file type question

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by dcalder

I have the 2003 Word viewer installed, along with the updates that supposedly are equivalent to uninstalling it and installing the 2007 viewer. It didn't do the trick. Neither did Word 97. It looks like it has to be a full-fledged install of Word 2000 or newer.

Oh, bother. I was afraid of that, but it was worth a shot. Thanks for the confirmation.
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Dennis

[kovidgoyal]

Why don't you just edit your books in openoffice, save as html and use html2lrf?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Why don't you just edit your books in openoffice, save as html and use html2lrf?

What if you aren't trying to produce an LRF file?

Book Designer can output iLiad, Rocket Ebook, EB1150, Hiebook, eBookMan and Psion formats, among others, as well as lrf.
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Dennis

[kovidgoyal]

There are tools to convert HTML into every format know to man, and each of those specialised tools will do a much better job than a generalised tool like BD

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

There are tools to convert HTML into every format know to man, and each of those specialised tools will do a much better job than a generalised tool like BD

Probably.

What BD offers is the potential of maintianing one source file that may be output at will in any desired format, using one tool.

I'd call BD a work in progress, with an assortment of "features" I'd as soon weren't there, but I like the concept, and it certainly makes various sorts of markup easier.
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Dennis

[kovidgoyal]

If you're keeping your source in HTML you're keeping it in one format. Indeed the BD format is basically mutilated HTML.

And I think that the monolithic, integrated software design, is inferior in the long run to the modular, flexible software design.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If you're keeping your source in HTML you're keeping it in one format. Indeed the BD format is basically mutilated HTML.

And I think that the monolithic, integrated software design, is inferior in the long run to the modular, flexible software design.

Sure. You're coming from a Unix perspective, where the paradigm is one tool for one job, and you combine tools via scripts to perform more complex tasks.

You're right: a collection of individual, specialized tools will do individual tasks better than a generalized tool.

But you must accumulate, maintain, and become proficient in that collection of tools.

For many users, an integrated tool like BD is a better option for the task of creating ebooks in multiple formats.
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Dennis

[Moonraker]

If you're keeping your source in HTML you're keeping it in one format. Indeed the BD format is basically mutilated HTML.

I agree with Kovidgoyal on this one. But you do need enough knowledge of HTML to produce a good source file.

I always create an HTML (XHTML) file using my own code and then convert it to .prc, .imp or .pdf using other applications. This gives me much better results than using BD.

I don't use Unix or scripts.