What You See is What You Get: Document Preparation Choices at the University of Tennessee

What You See is What You Get: Document Preparation Choices at the University of Tennessee

Jennifer W. Spirko

Objective: This study examines graduate students' experience with their use of the two most popular document-preparation programs, MSWord and LaTeX, comparing authors' satisfaction with usability, flexibility and portability in preparing final submitted pdf theses/dissertations. The two approaches present authors with fundamentally different ways to create documents, the wysiwyg presentation method of word processors in contrast to the macro-compiler method of LaTeX. Methods: Qualitative. E-interviews with graduate students at university who have submitted theses/dissertations created with MSWord or LaTeX through one calendar year. Results: Students using LaTeX tended to spend less time on formatting revisions despite initially seeing the approach as more difficult or less familiar. LaTeX users tend to champion the compiler, while MSWord users are more likely to view it as a default (e.g. "easier") option for document preparation. Conclusions/recommendations: We suggest those in document editing/preparation work more closely with IT professionals in making available LaTeX information and templates to wary authors outside those specific fields where LaTeX use is widespread.

2008