: Re: What's the best text editor for a technical reference manual? It is my first time writing tech manuals and I don't know what to use. Some people recommend me LATEX but I think it's too complex.

@Gail2416123

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LATEX isn't a text editor, it is (broadly defined) a markup language. The alternatives would be things like markdown, asciidoc, docbook, or simply using HTML directly, in tandem with your favorite plain text editor.

Docbook and HTML are "heavyweight" markup languages (you need a tag for every paragraph, etc), whereas markdown and asciidoc are lighter and paragraph breaks can be entered just by pressing return twice.

The question then becomes whether and how you intend to publish in print format. If your copy shop can accept any PDF then you can use whatever you want so long as it can convert to a PDF or to HTML (which you can then convert to PDF using a web browser and PDF print driver). Some publishers or print shops may have specific preferences for how you provide your document to them.

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