I didn't know where else to post this so I thought I'd post it here. I have been through with MS Word and though it has helped me write my first book, I felt that I have wasted a lot of time on it, mostly recovering my files because it crashed etc. So a friend told me about LaTeX, but since he hasn't used the software to write something of the scale of an actual book, I was wondering.... Has anyone here used LaTeX? If so, is it really a help towards making us ignore the typesetting process? I basically need certain tools like autocorrect in a processor, but yes LaTeX is not a wordprocessor, yet I'd willing to make that adjustment if it is really better than the standard wordprocessors that usually fail past the 200,000 words limit. I'm currently running Open Office to write and am on Linux Mint, having sworn to never return to windows.
The only place I've ever seen LaTeX used was for scientific papers being submitted to particular journals. I found the instructions and information about it largely unintelligible; and I hired a LaTeX expert to handle it for the physicist I was working with. Best I could gather, I think it converts text to a publishable format, or something along those lines. But, my bet would be that you're likely to have conversion issues, if you're trying to word process a manuscript.
I've only see LaTeX used for math and science papers. You're better off sticking to MS Word or something simple like that.
i don't get what you think ms failed to do for you... there is certainly no problem using it for documents over 200k words, as it's done all the time by many of us who use it... and ms word doesn't 'crash' on its own... 'crashing' is usually perpetrated by your computer, due to some flaw, or outside force, or by your not using it correctly, but the software can't crash by itself... and since ms word is the lingua franca of the publishing world, you'd do best to stick with it and learn to use it more safely... including backing up and printing out your work, as you go, so any software or hardware problem won't result in a total loss...
Do you have much RAM? You can set Word to save automatically every minute. That is how mine is set up, so I never lose much info if I freeze. Perhaps a sentence. Also, consider writing each chapter in a seperate file, and then compile them when finished.
I've used LaTex in the past, but have not kept up with the progression of the software. Are you using a Mac or a PC? Another piece of writing software (which is also useful from the standpoint of organizing differing aspects of your writing) is StoryMill.
I havent had problems with ms word crashing, but I have my novel saved in a few pieces and not one chunk. Maybe you could try that and see if it helps.
