Ok. Now it is clear. I thought it is something wrong with my computer. --
I hate Adobe (the whole company) and I think the PDF format is VERY poor and featureless. A PDF is huge compared with other document types; it is very very very slow and requires lots of CPU, and lots of time to load. It is very difficult to do a search in a PDF or to copy/paste text. It is really amazing how such a poor format have such a large spreading. I prefer to distribute the Help for my programs as HTML which is very small and easy to use. And everybody will have the 'reader' installed 'thanks' to Microsoft who installed IE in our operating systems. I also like to embed the help in my applications as tool tips (with some modifications at the tool tip window). People are lazy and only 10% of them open the manual. So it is much better to display a tool tip that to hope that the user will read the manual. --- Robert Meek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm the one who brought the topic up, and from the descriptions I > had thought it came in two forms, the first being acrobat ready and the > other a straight Delphi app which displayed it as formatted text. As this > is something I wanted to do I thought it might make a good example, but alas > the Delphi client does only initiate an Acrobat session and loads the file. > Since then I've worked on a method to start and load doc files for Winword, > and am looking at ways to embed Winword into a Delphi app, not simply start > it up and load the file. > I suppose it was allowed on the Borland site because of the > Delphi-written client. I've written to the programmer but haven't heard > back. Nonetheless, it's a good read and quite different than most > historical overviews available. > > from Robert Meek dba Tangentals Design CCopyright 2006 > > "When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion > that the gift of Fantasy has meant more to me then my talent for absorbing > positive knowledge!" > Albert Einstein > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > On Behalf Of Human > Sent: Friday, February 24, 2006 5:06 AM > To: Delphi-Talk Discussion List > Subject: Again about this great 'StillCastingShadows.exe' > > First at all: no offence to anybody for my next words! > > I heard peoples talking about this StillCastingShadows.exe! > What is this? I don't get it. > I've ran the program and I've found a small window that does nothing except > running a PDF file in > Acrobat and starting a email client window. > Nothing more. > It is supposed to do something great and it doesn't work on my computer? > Why it is distributed on Borland's web site? And where is the source code? > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --- Rob Kennedy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Robert Meek wrote: > > > By any chance do you know of that's the way the Delphi exe version > > > of "Still Casting Shadows" is handled? ( In case you don't know what > this > > > is see my post today on Delphi-talk with that Subject line ) > > > > I couldn't find any Delphi or Delphi-Talk messages with the subject line > > "Still Casting Shadows"; are you talking about the book by Blackbird > > Crow Raven, Code Central item 23106? If not, then please ignore large > > portions of this message. > > > > > The reason I ask is that I only found out about this piece of work > > > yesterday myself, and not only was I quite amazed at how well it had > been > > > written but also in the document itself! I've always wanted to try > doing > > > something like this myself, ( not writing a book, of course ), and in > such a > > > way that I could employ MS Word as my master editor from which I could > then > > > post to the Web, a blog, a help file, or even as an integral part of a > > > Delphi app. > > > > "Still Casting Shadows" isn't an integral part of anything. The program > > is nothing more than something that launches Acrobat Reader (or whatever > > your preferred PDF viewer is). > > > > If you want a PDF of your Word document, then simply direct Word to > > print to a PDF print driver. Adobe sells one. You can get another in > > connection with Ghostscript. (Adobe's is convenient because it also adds > > a "PDF" button to the tool bar.) > > > > > There used to be some good freeware add-ons for MS word that at the > > > very least allowed one to format what you wrote for screenplays and/or > html > > > docs, but I haven't come across any for the more recent versions. > "Still > > > Casting Shadows" looks and reads so nicely that I now know for sure that > > > this is the right way to go provided it doesn't involve extra costs. > > > > "Still Casting Shadows" was made using Open Office 2. Open Office can > > create PDFs directly. > > > > Whatever was used, preparing the book couldn't have been too difficult. > > Page breaks, header styles, and page numbers are all the features it > > appears to use. As long as you're familiar with style sheets, you can > > make your document look however you want -- screenplays, biographies, > > technical manuals, etc. The "SCS" document isn't quite the quality that > > TeX would produce, though. > > > > If you're going to be processing your text, Word is _not_ the format to > > start with. (And unless you require Word documents, Word isn't the > > format to end with, either!) Open Office uses an XML format, so anyone > > ambitious enough can transform it to the desired output with XSLT. There > > are TeX-to-HTML converters out there. Another base format to consider is > > DocBook. > > > > -- > > Rob > > __________________________________________________ > > Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] > > http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk > > > > > ...and the traveler died, stroked by the beauty of the landscape. > > THE MORNING OF THE MAGICIANS > Louis Pawels & Jacques Bergier > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > __________________________________________________ > Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] > http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk > > __________________________________________________ > Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] > http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk > ...and the traveler died, stroked by the beauty of the landscape. THE MORNING OF THE MAGICIANS Louis Pawels & Jacques Bergier __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Delphi-Talk mailing list -> [email protected] http://www.elists.org/mailman/listinfo/delphi-talk
