Create non-fiction pamphlet on Linux?

[Tex2002ans]

Anyway, back to the default question:

Create non-fiction pamphlet on Linux?

Completely depends on what type of documents.

Have any sample images/documents of what you're aiming for?

Is this going to be text-heavy? Or are you going to create tons of images with floating bubbles, multi-page spreads? etc. etc.

Why did you choose LyX initially, just because you wanted a WYSIWYM editor? And you didn't know enough pure LaTeX?

Originally Posted by rcentros

Agreed. I haven't been very happy with ePubs produced in LibreOffice, but I've got an older version so I thought maybe things had improved with the newer versions. I've had a lot better luck importing the LO Writer file (in native format) to Calibre and then converting to ePub from there.

EPUB output was JUST added in LibreOffice v6.

v6.1 added a few more tweaks:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/....1#EPUB_export

like Metadata, Footnotes, slightly better image handling.

But it is still VERY rough (and nothing close to something coming out of Calibre ODT/DOCX->EPUB, or as clean as Toxaris's EPUB Tools). Like I mentioned, it's pretty much just the XHTML that's been coming out of LibreOffice for a while now, just plopped into an EPUB wrapper.

Originally Posted by gmw

Which will be me until the built-in comes up to standard. I've had a very good run with Writer2xhtml, I think it creates an excellent starting position for final clean up in Sigil.

That's sad to hear. Because yeah, the current LibreOffice EPUB Export is... not up to standards yet.

Originally Posted by gmw

Given the popularity of WordStar back then I would have thought there would be more obvious support being added to open-source projects. Did WordStar users not become software developers? The closest I can find is this:
Wordstar shortcuts for Writer.

NotJohn brought up WordStar over the years.

Last time he brought it up, I pointed out emacs with "WordStar emulation mode":

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...31#post3471831

Since cootcraig using vim, I assume there's something similar. (vim and emacs can do EVERYTHING!)

Side Note: And earliest I remember is 2015, when we were poking a little fun at him:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=259529

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

EPUB output was JUST added in LibreOffice v6.

v6.1 added a few more tweaks:

https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/....1#EPUB_export

like Metadata, Footnotes, slightly better image handling.

But it is still VERY rough (and nothing close to something coming out of Calibre ODT/DOCX->EPUB, or as clean as Toxaris's EPUB Tools). Like I mentioned, it's pretty much just the XHTML that's been coming out of LibreOffice for a while now, just plopped into an EPUB wrapper.

My mistake. It was AbiWord that I tried out for ePub making. And I should have remembered that because I downloaded it specifically for this purpose — though I had used AbiWord in the past (several years ago) for the relatively short time I used Vector Linux.

[cootcraig]

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Create non-fiction pamphlet on Linux?
Completely depends on what type of documents.
Have any sample images/documents of what you're aiming for?
Is this going to be text-heavy? Or are you going to create tons of images with floating bubbles, multi-page spreads? etc. etc.

I haven't fleshed this out much, but was expecting to start simple. Basically a simple technical memo with:

chapter,section,subsection outline organization
block quotes
anchor links
lists
images

No fancy layout for now.

For a few years I've been using a static html generator nanoc and pushed it to a hosted site. Nanoc gives me a framework to write with markdown and HTML. The above list is most of what I do with my nanoc based blog.

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

Why did you choose LyX initially, just because you wanted a WYSIWYM editor? And you didn't know enough pure LaTeX?

Pretty much. I dabbled with LaTeX, but when I found LyX it did everything I wanted and was easy for me.

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

But it is still VERY rough (and nothing close to something coming out of Calibre ODT/DOCX->EPUB, or as clean as Toxaris's EPUB Tools). Like I mentioned, it's pretty much just the XHTML that's been coming out of LibreOffice for a while now, just plopped into an EPUB wrapper.

That gives me some ideas to chew on.

Originally Posted by Tex2002ans

NotJohn brought up WordStar over the years.
Last time he brought it up, I pointed out emacs with "WordStar emulation mode":
...
Since cootcraig using vim, I assume there's something similar. (vim and emacs can do EVERYTHING!)

