Texva vs Microsoft Word — for exams and formula-heavy documents
Word is fine for ordinary prose; formula-heavy exam papers tend to break when the file changes machines. An honest comparison, including when to stay on Word.
Who each tool is for
Word is a general-purpose word processor, and for a meeting invitation or a set of minutes there is almost no reason to switch away from it. Texva is far narrower: it only does academic documents with formulas, figures and questions — exams, worksheets, lesson plans, lecture slides, theses. The trade is explicit: no mail merge, no Word-style review workflow, and not the place to type an official letter.
Side by side
| Area | Texva | Microsoft Word |
|---|---|---|
| Maths formulas | A visual formula keyboard; formulas stay data and remain editable | Equation Editor; pasted from elsewhere it often lands as an uneditable image |
| Printing on another machine | PDF set by the LaTeX engine — tables and spacing land identically anywhere | Depends on the fonts and Word build on that machine; tables shift |
| Question types | 12 THPT-2025 question types, with numbering and answer key wired together | Typed by hand; reordering a question means re-editing the key by hand |
| Multiple paper codes | Shuffled in the document, each code getting its own answer key | Not available; usually several copies of the file, reconciled by hand |
| Geometry and graphs | A built-in canvas exporting real vector TikZ — sharp at any size | Drawn with Shapes or pasted as an image; breaks up when enlarged |
| Student and teacher copies | One document; toggle solutions to print both versions | Two files, which drift apart |
| Familiarity | One thing to learn: type / to insert a block | Almost everyone already knows it |
When to pick the other one
If your document has almost no maths in it, or if your department passes .docx files around and needs Track Changes to sign them off, Word is still the right answer — Texva can export .docx but does not reproduce Word’s review workflow. Word also wins on the fact that everyone already has it: nobody has to be talked into learning a new tool. And if the school requires a .docx with its own style structure, editing that in Word directly stays faster.
What moving to Texva involves
You do not retype anything. Texva imports .docx and keeps the prose, tables, lists and any formula written with Word’s equation editor — including OMML and legacy MathType/OLE objects. What does not survive cleanly is what was already fragile in Word: floating text boxes, screenshots of formulas, and formatting applied character by character. The fastest route is to import one old paper, fix what shifted, and save it as a template you reuse for the year.
Common questions
- Can I open my existing .docx files?
- Yes. Texva imports .docx and keeps prose, tables, lists and formulas written with Word’s equation editor, including legacy MathType objects. Inline images come across too; floating text boxes need repositioning.
- What if my school still needs a Word file?
- You can export .docx. But if what gets handed in is the printout, exporting PDF straight from Texva is more faithful — that is the version the LaTeX engine set, independent of the recipient’s fonts or printer.
- Do I need to know LaTeX to use Texva?
- No. You compose with drag-and-drop blocks and a visual formula keyboard; LaTeX runs underneath to set the page. If you do know LaTeX, the source is still there to export.
Related templates
- THPT 2025 Exam — Full Three-Part Format (Vietnam)Full THPT 2025 format: multiple-choice + 4-statement true/false + short numeric-answer questions, matching the official 2025 structure.
- Lesson Plan — Circular 5512 (Vietnam)A lesson plan in the Circular 5512 format used across Vietnamese schools: objectives, preparation and the four-stage teaching sequence.
- 15-Minute Quiz (Vietnam)A single-page quick check: 5 multiple-choice questions plus one short-answer question.