How much more productive is using Latex rather than Word or OpenOffice?

I had to start writing some software documentation this afternoon and also start a separate set of research notes. I am not sure why, but it seems like I get more work done (quicker) if I grab a Latex template file and just start typing - saving generating a PDF for viewing until the end of each work cycle. There does not seem to be any overhead at all for using Word or OpenOffice, but I still have the feeling that work goes faster just blasting in plain text, with a little markup.

I am too busy with consulting work to spend much time on it, but I started a new for fun writing project using Latex and some custom code for inserting both program listings and the output from running the program examples - it is clear to me why Latex + my custom code is more efficient for programming texts using than using a word processor. BTW, my new 'for fun' writing project is "AI Programming in Ruby".

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