Tom Wildenhain's SIGBOVIK 2018 presentation of WordTeX, a Microsoft Word template that mimics LaTeX typesetting output. It is a joke research project executed with serious effort.
Why Hacker News points people here: HN people recommend it as an entertaining example of great effort on a trivial problem, and cite the template in LaTeX-versus-Word discussions.
Excellent SIGBOVIK video of hard work on a trivial problem
Full comment
Sigbovik is a joke conference put on by CMU students. About 80%-90% of the papers each year are pure jokes, but about 10-20% of them are jokes that have a nontrivial amount of work backing them up. These papers are awesome. Tom publishes at least one every year (sometimes 3-4) and his papers are among the best but there are others that are also awesome. It hits a very fun combination of hard work on trivial problems that is fascinating. They publish a proceedings every year and they are fun reads. Not a lot of people do accompanying videos like Tom does, but this one on WordTeX is excellent: this video
RecommendsamhouseAug 2018
“this is a rare case where the Youtube video [2] is both more entertaining and the medium lets the content shine”
Entertaining WordTeX presentation that lets the content shine
Full comment
There's also WordTeX, a "WYSIPCTWOTCG" editor. There's a paper [1], but this is a rare case where the Youtube video [2] is both more entertaining and the medium lets the content shine. [1] link [2] this video
RecommendsgitgudMay 2020
“If you're a fan of this, you might like;”
Suggested for fans of LaTeX-style aesthetics
Full comment
If you're a fan of this, you might like; "WordTeX - A WYSIPCTWOTCG Typesetting Tool" [1] this video (video)
Cites itbobbiechenJun 2019
“Introducing the WordTeX template [for Microsoft Word] .”
Source presentation for the WordTeX template
Full comment
>Could you use a standard word processor to approximate LaTeX, while obtaining an arguably better experience? Introducing the WordTeX template [for Microsoft Word] . From the SIGBOVIK 2018 presentation, "WordTeX - a WYSIPCTWOTCG Typesetting Tool" : this video
Cites itsenkoraJun 2025
“There’s always the WordTex template if you want to create documents that look like LaTeX output from within Word”
WordTeX template for LaTeX-looking documents in Word
Full comment
There’s always the WordTex template if you want to create documents that look like LaTeX output from within Word: this video
