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Posted February 18, 2019 Share on:
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VTeX has developed the new Rich Text feature to SkyLaTeX. With this new functionality, SkyLaTeX can be easily used by authors or language editors who are not familiar with LaTeX. Math formulas are rendered with MathJaX when viewed but edited as LaTeX code. Text edits are possible in a Rich Text format. The image below illustrates a standard LaTeX code view in SkyLaTeX editor and LaTeX in a Rich Text mode.
The new feature can be applied to two existing services: proofing and language editing.
As for SkyLaTeX proofing, there are benefits for both LaTeX and MS Word writing authors. For LaTeX writing authors Rich Text feature helps to see the structure of a LaTeX file, especially for display formulas. Also, when correcting a formula in Rich Text, MathJaX immediately shows the result of the corrected formula without a complete file re-compilation. It saves a lot of time for the authors.
For MS Word writing authors, it helps to understand LaTeX coding better and eliminates barriers to use LaTeX. Until now about 25% of MS Word writing authors return corrections via SkyLaTeX and with Rich Text functionality this rate is growing.
With the new SkyLaTeX functionality, direct LaTeX file language editing can be easily done by the external editors who are not familiar with LaTeX. With SkyLaTeX there is no need to install any desktop application, and it is not necessary to update LaTeX styles, versions, etc. All edits made by a language editor are easily shown in LaTeX and PDF diffs.
Rich Text is a way to present LaTeX code in a more user-friendly output, where equations and some other commands are shown in “what you see is what you get” method instead of LaTeX code. This new functionality of SkyLaTeX will be beneficial to all publishers who want to improve either proofing or language editing processes.
