How do I upgrade my existing LyX system to version 1.4.x? --------------------------------------------------------- The format of the preferences file has changed slightly. LyX 1.4.x is able to read old preferences files, but it will save them in the new format, so it is not possible to run LyX 1.3.x and 1.4.x with the same personal configuration directory. The format of the layout files has also changed, but LyX 1.4.x uses a converter layout2layout.py written in python that will convert old layout files on the fly. You can also call it manually on your layout files if you want to convert them to 1.4.x format permanently. The format of the external template file has changed substantially. Automatic conversion is not available, so you need to convert your external templates manually. The new format of the external template configuration file is described in chapter 6.5 of the Customization Guide. And of course, if you upgrade from LyX 1.2.x, remember that since 1.3.0, you have to do the following changes: One of the perennial bug bears of LyX users in the past has been that they have had to run Edit->Reconfigure when starting their new version of the code for the first time. Strange and wonderful things would often result if they forgot to do this, so LyX 1.3.0 now runs Edit->Reconfigure automatically the first time the program is run. If you have your own layout files, you may need to update them a little: - floats are now defined in the layout file, using the "Float"..."End" construct. In most cases, adding "Input stdfloats.inc" to your layout file is enough. - counters are also defined in the layout files, using the "Counter"..."End" construct. As for floats, adding "Input stdfloats.inc" is probably a good idea. And of course, if you upgrade from LyX 1.1.x, remember that since 1.2.0, you have to do the following changes: - all layout files should have a "DefaultStyle" entry - the "Latex" font style does not exist anymore. If you really need its functionality, consider using the "PassThru" keyword instead. The new layout format keywords are described in the Customization manual. If you have your own binding files (especially math.bind), you will have to update them - math-insert now takes a latex macro name as argument, so that "math-insert sqrt" should now be "\math-insert \sqrt" - math-greek-toggle is now gone, and should be replaced by explicit bindings like \bind "M-m g a" "math-insert \alpha" Build requirements ------------------ LyX's graphics handling system has changed substantially. If you do not have the JPEG library installed, you may need to install it before you can use the graphics capabilities of LyX. If you do not have the ImageMagick command-line tools installed, you will need to modify the default set up of LyX, or install them, in order to get previews of your document's graphics. Document transfer ----------------- LyX 1.4.x uses an external python script, lyx2lyx, to import documents written using previous versions of LyX. All versions of LyX as far back as 0.12 are supported, so any klyx users still holding out for an alternative to xforms will finally be able to put their dinosaur to rest ;-) Of course, this means that you must have python (at least version 1.5.2) installed in order to use LyX 1.4.x with your old documents. lyx2lyx also has the framework in place to be able to convert documents to an earlier format. However, these converters have only been written for the conversion from 1.4.x to 1.3.x, so versions of LyX older than 1.3.0 will NOT be able to read documents saved with LyX 1.4.x. The conversion from 1.4.x to 1.3.x is lossless as long as no new features are used. lyx2lyx tries hard to find something equivalent for new features such as boxes, but this is known to fail sometimes. LyX 1.3.7 contains an updated lyx2lyx that can read documents in 1.4.x format. LyX 1.4.x can also export to 1.3.x format for document transfer to older 1.3.x releases. If you were previously (in LyX 1.1.x) using the floatflt paragraph option to wrap text around a figure, it was necessary to modify this for LyX 1.2.0 manually, as described in the manuals. The feature has been re-implemented as "Floting figure" inset in 1.3.0. Old files will be converted automatically, but you may want to convert the 1.2.x-style ERT constructs with the native solution (see section 3.8 of the Extended Features manual). Since LyX 1.2.0, the babel package is loaded after the user-defined preamble (because some packages really need to be loaded before babel). If you relied, on babel being loaded before your own definitions, you can add an extra "\usepackage{babel}" statement at the beginning of your preamble. http://bugzilla.lyx.org/show_bug.cgi?id=315