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Re: real books

Subject: Re: real books
From: kcbillb2 <kcbillb2 -at- kc -dot- rr -dot- com>
To: Erika Yanovich <ERIKA_y -at- rad -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:54:01 -0500

Erika,

I've got to agree with Julie.

TeX "is" an established standard format for scientific/academic writing.

See the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX

"TeX is one popular means by which to typeset complex mathematical formulae; it has been noted as one of the most sophisticated digital typographical systems in the world.[3] TeX is popular in academia, especially in mathematics, computer science, economics, engineering, physics, statistics, and quantitative psychology. It has largely displaced Unix troff, the other favored formatter, in many Unix installations, which use both for different purposes. It is now also being used for many other typesetting tasks, especially in the form of LaTeX and other template packages."


Quite honestly, Word can't handle this kind of complexity. Now, I don't know if your author's material needs that kind of sophisticated software, and I don't know what your output format is.

As far as reviewing, TeX is a variation of SGML, so I don't see any reason why it couldn't be sent out in HTML/webpage format, viewable even Word...


Do you get the impression that I don't think much of Word?...:)

Even though I too have been forced by employers to use Word and am now an expert (could teach courses....), I still hate the miserable software...


Following this discussion with interest, I'm sure others may have more specific advice for you.


Good luck Erika



Bill



On 9/6/2011 7:03 AM, Erika Yanovich wrote:

Hi all,

Our chief scientist (the author of several textbooks) is writing a new series (something between an idiot's guide and a scientific textbook) that we should edit and format. The neighboring marcom dept will design the cover and take care of production. Our tool is MS Word and that's what we intended to use for this purpose, but the author claims that Word can't produce 'real' books (by this he means the look and feel of modern textbooks).

Is this true? Are there any [hidden] advanced features of Word for this purpose, not used by tech writers? What tools would you use?
The author prefers TeX for which he has (and can develop) styles guides. Needless to say, he is a power user of TeX and he is used to produce camera-ready copies in postscript.

I have mixed feelings about him doing the formatting (apparently he doesn't mind, but isn't his time too expensive for this?), based on our definitions (which is what he apparently expects). Also, how would we get it for review? What formats are available to export from TeX?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Erika

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Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
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real books: From: Erika Yanovich

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