Lout vs. desktop publishing systems

[Basile STARYNKEVITCH]

Jeffrey H. Kingston writes:
 > Are there any users of Lout out there who have also had experience
 > with high-end desktop publishing systems (FrameMaker, Interleaf,
 > possibly others)?  


I am not really an expert user of such systems; however, I could't
convice my dear wife to use Lout (on the family Linux box) for a 35
page university report for DESS (something like a Master's) in
clinical psychology.

So she used an old Macintosh running ClarisWorks (definitly not a
high-end publishing system). On occasions, I helped her!

I believe that ClarisWorks has a plus regarding to Lout. The ability
to have model sheets, which factor common document style and common
heading, etc.

For instance, it easy to create a document from a model which has at
once a common apperance and some predefined text (eg in a letter, the
sender's adress, current date, etc...)

Even for me (an experienced Lout user) defining a model sheet and/or a
style is a nightmare. I do know how to change parameters (like default
heading fonts, etc) but I don't know how to reliably define new kind
of documents (for instance, a bilingual document with 2 columns, and
for each paragraph the english version on left column and aligned the
french version on right column).

Thanks for lout-3.09


N.B. Any opinions expressed here are solely mine, and not of my organization.
N.B. Les opinions exprimees ici me sont personnelles et n engagent pas le CEA.

Please cite a *pertinent part* of my mail in all answers
Veuillez citer une *partie pertinente* de mon courrier dans vos reponses



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Basile STARYNKEVITCH   ----  Commissariat à l Energie Atomique 
DRN/DMT/SERMA * CEA/Saclay bat.470 * 91191 GIF/YVETTE CEDEX * France
fax: (33) [1] 69.08.85.68; phone: 69.08.40.66; homephone: 46.65.45.53
email: address@hidden (or else address@hidden);  
I speak french, english, russian. Je parle français, anglais, russe.
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