3 LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to
4 writing based on the structure of your documents, not their
5 appearance. It is released under a Free Software / Open Source
8 LyX is for people that write and want their writing to look great,
9 right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting
10 details, 'finger painting' font attributes or futzing around with
11 page boundaries. You just write. In the background, Prof. Knuth's
12 legendary TeX typesetting engine makes you look good.
14 On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output
15 --- or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced ---
16 looks like nothing else. Gone are the days of industrially bland
17 .docs, all looking similarly not-quite-right, yet coming out
18 unpredictably different on different printer drivers. Gone are the
19 crashes 'eating' your dissertation the evening before going to
22 LyX is stable and fully featured. It is a multi-platform, fully
23 internationalized application running natively on Unix/Linux and
24 the Macintosh and modern Windows platforms.
26 What do I need to run LyX?
29 * a Unix-like system (including Windows with Cygwin)
30 * Windows 2000 or newer
31 * Mac OS 10.4 or newer
33 A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. TeX Live for Linux, MikTeX for
36 Python 2.7 to convert old LyX files and for helper scripts.
37 Note: Python 3 (3.3 or later) support is work in progress.
39 How does the LyX version scheme work?
41 LyX uses a contiguous numbering scheme for versions, where a
42 number "2.x.y" indicates a stable release '2.x', maintenance
43 release 'y'. In other words, LyX 2.3.0 was the first stable
44 release in the 2.3-series of LyX. At the time of writing, the
45 latest maintenance release in the 2.3-series is LyX 2.3.4.
47 Please note that maintenance releases are designed primarily to
48 fix bugs, and that the file format will _never_ change due to a
51 In addition to the stable releases and maintenance releases, some
52 users may want to give a ``release candidate'' a try. This is a
53 release that should be stable enough for daily work, but yet may
54 be potentially unstable. If no major bugs are found, the release
55 candidate is soon released as the first stable release in a new
56 series. To summarize, there are three possible types of file names
57 that are of interest to normal users:
59 lyx-2.3.0.tar.gz -- stable release, first in the 2.3-series
60 lyx-2.2.4.tar.gz -- fourth maintenance release of LyX 2.2
61 lyx-2.4.0rc1.tar.gz -- potentially unstable release candidate
63 Note that the goal is not parallel development as for the Linux
64 kernel --- the team is too small to afford that --- but rather to
65 include all the simple and safe bug fixes. This is so that the
66 maintenance burden on us is not too high, and so that system
67 administrators can install new releases without fear. Experience
68 shows that these releases will contain a few new features, and
69 that the bulk of the patches will be documentation updates.
71 If you get the source from Git, the version string will look like
74 2.3.1dev -- this is the stable branch on which maintenance
75 release 2.3.1 will eventually be tagged.
76 2.4.0dev -- this is the main branch on which stable
77 release 2.4.0 will eventually be tagged.
83 How do I upgrade from an earlier LyX version?
85 Read the file UPGRADING for info on this subject.
87 What do I need to compile LyX from the source distribution?
89 * A C++11 compiler. Development is being done mainly with gcc/g++,
90 but clang and MSVC are known to work too. As of LyX 2.4.0, you
91 need at least gcc 4.7.
93 * The Qt library, at least version 5.2 (5.6 recommended). It is
94 still possible to compile with Qt 4.8, but this is not
97 Read the file "INSTALL" for more information on compiling.
99 Okay, I've installed LyX. What now?
101 Once you've installed it, and everything looks fine, go read
102 the "Introduction" item under the Help menu. You should follow
103 the instructions there, which tell you to read (or at least skim)
104 the Tutorial. After that, you should also read "Help>LaTeX
105 configuration" which provides info on your LaTeX configuration
106 as LyX sees it. You might be missing a package or two that you'd
109 User-level configuration is possible via the Tools>Preferences menu.
111 Does LyX have support for non-English speakers/writers/readers?
113 Yes. LyX supports writing in many languages, including
114 right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew.
116 Menus and error messages have been translated to many languages.
117 For the status of the different translations, see
118 http://www.lyx.org/I18n
120 Keymaps can ease typing in many languages.
122 Internet resources of relevance to LyX
124 The LyX homepage contains valuable information about LyX and the
125 various LyX mailing lists, as well as links to mirrors and other
126 LyX homepages around the world:
129 The LyX Wiki is the place where users can share information on
130 setting up and using LyX.
133 The main LyX archive site:
134 ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/
136 The LyX Development page has information about the development
137 effort. LyX is under Git version control, so you can get the very
138 latest sources from there at any time.
139 http://www.lyx.org/Development
141 How do I submit a bug report?
143 If possible, read the Introduction found under the Help menu in LyX.
144 You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there.
146 If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers' mailing
147 list, or use the LyX bug tracker at
148 http://www.lyx.org/trac/wiki/BugTrackerHome .
149 Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with!
151 How can I participate in the development of LyX?
153 Any help with the development of LyX is greatly appreciated ---
154 after all, LyX wouldn't be what it is today without the help
155 of volunteers. We need your help!
157 If you want to work on LyX, you should contact the developer's
158 mailing list for discussion on how to do your stuff. LyX is being
159 cleaned up, and therefore it's important to follow some rules.
160 Read about those rules in development/Code_rules/.
162 If you don't know C++, there are many other ways to
163 contribute. Write documentation. Help to internationalize LyX
164 by translating documentation or menus/error messages, or by
165 writing a new keymap. Write a new textclass. Find bugs (but
166 please read the list of known bugs first). Contribute money.
167 Or just offer feature suggestions (but please read the online
170 Thank you for trying LyX. We appreciate your feedback in the mailing