11-22-2013, 09:20 PM | #31 |
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I like this idea. I've been advocating it among my more tech-saavy friends for a long time.
The terrible markup created by Word can cause a lot of problems when converting documents to different formats. Word is not a "source" editor, so you don't really have full control of the actual markup, and lots of weird things can happen to your document that you won't even notice until you try to convert it to a real format that can be used in an eReader, and you suddenly notice that half of your book is composed of a broken list or some such. Writers who don't use the built-in dropdown menus for setting headers and whatnot in Word end up causing a lot of trouble for themselves unless they pay for someone to fix all that stuff for them later. Other writers use the "nuclear method" *shudder* which destroys all existing formatting, and then restore the lost formatting manually as a final stage. I've been to conferences where people actually recommend doing this before submitting their book to self-publishing sites like Smashwords (where I work) and the KDP program. To me this seems like a waste of time. I understand that many writers tweak with style as a method of procrastination while writing, and that is why they can't switch software easily. I've suggested that this hypothetical "simple" editor have a copy of solitaire built-in, but it didn't go over very well. I personally write my books in markdown (very similar to plain text) using desktop software that looks like dillinger.io and convert to all the formats with pandoc, the tool that the OP mentioned. Asciidoc is also a good alternative. Markdown gives me the ability to add simple necessary markup like chapter headers, bold, italics, and quotes without dealing with the strict validation and distracting nature of (x)html. It is more than enough for people writing fiction novels. If you are writing programming textbooks you will probably want to go straight to html instead for more control over your markup, unless you have a good converter for code snippets and are happy with what it generates. Edit: Rather than using word tracker for keeping track of changes, I check all my books into git. You can see an example here. If I ever work with an editor, they can fork my repo and submit pull requests with changes. Probably out of reach for most people, but I dream of a future that a piece of software can be written to hide all the details so that your average author can use git for their book's change tracking too. Last edited by nikkie; 11-22-2013 at 09:25 PM. |
11-23-2013, 04:21 AM | #32 | |||||
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I have to say, that this is only the case when someone does NOT use Styles; when someone uses ad hoc typing. Anyone who can use Markdown to write a manuscript can, in about 20 minutes, learn to use Word well enough to export what is basically a squeaky-clean, ready-for-a-matching stylesheet HTML file. It's not hard. And it requires absolutely no use of "the built-in dropdown menus" that you refer to in the next paragraph. It's less demanding than using Markdown. I've said this repeatedly here and I'll say it again: the whole hoohah about Word creating garbage is, well, garbage. Yes, if John Doe gets a hold of Word, and just types willy-nilly, he'll output crap as HTML. But I guarantee you I can take a completely crappy file, and without using the dreaded SW "nuke" method, clean it up so that it outputs perfectly clean HTML in short order. It doesn't require any more discipline than taking a 30-minute-long tutorial. If a writer is too lazy to do that, then...well, what else can we expect as output? it will take them that long to learn and then remember to use Markdown, certainly. Quote:
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They enable users to use power features like Outline (incredibly valuable for long, complex documents with many levels); the Document map feature, and, as I've already stated, for creating a manuscript in which you can instantly change all the formatting for a given style with one click. You can display all the chapter heads at once, to see if you've misnumbered along the way; you can drag and drop sections or chapters around instantly...none of the silliness of trying to copy and paste inside the actual document. And it's absolutely irreplaceable for master documents and their sub-documents. Quote:
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Just my $.02. Obviously, you're happy with Markdown, and I know some other folks who are. But most writers are really not going to change their spots; they don't want to have to type all those extra keystrokes to bold a word, or italicize a sentence (I know it annoys me to have to switch back and forth between asterisks, underscores, etc., for italicization, not to mention the other formatting options). Not when they can double-click and either CTRL-letter or click an icon. As I stated, YMMV. ;-) Hitch |
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11-23-2013, 07:12 AM | #33 | |
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11-24-2013, 08:23 PM | #34 |
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@Hitch
It sounds like you've done a great job of training authors to use Word correctly. Bravo! I agree entirely that much of the trouble with Word output originates behind the keyboard; e.g., garbage in, garbage out. I also agree that it is entirely possible to write documents that generate reasonable markup in Word (and have proper TOC-generation information). This is less true the more complex your document, but for fiction, I definitely believe that 30 minutes of hands-on training can solve 90% of the issues users see. Many of the authors we see who have the most trouble with their books are first-timers or very non-technical people. I believe that the interface of Word encourages them to use itself wrongly. It encourages users to do one-off styling instead of using the semantic tags like headers and whatnot that can generate useful metadata and be styled at a later time. It seems to me that Word's interface was originally designed for creating print documents and has not significantly changed since we've moved to a much more digital world. While it is possible to use Word in a way that doesn't cause problems when converted, I don't think most computer users do it that way by default. I am intrigued by your suggestion that books can be easily fixed by macros. I personally no longer write in Word so I can't really suggest any good ones. I don't think most writers are competent enough to create such a macro. But I do have some interest in getting writers to use document cleaning macros provided by others if it helps. Have you shared any of yours or would you be willing to do so? |
11-24-2013, 08:30 PM | #35 | ||
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There are many people that don't know how to use a computer, just as there are many people who don't know how to drive a race car. Both create a lot of problems. The computer is the race car of computing devices, and as such, one would do best to study how it's used before trying to do it. If you don't, you'll crash and burn and get nothing done. Quote:
Maybe I should look into Pandoc. I don't know if something like Markdown can do include files or something like it. It'd be needed. I'll not write an entire book into one file. Last edited by Katsunami; 11-24-2013 at 08:34 PM. |
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11-25-2013, 07:35 AM | #36 |
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Hee-Hee, I used MS Visual SourceSafe for a bit (long long ago) to manage poetry revisions.
