There are basically two types of text formatters: (i) formatters that use ASCII files containing typesetting instructions and (ii) WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) word processors, like MS-Word, hiding the formatting in a proprietary file standard.

Tex family-

The standard text formatter for texts that contain a lot of mathematical formulas is (La)Tex. On the internet complete and simple-to-use (La)Tex distributions can be downloaded. I use MikTex to great satisfaction. WinEdt is the standard editor for LaTex. You can use better front-ends like Scientific Word, but they often include proprietary macros. You can use Scientific Word as clean as possible by starting it with a style file from your favorite journal, for instance an APS-(LaTex)- style file and saving always to standard LaTex. Many publishers allow submission of articles in (La)Tex.

• Often they encourage you to use their LaTex macro packages. Avoid using them as much as possible.

http://www.ctan.org/

http://www.miktex.org/Setup.aspx

http://www.winedt.com/

http://www.mackichan.com/

Record: length and ending of record

For Unix users: set record length of file to a fixed length of 72 or 80, to prevent Windows users from getting problems. The Windows operating system often inserts hard return characters when the record length is larger and these hard returns often cause LaTex compilation errors. (Windows uses \CR\LF for end of line. Unix uses \LF and Apple-Macintosh uses \CR. \CR = Carriage Return and \LF = Line Feed. They are standard ASCII control characters).

Compatibility

The LaTex 2.09 version is too old now. You have to use the newer version LaTex2Σ. You should realize that many LaTex distributions have their own peculiarities (for instance with respect to the inclusion of figures). Before redistribution of your LaTex files try them on more than one LaTex formatter. Nowadays a number of websites offer on-line compile service of LaTex files.

http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/english/lshort.pdf

Converting from old versions

• Turning old (2.09) Latex files into new ones is essentially replacing the old “\documentstyle[]﹛﹜” by the new instruction “\documentclass[]﹛﹜” and introducing some new “\usepackage﹛﹜” instructions.

Other text formatters like MS-Word

Only if you use almost no mathematical formulas MS-Word is acceptable. (Preprints with formulas always have an amateurish look in MS-Word.)