Each software has pros and cons; I will talk about my experience

The good thing about WinEdt you can select any part of your text and compile it by itself but WinEdt is not free software.

Texmaker is very good in making big, complex tables and merge cells together.

Texstudio is more professional than WinEdt and it is free, as well as you can compile the whole document even you are working on an independent parts. Also, you just need to point the mouse to the figure title to show it to you. It has the same functionality of LEd to show the text and the PDF product in the same windows but you cannot print it.

khalid

I am using Geany under Ubuntu Linux. Simple, but does the job.

I am using TeXMaker. I have tried to use LEd and TeXStudio but TeXMaker is the most comfortable for me.

Kile works fine for me.

TexMaker or TexnicCenter

I installed http://www.tug.org/protext/ and use TeXMaker.

I prefer WinEdt.

True unix geeks use vi! ;-)

I use WinEdt. It also combines very well with Jabref.

I don't know which is the best, but I prefer LED.

Each software has pros and cons; I will talk about my experience

The good thing about WinEdt you can select any part of your text and compile it by itself but WinEdt is not free software.

Texmaker is very good in making big, complex tables and merge cells together.

Texstudio is more professional than WinEdt and it is free, as well as you can compile the whole document even you are working on an independent parts. Also, you just need to point the mouse to the figure title to show it to you. It has the same functionality of LEd to show the text and the PDF product in the same windows but you cannot print it. Texstudio doesnt like working with another edditing software.

I prefer Texstudio

I use WinEdt.

LyX isn't a tex editor per se, it's more of a unified document environment. I've found it to be extremely powerful and fun to use. It's a shame it doesn't get the recognition it deserves.

I use TexMaker in MikTEX

I preefer TexnicCenter

Texworks , Texmakers, TexnicCenter ^^

Texmaker

Depends on how much you know of Latex. If you already know all the commands you need, then an editor "cleaner" is good, as TeXworks, nano, gedit ... But if you're starting or not yet familiar with the syntax, so the best would Kile, WinEdt, LEd ...

TeXmaKer it's a good tool for starting to work in LaTeX. The software is very friendly.

I have only experience with TeXShop (Mac), WinEdt (Windows) and texstudio.

I agree with Khalid that out of the three, texstudio is the best choice:

* It has lots of options and nice features (auto-completion, master files, svn repository linking, ...)

* It is user-friendly (but most editors are)

* It is free

* It is cross-platform.

In any case, I would avoid any WISIWYG solutions (it goes again any reason you would use LaTeX in the first place).

Texmaker + MikTeX

I use TeXworks that came with MiKTeX 2.9 and I am happy with it. I am not a TeX expert by any means, but I manage with this setup quite well.

I have moved from a emacs + tex compiler to Ktexmaker which is now replaced by Kile. Its more or a less a All-In-One solution with syntax highlighting not only for TeX expressions but also for bibtex an others. It can handle multiple files, displays the compiler results and link your output to ps, pdf or dvi or whatever you like.

In addition all expressions or symbols can be found in the menu or via a clickable matrix in the editor. You dont have to remember all complex features and their syntax to use them. I like it.

I use gvim with latex-suite package for editing since almot 20 years, it's really fine.

included the use of makefile for complex documents.

I am writing my thesis in LyX. Keeping myself up-to-date with all minor libraries and commands was too complicated in the long run. LyX is a higher-level abstraction of Latex, and Latex is used at a lower level, but you do not have to deal with the Latex code unless there is something obscure detail that you want to fix in a document.

Latex is good for smaller projects, e.g. writing papers.

TexMaker

I am a big fan of vim (specifically the graphical version). It has a lot of really nice features for latex. The snipmate plugin has lots of commonly used items (such as figures, side-by-side figures, tables) that I can't ever seem to remember and get tired of looking up over and over.

Another big win for vim is its abbreviations, which I use all the time with latex. For example, I often find that I have to type certain quantities over and over, such as \hat{\mathbf{s}}, and using vim you can define document-specific autocommands quite easily, so that if you type s it will expand it to \hat{\mathbf{s}}. This is really great when I am writing out a lot of equations.

