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I am reaching the final stage of my academic project work. Usual practice is to use Microsoft Office/OpenOffice/LibreOffice for preparing the final project report. As I am inclined towards FOSS I am using LibreOffice. I am aware of LaTeX/LyX but despite of greater control it offers I find them complicated.

My report mainly comprises of text, several images which occupy 25-50 percent of pages and small number of equations. Number of pages would be less than 150. Automatic generation of table of contents, good font support, easy margin/alignment settings, facility to export to PDF are a must.

Other than the applications mentioned above are there any others which will work on Linux? I am just impressed by the features offered by Scrivener for Mac users. Is an alternative for Linux available?

Chethan S.
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There is a Beta version of Scrivener for Linux you can use, located here: http://literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/

(Download button is about half way down the page).

Edit: Oh, and obviously, it is a Beta version, so be sure to make backups regularly if you do plan on trying it out. Wouldn't want your academic work to disappear due to a bug!

Craig Sefton
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    One more concern is the validity of beta, 30 May 2011. I would need it for few more days after that, and again if it locks me in proprietary format I won't be able to use the files created effectively at a later date. Anyway I am going to check it out. Thanks! – Chethan S. May 09 '11 at 14:17
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    Yes, the validity of the beta would be a concern (although I think you can reset it to extend the trial, not sure), but with regards to the proprietary format, you are able to compile your work into many formats, including: doc, docx, pdf, odt, and rtf, amongst others. There is also the facility to export your work (although I haven't used that myself). – Craig Sefton May 09 '11 at 14:48
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    Oh, and FYI, I just read on their forums that the beta is supposed to run until the release of the paid-for version. – Craig Sefton May 09 '11 at 14:59
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    @Craig, thanks for this info on beta's extended validity. – Chethan S. May 09 '11 at 16:48
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    I downloaded Scrivener Beta for my Ubuntu just now. In the readme I was surprised to see this - "Release version 1.0.0 of Scrivener for Linux will be a zero cost licence.

    This is due for release early June following the Windows release. That

    should make a few nix folks happy."

     – Chethan S. May 10 '11 at 00:08
  • @Chethan Ah, that's great. I may have to consider setting up an Ubuntu partition on my computer! – Craig Sefton May 10 '11 at 07:51
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Abiword is available for Linux. It's a word processor like he others you have mentioned. It also makes Latex a little bit less complicated, because it can generate Latex files. E.g. you can enter the Latex syntax for equations, if you like that and ignore the Latex syntax for the rest of your document.

Here is a small introduction.

John Smithers
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You could also take a look at Lyx. It combines the power of Latex with a usable GUI that also shows you your mark-up.

Dennis
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