Over my career I careened between vim and emacs, but for many years I've stuck with vim. I guess vim is just a familiar text editor friend with benefits (add on helper scripts)

Since I'm a coder at heart I think my first attempt will be with

pandoc markdown -> pandoc -> epub

[cootcraig]

Originally Posted by rcentros

My mistake. It was AbiWord that I tried out for ePub making. And I should have remembered that because I downloaded it specifically for this purpose — though I had used AbiWord in the past (several years ago) for the relatively short time I used Vector Linux.

I use AbiWord all the time as a quick formatter for printing. Sure enough there is a "save as" epub.

[cootcraig]

Thanks to the responders here I am starting out with this work flow:

pandoc markdown/html/css -> pandoc -> epub

I have collected some examples from the WWW and off I go.

Along the way I will be learning to use CSS for common ebook readers.

[cootcraig]

I'm changing my first approach to LibreOffice Writer with the Writer2ePub extension. I'm currently doing extensive preparation and notes for a weekly Sunday school class. I work on a 2 monitor Linux workstation. This workflow fits into what I'm already doing.

Research with

books in Calibre
Web browser
Local files

Write notes with LibreOffice Writer while researching and studying.
Output notes to epub with Writer2ePub.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by cootcraig

I'm changing my first approach to LibreOffice Writer with the Writer2ePub extension. I'm currently doing extensive preparation and notes for a weekly Sunday school class. I work on a 2 monitor Linux workstation. This workflow fits into what I'm already doing.

Research with

books in Calibre
Web browser
Local files

Write notes with LibreOffice Writer while researching and studying.
Output notes to epub with Writer2ePub.

Sounds interesting. I guess I'll have to try Writer2ePub (if it's available for my version of LibreOffice).

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by cootcraig

My primary workstation(s) run Linux. I've started reading ebooks and use Calibre as my ebook archive. I've gotten interested in creating non-fiction pamphlets for my own use and on occasion for direct distribution to others.

Have you looked at asciidoc? It uses very light markup of plain text which is then converted to HTML, EPUB, or PDF in one step (with autogenerated table of contents, if desired). The rationale behind it is at:
https://asciidoctor.org/docs/what-is-asciidoc/

Tutorial:
http://www.vogella.com/tutorials/AsciiDoc/article.html

Quick Reference (also suitable as tutorial):
https://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciido...ick-reference/

AsciiDoc Writer's Guide:
https://asciidoctor.org/docs/asciidoc-writers-guide/

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Have you looked at asciidoc? It uses very light markup of plain text which is then converted to HTML, EPUB, or PDF in one step (with autogenerated table of contents, if desired).

Definitely going to look into this. Thanks. (I like any writing I can do from the terminal using Jstar.)

EDIT: I've put several hours into learning this (and experimenting) and have managed to get HTML, PDF and ePub working so far. By "working" I mean I've been able to get basic documents converted, not that I'm proficient at it. I think I'm going to like AsciiDoc a lot, thanks for the post. And it works great with Jstar. Lot to learn yet.

[rcentros]

Follow up on AsciiDoc and AsciiDoctor. Really nice and full featured for making html files. Pretty good for ePubs and PDF files. I even set up a free hosting site to try writing my webpages exclusively with AsciiDoc. Works well, but I've got a LOT to learn. Maybe I'll get my Old eReader Blog up after all. Somebody out there has to be bored enough to read it. After all, people watch "reality" TV. (Okay that's not quite as boring. I'll probably be able to harangue a couple of my kids into looking at it, anyhow.)

[gmw]

Every time I see a light markup language I think, "Wow! This is just so cool." But at some point later on it becomes, "Why do they do it like that?" and "Can't they make this easier or more intuitive?" ... Or even "Why the hell did it just screw up that simple text?"

The answer to the latter usually becomes obvious - the mark up syntax is intentionally simple and real input regularly gets confused for mark up. It's something you learn to live with and work around using whatever special syntax the particular variation provides.

