5/1 Anyone recommend a word processor for writing a book? My friend's mom
just finished her book, and it's one Word doc per chapter... I was
wondering if there is any software out there geared to handle 300 pages?
She's a writer, so no, she doesn't want to use LaTex.
\_ FWIW, my mom wrote her dissertation (100s of pages, plus footnotes)
in WordPerfect. She seemed pretty happe, but she also used EndNote
in WordPerfect. She seemed pretty happy, but she also used EndNote
to help with footnoting.
\_ Why in god's name did she start a new doc every page?
\_ sorry, I meant one doc per chapter.
\_ Framemaker...kinda industrial, but powerful.
\_ Don't be mad. FM is such a bitch she might as well us LaTex.
\_ People have written math books in latex. -- ilyas
\_ that's the whole point. she has no interest in making
perfectly typeset symbols and the like. she probably
just needs something to efficiently handle many pages of text.
\_ asking someone's mom to use latex is just plain stupid. she
needs a word processor. what she really needs is for someone to
teach her how to use Word properly. one .doc per page is just
user error/ignorance. she already has the right tool. she now
needs lessons in basic use.
\_ no one doc per page is my typo. it was 41 chapters, so 41
docs. she wanted to get the page numbers right before
sending the book off to the publisher, so printing each
document wont do. as for using 1 doc vs. 41 docs, I don't
think her decision to go one doc per chapter was so bad...
it's faster to load, easier to manage, etc. also, there are
probably fears of losing 1 chapter vs. losing the whole
document if there is corruption.
\_ How many math books nowadays *aren't* written in LaTeX? I can't
imagine trying to make a 100+ page document with extensive
mathematical typesetting without LaTeX. However, I think it's
pretty clear that the op's friend's mom is *not* writing a
math book.
\_ TeX/LaTeX are good even for non-math stuff. I wrote all my
english essays in LaTeX, for example.
\_ I think the OP was acknowledging that LaTeX could be used, but
it's complexitity was too great for the intended user.
\_ LaTeX is really not that hard to use. You can do all the
typing first, and then the proofing and formatting later.
\_ Latex is so easy, even I use it all the time. -- ilyas
\_ aren't there plenty of graphical LaTeX editors?
\_ there's scientific word, but personally i don't trust
it. I've seen people wrestling with it for hours to get
it to not fuck up their figure captions, and i've seen it
destroy bits and pieces of documents in screwy ways.
mathematica can generate latex from its wysywyg, but
it's some kind of fucked up latex code that not all latex
compilers will recognize. if you want a point and click
interface, why use latex?
\_ no
\_ LaTeX is flexible, powerful, and totally impossible to use on any
non-*nix platform. Don't delete this again.
\_ wrong. i used to use latex all the time on windows, using
miktex under cygwin. there are also other fine editing
environments like winedt, if you don't like CLI's.
\_ winedt rocks. also, ostex for mac is really nice.
\_ Why would she not use Word, and put the whole book in one document?
Let the publisher worry about formatting it, that's not the
author's job, unless it's a "book" she'll be printing out and
binding herself. (In which case she should still write it in Word
and then lay it out in Quark or InDesign). -tom
\_ I agree. also, writing the document in word doesn't mean you
can't typeset it in latex later, or better yet get someone
else to deal with typesetting. as an author, typesetting
is not really your problem. I know of one journal(science)
that actually lets authors submit latex manuscripts which they
then actually *convert* to Word 97 for publication. go figure.
\_ Actually, this is largely the purview of the publisher. Most
publishers say ``Thou shalt use xxx.'' In most cases, xxx is one
version or another of Word. Most of them like Word for its change
tracking features. A handful of publishers will let you use any
tool you want, but, unless your friend's mom is sufficiently well
established to pick and choose among publishers, the question is
probably moot. -dans
\_ What's wrong with one word doc per chapter? When I was writing, I
put each chapter in a separate word document. The publishers
liked this as it made it easier for them to email the chapters
between the different editors and myself.
Once the manuscript is finished, the publishers will use
something like frame or quark to layout all the chapters and add
indexing codes, consistent footnote numbers, pg numbers, &c.). I
wouldn't put all the chapters into a big word doc and worry about
getting the pg numbers right &c.; let the publishers do that,
they have better tools.
Just make sure that the publishers send the proofs in ps or pdf
so that she can get a good idea about how printed edition will
look. I would plan to spend a couple of weeks reviewing the
proofs in order to make sure that formatting codes and deleted
text don't accidentally show up.
BTW, I wouldn't recommend word for chapters longer than 50
pages. I ran into problems with footnotes and revision control
(office{98,X} on Mac).
\_ I would suggest she try a stick and rock. |