On 08/02/2010 02:33 PM, James Wilde wrote: > > On Aug 2, 2010, at 19:54 , Alan Taylor wrote: > >> I've just spent several days surveying the landscape of >> book-authoring software. There are a number of ongoing efforts, >> however the only mature project is an Apple-only program called >> Scrivener. >> >> While I use, and enjoy, OO Writer for my everyday word processing >> needs, writing an entire book or dissertation frequently calls for >> a different tool. It would be helpful to have a side pane that can >> be used for outlining purposes that will, when selected, call up a >> text for editing with Writer. A corkboard, or storyboard, would >> also be very helpful in organizing large projects and in quickly >> finding portions of huge, sprawling documents for editing. > > If you haven't already found it, take a look at Master Documents in > OOo. > > I use Scrivener. Before I found it, and I can't remember how I found > it, I used Master Documents, which is a good method, but definitely > has its limitations, not to say quirks. As far as outlining is > concerned in OOo, I can imagine that one could go a very long way by > appropriate (long) titles for the subdocuments of a Master Document, > so that each subdocument's name was the equivalent of a scene > header. > > Or else you could create a document in which you could write a > sentence or two or a whole paragraph describing a portion of the > document, and making one or more links to subdocuments in that text. > > But frankly, Scrivener is so good at its job that I'd say that, for a > writer, it would be worth buying a Mac just to be able to use it. > You don't need a MacBook, you can run it on a Mac Mini, which here in > Sweden goes for the equivalent of about 700 dollars. And on > Scrivener's site they refer to other software for other platforms > which they think is almost as good. I disagree with them, but you > might not. > > As far as a storyboard, whether cork or not, is concerned, I don't > think one is going to find such a thing combined with word > processing, as the two operations - placing people and events in time > and relation to each other, and composing the story of how they got > from A to B - are so unrelated that I and many others can't see them > being united in one piece of software. Storylines is a good specimen > of this kind of program, and another in development, but also Mac > only is Aeon timeline, which shows promise. > > This is not to say that someone might not take OOo and do some addons > or extensions or whatever, which supply the missing bits you > describe, but actually trying to incorporate something like this into > writer, which is, after all, aimed at all kinds of writers, from > simple to-do lists, through business letters, right through to > complicated multi-chapter documents via Master Documents, would be > asking too much of a universal office program. > > Sorry if this sounds negative, Alan, but even the most versatile tool > in the workshop can not replace the entire tool chest. > > //James
Perhaps... Linux/Windows: Lyx (Windows & Mac as well) http://www.lyx.org/ Zim http://zim-wiki.org/ Kabikaboo (Windows also) https://launchpad.net/kabikaboo Windows: Liquid Story Binder XE http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com/index.html OOo Extensions: http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/writertools http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/ParaDTP http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/scr2 Might be of interest? Don't know as I'm not a book writer. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
