Quote:
Originally Posted by daudvyd
I'm writing a role-playing game book (like Dungeons & Dragons) and would like -- if possible -- to produce an ebook (EPUB, MOBI, etc) and a print-ready PDF with more complex formatting from a single source. I'd like figures & cross-references, TOC, and indexes to be handled through markup rather than manually constructed. I may have a person index, technology index, spell index, etc. I'm not sure what the native format should be to allow maximum flexibility.
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Well...Word and Libre Office ("LO") both do that. Open Office ("OO") may, but LO is better maintained and supported. Most of what you're discussing is WHY word processing exists. I mean...they're not just electronic typewriters.
There really isn't any reason for you to dive into DITA. In something like Word, for example, you build almost everything through the use of headings, styles, field codes, and cross-references. You can create multiple indices, although that will take a bit of doing. BUT, you can't do any of it if you treat Word like a typewriter--you need to learn Styles & Headings; cross-referencing; indexing, building TOCs automatically, and working comfortably in outline mode. With those, you should be able to do everything you wish.
DITA...DITA is all well and good, but as I said, it's a framework, not a pre-made platform. Sure, you could do all the work and the brain damage, but I'm not certain it would do anything but CAUSE you work.
As far as a "single-source." Look--nothing does that.
NOTHING. (You're talking the Holy Grail of bookmaking, just FYI. Those that claim that they have this are sacrificing a lot to get a single-source file. You can't do it with LaTEX--oh my GOD, you haven't suffered until you try to create an eBook from LaTeX).
You create a master document in Word. (Or LO, whatever.) You then create whichever format you want first--typically print. You create your TOC with the print requirements (page numbers, usually with dot leaders for a non-fiction sort of thing), and then, when you export your PDF, you then remove that TOC and recreate it for the eBook--this is basically push-button, you understand!!!--without page numbers, using links instead, which is what drives the NCX, etc. in ePUB. You also remove running headers, folios (page numbers), and any footers. Then from LO, you export an ePUB; from Word, you export filtered HTML and then you put that filtered HTML into Sigil and build an ePUB.
There's no point in building a MOBI any longer. Amazon no longer accepts mobi. If you want one to put on your own device, to sideload and preview, then you can export one from Kindle Previewer 3, and sideload it. Done and dusted.
Hitch