Setup & Workflow

My Collaborator Uses Word and I Use LaTeX — How to Work Together

Mixed-tool collaboration is common in academia — you love LaTeX but your advisor or co-author insists on Word. Here are practical strategies to bridge the gap without losing your LaTeX workflow.

Convert LaTeX to Word with Pandoc

Pandoc converts LaTeX to .docx while preserving most formatting, equations, and citations:

# Install pandoc:
# brew install pandoc   (macOS)
# sudo apt install pandoc   (Linux)

# Convert LaTeX to Word:
pandoc main.tex -o main.docx --citeproc --bibliography=refs.bib

# With a reference style:
pandoc main.tex -o main.docx --reference-doc=template.docx

Apply Word Comments Back to LaTeX

When your collaborator returns a Word file with comments, use this workflow:

% Strategy: Use the 'changes' package to mark revisions
\usepackage{changes}

% After reading Word comments, mark changes in LaTeX:
\added{This text was added based on reviewer feedback.}
\deleted{This text was removed.}
\replaced{new text}{old text}

% Generate a summary of all changes:
% \listofchanges

Share PDFs with Annotations

If conversion is too complex, share PDFs and ask for annotated feedback:

% Compile your LaTeX to PDF:
pdflatex main.tex
bibtex main
pdflatex main.tex
pdflatex main.tex

% Share the PDF
% Ask collaborator to use PDF annotation tools
% (Adobe Acrobat, Preview, or browser built-in)

💡 Tips

•Pandoc handles most LaTeX features but complex TikZ diagrams may not convert well — export those as images
•The 'changes' package lets you show track-changes-style revisions in LaTeX
•For simple feedback, PDF annotation is often the easiest approach
•Bibby AI's export features can help generate clean Word-compatible output

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