The answer to the "intuitive" question is that different things are intuitive to different people. For example I can't imagine why so many light markups think _this_ is italic when to me that is so obviously underlined. /This/ is italic. In fact, for light markup (to reduce the misinterpretation problem mentioned in the previous paragraph) I prefer to be more explicit and have __underline__ and //italic// and **bold**. But that's just the problem, we all have different preferences.

Thankfully(???) there are so many "standard" light markup languages now that most of us can find a variation that suits us. There are a dozen or more fairly common Wiki variations, there are a few fairly common Markdown variations, there is AsciiDoc, there are variations of BB code like we use here on MobileRead ... and there are probably more I'm forgetting right now.

I think one of the things that makes AsciiDoc a bit different is AsciiDoctor that allows conversion to truly useful output formats (formats where the reader doesn't have to know whether _this_ is an underline or an italic because it will be shown visually). But a look through the AsciiDoc writing guide shows that once you go beyond simple requirements, things regress to what is essentially a coding/programming language, and you need access to the manual.

I once started to try and resolve this with a common intermediary language. One that would support two-way translation between itself and the many variations of Wiki and light-markup, including your own custom variations. Thus you could write with your own preferences and easily have your source convert to other people's variations (eg: write in AsciiDoc and send to someone that will view as MediaWiki). I do think it would be possible to get a good, if not perfect, result, but other priorities drew me away from that project.

So these days I am more interested in something that works with a widely accepted text formatting standard - usually HTML. Give me a styles-based HTML editor and I will be happy.

A styles-based HTML editor is yet another of my projects that I've not found time to pursue.

It seems to me that the problems raised by the introduction to AsciiDoc don't have to be solved by resorting to a text-programming language like AsciiDoc. They can be solved through guiding the user in the proper use of styles. A properly designed word processor will do that; it will let the user just start typing - and it will tell them that they are typing a plain text paragraph so they know to change it to a heading or whatever - and it will let the user change the appearance later using styles. HTML/CSS has most of what is needed to make this work, it just needs the right interface over top.

...

None of which helps you, rcentros. I was just rambling. If you find AsciiDos/AsciiDoctor seems to be working for you then of course you must follow to see where that takes you. Best of luck ... especially with hoping you can get the kids to read it .

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by gmw

None of which helps you, rcentros. I was just rambling. If you find AsciiDos/AsciiDoctor seems to be working for you then of course you must follow to see where that takes you. Best of luck ... especially with hoping you can get the kids to read it .

You're not rambling, it makes perfect sense, and you're right, it does get quickly complicated (if you want complicated output). Thing is, I don't want a WYSIWYG word processor (I've never liked them). I love working with text (especially with Jstar), so I'm willing to experiment and put up with a learning curve. And I really don't need that much complication in my documents, so I'll probably only learn a fairly limited subset of AsciiDoc.

As for the blog ... it's more of my way of saying "goodbye" to many of the old readers I've collected and can no longer keep up with their charging. I figure if I take a couple pictures of them, write a little description, then I can sell them, pass them on or give them away. I don't really expect anyone (even my kids) to read the blog. It'll just be for learning and the fun of it.

One thing I really like about AsciiDoc(tor) is that any paragraph not separated by a line is treated as one FLOWING paragraph. So messed up text (with carriage returns behind every line, etc.) can easily be fixed. I'm sure I'll find frustrating limitations as I go though. That seems to be the natural progression of learning a new application.

[gmw]

I understand about not wanting WYSIWYG, as a coder of long standing I'm pretty happy mucking around in just text/code. I find it a bit ironic that we might be turning away from WYSIWYG but so many still love the rainbow of colours used in typical syntax highlighting. It makes me shudder to look at some of them - haven't these people ever heard the word "subtle"?

For me, for writing documents rather than code, I'm still looking for that ideal compromise between WYSIWYG and WYSIWYM. I think all the components are already out there, I just haven't found anyone that has put it together like I want yet.

[frfry]

Hello,

Otherwise, as a tech, you can try to make the epub from scratch once you get your content formatted in XHTML 1.1. It doesn't seem that hard for a simple document.