What is LyX?

    LyX is a document processor that encourages an approach to
    writing based on the structure of your documents, not their
    appearance. It is released under a Free Software / Open Source
    license.

    LyX is for people that write and want their writing to look great,
    right out of the box. No more endless tinkering with formatting
    details, 'finger painting' font attributes or futzing around with
    page boundaries. You just write. In the background, Prof. Knuth's
    legendary TeX typesetting engine makes you look good.

    On screen, LyX looks like any word processor; its printed output
    -- or richly cross-referenced PDF, just as readily produced --
    looks like nothing else. Gone are the days of industrially bland
    .docs, all looking similarly not-quite-right, yet coming out
    unpredictably different on different printer drivers. Gone are the
    crashes 'eating' your dissertation the evening before going to
    press.

    LyX is stable and fully featured. It is a multi-platform, fully
    internationalized application running natively on Unix/Linux and
    the Macintosh and modern Windows platforms.

What do I need to run LyX?

    Either of :
    * a Unix-like system (including Windows with cygwin)
    * Windows 2000 or newer
    * Mac OS 10.2 or newer

    A decent LaTeX2e installation (e.g. teTeX for unix) not older
       than 1995/12/01.
    Python 2.3 or later to convert old LyX files and for helper scripts

How does the LyX version scheme work?

    LyX uses a contiguous numbering scheme for versions, where a
    number "1.x.y" indicates a stable release '1.x', fix level 'y'.
    Prereleases are denoted with the suffix "pre" and there are
    therefore three possible types of file names:

       lyx-1.5.0.tar.gz       -- stable release 
       lyx-1.5.5.tar.gz       -- fifth maintenance release of LyX 1.5
       lyx-1.5.0pre1.tar.gz   -- potentially unstable test release

    The maintenance releases are designed primarily to fix bugs,
    and the file format will _never_ change due to a maintenance
    release! 

    The goal here is not to have parallel development as for the
    linux kernel (the team is too small to afford that), but rather
    to include all the simple (so that the maintenance burden on us
    is not too high) and safe (so that system administrators can
    install them without fear) bug fixes.  Experience shows that
    these releases will contain a few new features, and that the
    bulk of the patches will be documentation updates.

    If you get the source from Subversion, the version string will
    look like one of:

       1.5.1svn     -- this is the stable branch on which maintenance
               release 1.5.1 will eventually be tagged.
       1.6.0svn     -- this is the main branch on which stable
               release 1.6.0 will eventually be tagged.

What's new?

    Read NEWS.

How do I upgrade from an earlier LyX version?

    Read the file UPGRADING for info on this subject.

What do I need to compile LyX from the source distribution?

    * A good C++ compiler.  Development is being done mainly with
      gcc/g++, but some others work also. As of LyX 1.5.0, you need at
      least gcc 3.2.x.

    * The Qt4 library, version 4.1.1 or newer.

    Read the file "INSTALL" for more information on compiling.

Okay, I've installed LyX. What now?

    Once you've installed it, and everything looks fine, go read
    the "Introduction" item under the Help menu.  You should follow
    the instructions there, which tell you to read (or at least skim)
    the Tutorial. After that, you should also read "Help>LaTeX
    configuration" which provides info on your LaTeX configuration
    as LyX sees it.  You might be missing a package or two that you'd
    like to have.

    User-level configuration is possible via the Tools>Preferences menu.

Does LyX have support for non-English speakers/writers/readers?

    Yes. LyX supports writing in many languages, including
    right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew. There is a port
    of LyX named CJK-LyX which adds support for Chinese, Korean
    and Japanese (http://cellular.phys.pusan.ac.kr/cjk.html)
    [This support is being merged in lyx-1.5]

    Menus and error messages have been translated to 17 languages.
    For the status of the different translations, see
    http://www.lyx.org/devel/i18n.php

    Keymaps can ease typing in many languages.

Internet resources of relevance to LyX

    The LyX homepage contains valuable information about LyX and the
    various LyX mailing lists, as well as links to mirrors and other
    LyX homepages around the world:
    http://www.lyx.org/

    The LyX Wiki is the place where users can share information on
    setting up and using LyX.
    http://wiki.lyx.org/

    The main LyX archive site:
    ftp://ftp.lyx.org/pub/lyx/

    The LyX Development page has information about the development
    effort. LyX is under Subversion control, so you can get the very
    latest sources from there at any time.
    http://www.lyx.org/devel
    ftp://ftp.devel.lyx.org/pub/lyx/

How do I submit a bug report?

    If possible, read the Introduction found under the Help menu in LyX.
    You'll find detailed info on submitting bug reports there.

    If you can't do that, send details to the LyX Developers' mailing
    list, or use the LyX bug tracker at http://bugzilla.lyx.org/.
    Don't forget to mention which version you are having problems with!

How can I participate in the development of LyX?

    Any help with the development of LyX is greatly appreciated ---
    after all, LyX wouldn't be what it is today without the help
    of volunteers. We need your help!

    If you want to work on LyX, you should contact the developer's
    mailing list for discussion on how to do your stuff.  LyX is being
    cleaned up, and therefore it's important to follow some rules.
    Read about those rules in development/Code_rules/.

    If you don't know C++, there are many other ways to
    contribute. Write documentation. Help to internationalize LyX
    by translating documentation or menus/error messages, or by
    writing a new keymap. Write a new textclass. Find bugs (but
    please read the list of known bugs first). Contribute money.
    Or just offer feature suggestions (but please read the online
    TODO list first).

Thank you for trying LyX. We appreciate your feedback in the mailing
lists.

The LyX Team.