I am a Technical Writer who has used LaTeX and MS Word over 8 years
.
My former employer forced me to use LaTeX to write technical documents such as user guides and assembly procedures. It was for the most part a joy to use.
I used WinEdt (windows) as my LaTeX authoring tool. So not only did I need to learn LaTeX but also the macro language of WinEdt for automating common tasks.
The main criticisms I have is the difficulty to create complex tables and the inability for a third-party to update documents unless they understand LaTeX.
I rarely used LaTeX to write scientific content.
My current employer forces me to use Word to write technical documents. Word is easier to produce a single stand-alone document, but I would prefer to use LaTeX to create documents for projects that need to \include snippets from other documents. In LaTeX, referencing figures and tables is solid.
To summarise:
LaTeX is the King for producing consistent, reliable, clean and fully featured PDF documents without dealing with the brokeness of Adobe Acrobat.
Word is the King for creating a one-off document.
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I am a Technical Writer who has used LaTeX and MS Word over 8 years . My former employer forced me to use LaTeX to write technical documents such as user guides and assembly procedures. It was for the most part a joy to use. I used WinEdt (windows) as my LaTeX authoring tool. So not only did I need to learn LaTeX but also the macro language of WinEdt for automating common tasks. The main criticisms I have is the difficulty to create complex tables and the inability for a third-party to update documents unless they understand LaTeX. I rarely used LaTeX to write scientific content. My current employer forces me to use Word to write technical documents. Word is easier to produce a single stand-alone document, but I would prefer to use LaTeX to create documents for projects that need to \include snippets from other documents. In LaTeX, referencing figures and tables is solid. To summarise: LaTeX is the King for producing consistent, reliable, clean and fully featured PDF documents without dealing with the brokeness of Adobe Acrobat. Word is the King for creating a one-off document.