Using LaTeX in Windows 7

Despite being a supporter and believer of software freedom, often times I've to compromise and use proprietary software. Since many of the people I have to collaborate and communicate with are completely running on proprietary or mixed platform like me, its a good idea to have a list of open source and proprietary software combinations of choice.

My favorite combination of software tools for using LaTeX in Windos 7 is MikTex, LEd. MikTex is the core LaTeX engine, can be downloaded for free from the miktex project's website. MikTex comes with it's own editor, but I prefer LEd since it allows arranging source files into projects. LEd can be downloaded from here.

For the MikTeX+LEd combination, MikTeX must be downloaded and installed before LEd since it uses the MikTex engine for compiling documents.

Useful keyboard shortcuts for Sciplore Mindmapping

This post will be expanded / edited as I find more and more useful keyboard shortcuts

Graphical link : Crtl + L
Select two nodes in the order (source, destination)


Move a node : Crtl + Arrow
Moves the node one higher/lower along the tree or shifts it in the ordered list of nodes in same level

New sibling node after selected one : Enter

New sibling node before selected one : Shift + Enter

New child node : Insert

Sciplore MindMapping

Sciplore MindMapping is an excellent software tool for researchers. Besides the ability to create mind maps of your brainstorming sessions, it allows linking nodes of the mind map with PDF files in your computer, import book-marks and references stored in BibTex format. Recommended for researchers in all scientific disciplines.

What started as a research project by the PhD students Bela Gipp and Jöran Beel at the University of Magdeburg, Germany in 2008 is a full fledged and still growing software tool and platform assisting research in many fields. Here is a little introductory video from their website.