This file is designed for all of you who have never heard of LATEX, or don't know it very well. Now, don't panic - you won't need to learn LATEX to use LYX. That is, after all, the whole point of LYX: to provide an almost-WYSIWYG interface to LATEX. There are some things you will need to learn, however, in order to use LYX effectively.
Some of you probably found your way to this document because you tried to put two spaces after a ``.'' or tried to put 3 blank lines between paragraphs. After much frustration, you found you couldn't. In fact, you'll find that most of the little tricks you're accustomed to using in other word processors just won't work in LYX. That's because most word processors you've used before allow you to manually enter all spacings, font changes, and so on. So you end up not only writing a document but typesetting it, too. LYX does the typesetting for you, in a consistent fashion, letting you focus on the important things, like the content of your writing.
So, bear with us and read on. Reading this tutorial is definitely worth the time.