Hi Frederick, > My apologies for not explaining myself adequately -- I'm a content > person, not technical and hence the handicap.
Please don't apologize. It would probably be a better world if content people forced technical people to explain themselves. > I know what I want the first pages of my chapters to look like, but > don't have a clue as to how to convert that into Lyx. Okay, it sounds like you are asking about chapter headings and styles. Do I understand correctly? Here is what I would recommend, rather than try and code chapter headings on your own, try taking a look at a few of the packages/document classes that provide them. For starters, check out out the memoir class. It includes a very large number of well defined chapter styles. (This PDF provides a good overview www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/MemoirChapStyles/MemoirChapStyles.pdf). It will be likely that you can find one that matches your needs. If not, all of the memoir examples include the source code, which you might be able to modify. > This is a technical job no doubt, but is there some way to translate from > sketchpage to Lyx formatting? Short answer, yes. But it can be ugly and there is no automated tool that allows you to do this. You will need to write code. Creating a new chapter heading in LyX requires writing style definitions and formatting instructions in LaTeX and base TeX. Due to the work involved, these are then usually packaged as document classes or stand-alone modules. The PDF I link provides several (five or six) examples. There are even more on CTAN (the Comprehensive TeX Archive Network). I notice that you are a publisher or editor. If you need to produce a large number of unique document styles, here is a word of advice. I would recommend hiring a programmer to create the chapter headings for you. Adjusting fonts, spacing, margins, etc. is relatively simple and you could likely do it without too much trouble on your own. Chapter headings are not normally simple. Especially if you will be using ornamentation. Package writing (where this is invariably going) is a different beast than than using LyX or LaTeX to craft your text. And while a programmer can produce a layout in a few hours, if you try and do it yourself, it will likely require *days* of work. Therefore, my recommendation is to develop a style guide and price it out on eLance. The $30 or $40 you will spend on programming time will be saved many times over in frustration, time and productivity. Please note that this advice only applies to chapter headings. For your book cover, the title page, and other front-matter, I would recommend that you use a visual program called Scribus to design them. You can then add them to the body through a package called pdfpages. In LyX, this is done via the Insert > File > External material link in the menu. When the dialog opens, select "PDF" from the available options and locate your file. If you look at the archives of this list, you will find that the subject has been discussed multiple times. There are many good suggestions in those threads. (If you have trouble finding a specific thread, just search for Steve Litt as a contributor. He preaches frontmatter design in a layout tool -- fingerpainting -- as gospel.) Hope this is of some help. Cheers, Rob
