Ed Nisley wrote: >> Rather than using a WYSIWYG word processor, for a /book/ >> I would suggest learning to use a "markup language" such >> as LaTeX > > Seconded! > > Last year I started laying out a book using OpenOffice and > ran into an insurmountable gaggle of "little problems". > None were really killers and most had workarounds of > varying tediousness, but it became painfully obvious that > OO really wasn't intended (or debugged) for long documents, > regardless of what the bullet items in the feature list > might lead you to believe. > > Basically, OO comes heartbreakingly close to working for > long, complex documents. The Master Document thing is > almost there, except for figure placement, caption > numbering, and other undocumented gotchas. Ditto for TOC > and Index functions: they look like they should work, but > their interaction with Master Documents is, um, > problematic. > > The fact that OO's doc writers managed to produce the OO > manuals using OO is more a testament to their ability to > work around problems than to OO's suitability. A tip o' the > hat in their direction for a job well done. > > In short, I gave up and shelved the project until I had time > to figure out LaTeX or its ilk. > > Back in the day, I actually did write a book using > FrameMaker, right up through sending the PDFs to the > printer, all by myself (with some proofreading assistance > and a publisher to handle the distribution). Worked like a > champ: FM was designed for that specific task. Despite > that, I pretty nearly suffered from premature baldness by > the time it was all finished. > > If somebody else will do the book's layout & editing, then > don't duplicate that effort; just pour flat text into > chapters and heave it over the transom. If you're going to > it all yourself, then I -highly- recommend not applying a > word processor to a book-sized problem. > > Been there, done that, won't make that mistake again! > > FWIW, when you're evaluating book preparation software, > remember that tech books have much different requirements > than coffee-table books. The latter have complex layout and > styling requirements, but tend to be light on cross > references and indexing. Scribus, for example, can do > coffee-table books just fine, but isn't so hot for tech > books. At least as of the last time I looked, anyway. > > Keep typin'... >
Yes Ed I too have used FrameMaker ( What all AIX related books are written upon ) and with the right template one can bang out a book in a matter of months. But I really hate corporate style books. I should elaborate some more on what I want to do. Looking at this "book" for a lack of another word is more like an OSS project as it will be built chapter by chapter and accessible via a repository of some sort. It's very technical ( go figure ) and needs lot's of images with the text flowing around it. For printed copies one would need to pay a printing fee. So like any OSS project how to keep it accessible without adding complexity of LaTeX? I agree that is the best formatting tool but is there a compromise? A Wiki come to think of it would be cool since people could access the content and improve it making corrections etc. I do agree with Sean's point some time ago, we don't need to harvest trees to learn... that is why I would like an online version, offline version ( like PDF ) and for the small subset a printed option. Any further ideas? Joe
signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature
_______________________________________________ Mid-Hudson Valley Linux Users Group http://mhvlug.org http://mhvlug.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mhvlug Upcoming Meetings (6pm - 8pm) MHVLS Auditorium Feb 6 - DBUS Mar 5 - Setting up a platform-independent home/small office network using Linux
