I have a habit of trying out new software tools, so when I came across this post about a free program called LyX, that more or less flattens the learning curve for LaTeX, I took an interest. I was about to start writing up my latest text score, and while I didn’t anticipate any special formatting needs, I didn’t want it to look like just another MS Word document.

It works like a dream. I’ve found that the “Verse” style works well for isolated instructions within a score.

LyX is available for OSX, Windows, and Linux. They highly encourage you to read through the documentation, but it boils down to the fact that it’s WYSIWYM (what you see is what you mean), so select a new attribute for every new line that has a new function (title, paragraph, etc.) and keep checking the preview to make sure it looks the way you want. Don’t bother with extra lines, tabs, and spaces. Just say what you’re doing and it will set it all right. It’s very configurable, and the output looks great.