Paul Johnson
2014-02-11

General Advice. Look for tools that are available across platforms. 
Don't sell out for something that runs only on one if you don't 
have to.


Multiplatform tools

1. Emacs
2. TexMaker
3. LyX
4. TexWorks
5. Zotero
   
   I Urge everybody to try Zotero, a biblio accumulator that can run in
   the Web browser Firefox. It accumulates cites you like, then you
   export to bib format. 

6. TexMacs. A competitor against Lyx. I've used it sometimes, it can
give you a nice new view of a difficult problem.





Linux

Install the TeXLive distribution packages from your package manager. I do not
suggest you try the raw, un-packaged installer.

Install LyX. 

To make spell checking work, you will need to be sure you have the
spell checker programs available.  On my Ubuntu system right now, I 
have the "enchant" packages installed, and I am pretty sure that
enchant brings in programs like hunspell and aspell with it. 

If you want to use Sweave or knitr to talk between LaTeX and R,
you'll of course need R:)



Macintosh

Go here and get the 2.2Gig MacTeX .pkg file. WoW. Huge. I may write
that on some disks for everybody.

That includes TexShop, an editor that people like.

http://tug.org/mactex/downloading.html

I like the editor called "texmaker". I like that partly because it is
available on all platforms.

http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/download.html#macosx


Of course, you need LyX. See here for a warning about the install
process: 

http://wiki.lyx.org/Mac/Mac#Gatekeeper

Short version. Don't doubleclick Lyx-2.0.x.dmg. Instead, Control click


For biblio editing, I use JabRef. That requires you to install Java.

Others strongly recommend BibDesk, http://bibdesk.sourceforge.net/

Lyx-2+ provides the spell checker programs. I'm not sure what MacTeX
provides in that regard, maybe we can explore.



Windows

Here's my strategy on Windows. Get the big LyX installer
bundle. Ignore people who tell you that is a wasted of download or
that it is too stupid for you. Generally it can be made to work.

I wrote out, step by step, my experience installing LyX and the 
associated files in Windows in my blog.

http://pj.freefaculty.org/blog

I'll be doing it again soon, maybe making a movie.