Now I _sometimes_ keep previous printed-out versions, or keep both or several versions in the same file. |
11-25-2013, 09:04 AM | #37 |
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@Katsunami- Sounds like an interesting project. I could very easily be tempted to try/use it.
I have to agree with you that someone who uses Word styles and produces terrifically formatted documents with it, and yet has no clue how to make a folder and drop a file in it sounds like an unlikely scenario. Sounds like trolling to me, to be honest. Go for it! I'm thinking about starting a project of my own shortly- a Python/QT chess PGN viewer and editor. Something simple and functional that would work with Linux. |
11-25-2013, 09:31 AM | #38 |
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I use a local subversion server and TortoiseSVN for all my writing. With OpenOffice/LibreOffice installed the "diff" feature automatically calls up a comparison between versions. It's not quite so neat as comparing simple text files, but good enough for my purposes and I like having the log of commits (for no great reason other than curiosity). On top of all that, it makes a convenient backup facility.
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11-25-2013, 10:05 AM | #39 | |
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I know I did after a while and finally decided that those old revisions or originals were relatively worthless, particularly after a piece was published. |
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11-25-2013, 04:16 PM | #40 | |
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11-25-2013, 04:55 PM | #41 |
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In that case, Pandoc, combined with Markdown, seems to be already capable of doing what I propose, although the structure needs to be put into the make-file instead of in normal folders. It's more flexible, but also somewhat harder to use.
I didn't know that Pandoc can use a make-file, but then again, I haven't researched it very extensively. |
11-25-2013, 06:32 PM | #42 | |
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At NO time did I ever say that my clients generally "use[s] Word styles and produce[s] terrifically formatted documents with it," in fact, I said the opposite. What I said to Nikki was about those very few clients who wanted to save money on their clean-up, or who actually wanted to learn. I can count those users on one hand, versus the more-than-2,000 clients we already have. I spend the vast majority of my day doing everything from explaining where my clients can find their own downloads folders, to how to save from a browser, to what a "directory" IS, etc. So, you want to call my opnion trolling, fine. Until you spend two hours on the phone with a client, as I did last Friday, because she kept insisting that her MOBI file was "opening up in ADE," and refused--REFUSED--to upload it to the KDP, because she had, somehow, screwed up her file associations, and thought that she could push the magic button that would "send" her file (replete with ADE, mind you) to the KDP to be put on sale, then really, I don't see where you get to decide that I'M TROLLING. I have at least a hundred examples like that. At LEAST. I already wished Katsunami the best. I think for geeksters, it will be absolutely fine. I think for authors, it will be about as popular as markdown is. if you folks haven't already learned by now that humans, 99.99% of the time, will do whatever's easiest, not what's BEST, and manage to rationalize the former over the latter, then there's nothing further I can say in this thread. Hitch |
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11-25-2013, 06:34 PM | #43 | |
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It's completely unusable by people who don't use the command-line of course. A UI with a button would obviously be better. |
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11-25-2013, 07:50 PM | #44 | |
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It's rarely a matter of taking easy over best. It's a matter of understanding that in many cases, easy is part of what makes something best, and other factors pass a clear point of diminishing returns. I learned to code in the days before GUIs and IDEs, but I embraced both. They make me more productive, and allow me to better meet the business needs of my employers, and in the type of apps I write, any less-than-optimized code they generate is totally irrelevant. For text document creation, in my book (hehe...book pun), WYSIWYG is King. Easy IS best! |
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11-25-2013, 07:51 PM | #45 | |
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It is very very rare that I compare revisions in my writing, I mentioned it only as a comparison/cross-reference to the supposed advantages of using plain text with a version management system. I quite agree that the old revisions are relatively worthless after a certain point, I can clean them up if/when I want, and probably will eventually, but for now subversion keeps them neatly tucked away so they aren't really any trouble; a bit of disk space used, but that's all. |
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