You can also quite easily link vim to your latex compiler so that pressing a button will compile and display your document (see link below for details).

Vim is a serious editor, and it takes some effort to get proficient at it, however once you do you will be much more productive than you could ever be with less complicated editors. I would reccomend taking a look at this site:

http://blog.interlinked.org/tutorials/vim_tutorial.html

for a good introduction to vim. Also, the default configuration for vim has some flaws, but you can customize it quite easily. I have a nice setup for vim that you can find on github here:

https://github.com/johndgiese/dotvim

this includes instructions on installing it onto Windows, Ubuntu, and Mac OS. Take a look at ftplugin/latex if you want to see how I linked the latex compiler to vim. Also see snippets/tex.snippet for some of my personal latex snippets.

Hope this helps.

Texmaker, used on Solaris and Linux.

I prefer TexMaker as it is cross-platform. I admit there are better ones that are OS specific if you only use one OS

If you are running Mac OS X, then I would go for Textmate (which is now free!) + the LaTeX bundle + skim as a pdf viewer

The download page is: https://github.com/textmate/textmate/downloads

You can try TeXnicCenter + MikTex for Windows. I'm using it. Its really cool.

I use Texmaker. It works both on Linux and Windows. The latest version of Texmaker has some nice features: customizable commands; an embedded pdf viever; implemented jumping from a particular line in source file to a corresponding line in pdf and vice versa. Also worth mentioning is the usage of build subdirectory, which places all tex output files (like aux, log, toc etc.) in one build subdirectory leaving the souce folder clean of all those unnecessary files.

Cool, did not know about build subdirectory, thank you, Vytautas. =].

I used the TeXnicCenter on Windows, but the Kile editor for Linux that I've been using for last several years is vastly superior. There is little it lacks.

According to the all previous comments, TeXMaker achieves the best rank . It is used or suggested by about 15 persons among 36 comments.

I am on Linux, and I have used a lot Kyle (http://kile.sourceforge.net/). More recently I moved back to Emacs, and I think it also has all I need ... actually more :)

If you like WYSIWYG, then LyX. Otherwise: (1): emacs. (2) (a) Mac Texshop (b) Win Mictex

I work with Eclipse and Texlipse plugin with USpellchecker. Flawless ...

Kile is not only for Linux. Its written for KDE and works under MS Windows(windows.kde.org). Its very comprehensive, but sometimes Vim is better :) When (a few years ago) I used Windows, I used to Latex EDitor "LED" (www.latexeditor.org) - it was very usable and stable editor but developing was stopped in 2009.

TeXnicCenter + MikTex for Windows in combination with RefTex for citations & MacTex for Mac: ideal!

I use vi/vim for editing. However, I started to use MikTeX on Windows and Mac and really liked it. I have Texworks on Linux. However, I find myself most comfortable in vi/vim on Linux and Mac because of its low overhead. The command options of vim (such as map and abbr) are great. I have coded it such that hitting F2 key just recompiles the source in my vim buffer and refreshes it in xdvi window.

I am using Texmaker (+MikTex) in Win7, Mac OS Mountain Lion and Linux. It is guide user-friendly environment for LaTex. My recommendations !

I use Kile and it is great. In configuration settings, I recommend Editor> Appearance enable Dynamic Word Wrap and Borders > Show Line Numbers.

Furthermore, you should give only write one sentence per line, which is very useful since you have enabled the line numbers and if you want to use the "diff" command.

Texmaker .....very simple and clean UI ...

Emacs, whether GNU or XEmacs, has a very good TeX mode. I've tried a number of other TeX editors, on many different platforms, and always come back to Emacs, which makes no assumptions about what I really mean to do. NB: I've been using TeX for 25 years.

I think LEd is quite good

I use TexShop with MacTex distribution on Mac, and I think that it is the best tex editor...

WinEDT and MikTex for Windows is my choice.

Yes, I use both TeXshop and MikTeX. I still use Emacs. (I pointed out that I've used TeX for 25 years. I've been using Emacs for 35.)

I've used TeXmaker for a long time, and it still seems a good choice to me, but today I personally use Notepad++ in windows; as for Linux, there are many good choices, but I wouldn't install any additional editor for that - your regular plain text editor should already be able to do syntax highlighting and maybe even some structural analysis, too, so it'd be a fine choice.

