular use case. It might make sense to check out some beginner-friendly resources though -- this question might have something of interest on that front.

• 3 I'm currently using memoir for my thesis and I like it, but for a beginner I'm not sure I'd recommend it. It does a lot of things differently to "normal" latex, so some googled solutions won't work on a memoir document. –  CharlieB Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 13:25
• 2 @CharlieB Yeah, agreed. I spent a lot of time in memman.pdf when I wrote my class on top of it. It's a great manual, and I'm happy with the result of my efforts, but many an hour was sunk into that undertaking. It's probably not the path I'd recommend to a newcomer unless they were explicitly asking about going down such a path. –  alpenwasser Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 14:29

I recommend two things:

Learn the basics of LaTeX by reading The Not So Short Introduction to Latex. (" https://tobi.oetiker.ch/lshort/lshort.pdf "). I know it is a long book, exactly what you said you didn't want -- but you only need to read chapters 2 and 3. Further, it will go quickly (90 mins tops), and LaTeX is something you should know if you're getting a PhD in STEM.

For a thesis, don't start from scratch -- no need to reinvent the wheel. Ask if your university has a template; if not, you can use one from a different university and just modify things until it's compliant. Here is the one from UCSB: http://www.graddiv.ucsb.edu/docs/default-source/academic-services-documents/dissertationtemplatelatexc0f10ec1cf8b6fd1a50fff0000c25041.zip?sfvrsn=0

As others have said, licensing will not be a problem (and I hardly think the solution to concerns about licensing would be to use a Microsoft product!).

Being biased (as the original author of memoir ) I recommend using memoir . Very simply you can use it just like the standard book class, which is a good starting point for a thesis, but it also includes many commonly desired extensions and enhancements which are there if you want them. I admit that the documentation is long but you only have to read the portions that are relevant to you.

I don't know what your institution's thesis layout requirements are (I get the impression that every institution's is unique and all are mutually incompatible) but the documentation does include a complete example of the code for a not-untypical thesis which you may find useful.

You are essentially correct. Most packages don't have the equivalent of a "quick start guide", just the standard documentation (which may get quite technical, for some packages).

I think most people learn to use Latex with (1) a book or a guide aimed to beginners, and (2) "by examples", reading and modifying a lot of other people's code. This is where they pick up lots of bad habits such as {\it this one} .

• 2 I don't think \em is a bad habit unlike the deprecated font commands such as \it . It's defined in the LaTeX kernel using \DeclareRobustCommand (not \DeclareOldFontCommand ). –  yudai-nkt Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 14:29
• @yudai-nkt Thanks - -- I did not know there was a difference between them. I have changed the example, with \it it should be more unanimous that it is a bad habit. –  Federico Poloni Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 14:35
• Is this really an answer to the question or a comment? Because the question seems to be about document class and packages... –  TeXnician Commented Jan 10, 2018 at 17:41

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