[Tex/LaTex] How to use Latex in MS Word

installingmsword

I downloaded latex in word from here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/latexinword/

But it just gives me an archive file that I have no idea what to do with. And I can't see any installation instructions anywhere either.

Any help getting this to work would be appreciated.

Best Answer

Even though I suspect mentioning MS Word might get you banned for life on TeX.SX, this looks like an interesting feature.

It appears to be a Macro, so review this perhaps: Record or Run a Macro

And after reading this review by this guy who shows as one of the developers, mrsparkle713, I think it might help to contact one of them.

This is an easy plugin for LaTeX in Word. One very nice feature is that it does not require you to install anything on your computer. It all runs out of Word using macros, and the LaTeX conversion is done on a remote server that can be changed if you don't want to use the one that is set up. Now that I have this I need to really learn LaTeX. After the learning curve, it should be a lot easier and more convenient to use than the equation editor that Word provides. I will be maintaining the project shortly, so take my review with a grain of salt.

Related Solutions

[Tex/LaTex] Skak Installation

Your TeX distribution probably has tools for installing packages, so you don't have to do it manually. MikTeX has the Package Manager, which you will find in the Start menu, while TeX Live has tlmgr.

[Tex/LaTex] How to install “TeX Gyre Schola” font for MiKTeX

Let's see a simpler example than the TeX Gyre set of fonts and consider OpenSans, assuming it's not delivered as part of the TeX distribution.

The directory on CTAN form a rather complex subtree:

opensans/
  doc/
  fonts/
  source/
  tex/

Each one of the four subdirectories denotes a part of the TeX tree where we need to install the files; on TeX Live it would be

/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local

and the structure should be created if still not existent. So, for example, at the end we'll have

/usr/
  local/
    texlive/
      texmf-local/
        doc/
          fonts/
            opensans/
              CHANGES
              README
              opensans-samples.pdf
              opensans-samples.tex
              opensans.pdf
              opensans.tex

        fonts/
          ...

After having populated the directories one has to teach TeX Live about the new font:

sudo mktexlsr
sudo updmap-sys --enable-map opensans.map

The second operation may be better performed, on TeX Live 2012 (or later) by editing the file

/usr/local/texlive/texmf-local/web2c/updmap.cfg

(creating it if non existent) adding the line

Map opensans.map

and running

sudo updmap-sys

afterwards.

Similar operations should be made on MiKTeX (Update File Name Database for the first and something based on initexmf from a command shell for the second). The biggest complication with MiKTeX is that it doesn't have a "local" TeX tree by default, but it should not be so complex to define one.

Why using the "local" tree? Because it doesn't strictly belong to the TeX distribution, so it won't be touched by later updates to the distribution.

For the TeX Gyre fonts the situation is similar, but with the complication that there is no "global" map file, so one should perform all the above steps and add to the "local" updmap.cfg the lines

Map qag.map
Map qbk.map
Map qcr.map
Map qcs.map
Map qhv.map
Map qpl.map
Map qtm.map
Map qzc.map

Comments

Manually installing fonts can be a pain in the neck. Much better to stick with the TeX distribution package manager (tlmgr for TeX Live or MiKTeX's) if the fonts are included in the distribution.

In any case I recommend using the "local" tree, whenever possible: installing fonts in a "personal tree" (under ~/texmf/ on Unix systems with TeX Live or ~/Library/texmf with MacTeX or something else with MiKTeX) requires all the steps above in the correct tree and to run updmap instead of updmap-sys, with the problem that font related updates to the main tree will not be reflected in the personal map files, so that updmap has to be run manually in those cases.