I use MikteX + TeXnicCenter, really good!

I use MikTex with WinEdit ... in the windows enviroenment

If you're brand-new to TeX, I'd suggest looking at LyX (http://LyX.org), as it is a full graphical editor. If you need to use journal or conference templates, this get complicated in a hurry, but for starting out I've found it to be very helpful.

I really like WinEdt.

Check out Lyx: www.lyx.org, it has a very nice GUI and powerful graphics handling capabilities.

I agree with Milan. Lyx is by far a better front end for TeX. It is based of What You See is What You Get principle. You don't have to remember Tex commands. It is best suited for a beginner who is making a transition from MSWord to TeX.

You can use MikTEx Portable which consists of its own built in text editor Texmaker.

I 'm also using winedit .it is very helpful

I agree with John but I would like to add that there is the Vim Latex Suite plugin that is really really helpful and powerful. It supports templates, it helps you with the boring typing with good shortcuts and makes your life far more easy.

Give it a try: http://vim-latex.sourceforge.net/

Also, I have heard that emacs also have a good latex plugin, if you are more of the emacs type of person.

winedt is really help ful. However, you can as well look for TexMaker which is more user friendly..

I use winEdt

I use MacTeX and TeX Live as it extremely easy to install and maintain plus many additional tools integrated for managing references. Download here: http://www.tug.org/mactex/index.html

I use Texmaker and it takes really a short time to get familiar to its environment.

I use UltraEdit for almost everything... fast, stable, full-fledged for programming as well, you can add your own commands for highlights, and it comes handy when vertical editing is an issue (e.g. items). Cheap but not free.

I prefer WinEdt as I find it most comfortable!

Kile is what I use in Linux, I use Aquamacs on a Mac

Geany editor on Ubuntu worked for me just fine.

I personally am a big fan of Sublime Text with the LatexTools plugin.

Winedit is one of the best choice with high functionality and simple UI, but due to purchasing requirement, I would vote for Lyx as it put more colors into the editor for nicer UI.

I use Kile on Linux and Texpad on Mac. I like Texpad for writing, it's simple and clean.

The Sublime Text LatexTools are not mature, especially for big projects. I'm using Textmate as editor, combined with latexmk for compiling the code and Skim to display the results, all on OSX.

I feel much comfortable with WinEdit

On windows platform I recommend WinEdit, and Kile on Linux.

TexMaker on Linux is good

WinEdit and TexMaker both

I've tried LYX and it was very good and powerful ..

For Linux distribution I really like "Kile", but now I'm using Mac OS and I'm enjoying using TexShop. Both of them seem for me the best choices when talking about editing LaTeX. For Windows I would go with LyX for simple texts and LeD for the rest of compositions. Hope i help

Currently I am using TexMaker in bout Linux and Windows. It s a free cross-platform Tex editor. It is pretty simple, powerful and user friendly. I found its internal PDF viewer is very handy and helpful. You can just click on a part of your pdf and automatically jump to the appropriate TeX code.

When Windows is my device, then TeXniC Center is the editor of my choice. Plus, you can still use Notepad++ as a powerful tool.

I use TexMaker since I can use it on a Mac and windows

I think emacs and kile, but since win edit is paid, i think its not good

I think the best is WinEdt

I always used TexMaker in both Linux and Windows, It works really good

Yeah, Tecnic center is another option, But I won't prefer Win edit, since we have to pay for it

For me, Emacs (+Auctex + reftex) was very helpful, it is free, and available for Windows ans Linux.

I use Inlage (www.inlage.com) on Windows 7. It costs €15 for students and €25 for non-students. It has the ability to copy and paste directly from Word and Excel (including equations), which is why I bought it. I also love multiple compiler profiles and autocompletion for packages, commands, cross-references, and bibliographic references. Autocompletion by itself is enough reason for me to never use anything else. Version 5 is still in beta, but if you buy version 4 you get an automatic upgrade.

Kile, definitely kile

I believe its TEXMaker...a nice one easy and good to use, especially if your on a Linux platform