[texhax] MacTex and LaTex compatibility

[Reinhard Kotucha]

On 2013-06-11 at 11:11:24 +0100, Alasdair Allan wrote:

 > please excuse my terrible ignorance, But I'm looking to start
 > putting together a thesis, and am dreading using Word for obvious
 > reasons - Friends use LaTex on a regular basis for this kind of
 > work, and are very complimentary.
 > 
 > I will be doing something similar, but am hindered by only having a
 > Mac at home, and windows computers at work - therefore if I work at
 > home using MacTex, can I open or convert these files so that if I
 > wish to continue work on the thesis at work using LaTex I can do
 > so?

You have *only* a Mac at home?  Do you think it's worse than Windows?
There is no need to convert files unless you're using a text editor
provided by Microsoft.

William Adams already suggested TeXworks.  This is by far the best
choice if you want to have the same environment at home and at work.

Just to avoid confusion: There is no need to download anything from

   http://www.tug.org/texworks/

The web site explains what it is but it's preferred to simply install
the version which comes with MacTeX and TeX Live for Windows.

There are two TeX distributions for Windows, MiKTeX and TeX Live.
They both provide more or less the same functionality but
administration is different.  MacTeX is actually a TeX Live system, so
it's certainly better to install TeX Live on the Windows machine at
work.  It's very convenient to have the same environment at home and
at work.  But it's not required, MiKTeX works as well.  Don't know
whether you have a choice on the Windows machine...

Regards,
  Reinhard

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Reinhard Kotucha                                      Phone: +49-511-3373112
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