NoteTab: anybody else here use it?

[rogue_ronin]

I'm using NoteTab Pro to format HTML and TXT source files. I'd like to eventually move to EPUB, but it'll be a while.

Over the last year I've created a pair of clip libraries for editing and storing a library of books. Actually, I've recreated and improved it as I lost the original year's work somehow in my move to Thailand.

The libraries work, but are a little bit idiosyncratic. For instance, they start from the premise that you are a 'publisher' (HA!) and have a name and logo (and a small sound effect!) Of course, you can just stick with the default rocket. Oh, and it presumes you're creating for an REB1100 -- which I have, of course. The HTML is portable, though. And it's consistent, which would allow for easy conversion.

The books are stored in a folder structure: REB1100\Projects\Publisher\Author\[Series\]ProjectName(Title). All necessary images, files etc. are stored in that one directory. It can use rbmake to create an option file and make the eBook, storing it in a secondary .RB library.

It keeps a flat-file database of the 'publishers', projects, themes, and support files in a parallel \Data folder structure. It keeps track of the current project in an INI file. And it stores all the meta-data in the head of the document, as well. So in the future, it will be possible to simply import an extant clip-library-created ebook, I think, moving it from 'publisher' to 'publisher'.

Complicated and quirky. But now, with a reasonably formatted source file, I can usually import a project and get a simple, attractive book with cover, frontispiece, front matter, title page, verso, inscription, acknowledgement, TOC, chapters, end matter and complete navigation links in about ten minutes, assuming I have a B/W cover image (and/or frontispiece image) available. Parts, sections, subsections, fixing spelling, special formatting, em-dashes, ellipses and other truly weird source HTML issues take longer, of course. I have clips for a lot of that, like joining paragraphs, wrapping parts/sections, or making endnotes from footnotes.

It's not complete. Still haven't done the import/export to other 'publishers'. And I surely should come up with a way to make color images an option. And about a million other things. But it makes it a lot easier.

Anyhow, how do YOU work with NoteTab?

m a r

[RicDay]

I have been using NoteTab since the late 1990s. I created a simple, in-house text tagging system (clipbook library) for editors at the publishing company where I work, and moved them from editing manuscripts in XYWrite (ugh!) to editing in NoteTab Pro. I wrote filters for Ventura and later Quark so that the tagged text files could be imported properly.

I am now starting to work on an iteration of the original library, to tag manuscripts for both print and ebook (ePub) use.

I also use NoteTab Pro heavily for simple XHTML coding, relying on TopStyle for stylesheet work. I use UltraEdit Professional for other coding work and very large projects.

[rogue_ronin]

Hey! Another NoteTab guy!

Woo-hoo!

I've actually adapted my REB1100 library to produce XHTML and CSS, with the idea of migrating to ePub. I made a decision not to use the Dublin Core metadata format at the time, and now I'm thinking to redo it a final time to include the DC. The kit I developed has 5 clip libraries, but the CSS one is minimal.

I still have to understand ePub format and files better: I've tried to build an ePub exporter but it hasn't been correct.

I'm going to do a public ePub thread at some near-future point, trying to get it right. I did a public XHTML microformat thread using NoteTab here.

If you'd like to see the latest version, feel free to ask. It's more developed than the version in the thread I linked.

m a r