“Some weeks back, in the Linux word processing road map, I
mentioned a new application for writing documents called LyX. In
this column I’d like to present an overview, showing what you can
use it for, how to get started using it, and where to go to learn
more.”
“LyX has a GUI, but it isn’t a traditional WYSIWYG (“What
You See Is What You Get”) word processor. In contrast to
specifying exactly how each character in the document will look —
“make this word Helvetica Bold at 18 points” — you can specify the
structure of the text, such as whether a selection is a chapter
heading, part of the body text, an index entry, and so forth.”
“LyX comes with many document classes already defined — such as
letter, article, report, and book — containing definitions for the
elements these document types may contain. You can change the look
of each element and the look of the document as a whole — and you
can change the look of individual selections of text, but with
these elements it’s rarely necessary. Its authors call the new
approach WYSIWYM, or “What You Say Is What You Mean.“