Best Format pre-PDF

[Neruda7]

First off, I would like to thank everyone on this forum for the incredible amount of information that has been shared regarding e-publishing. The dichotomy of sober reality and unabashed enthusiasm is both educational and inspirational. Now, on to my question...

I was wondering if some of you could give me an idea of what programs you use to integrate artwork and text before saving to PDF.

I am planning on e-publishing sometime in late spring or early summer and I would like to start putting the pieces together in a sensible way.

If this question has been answered previously, I apologize, but I couldn't find a thread that seemed to deal directly with this subject.

Once again, thanks to all for making this a great forum for an aspiring e-publisher...


Regards,
Scott

 

[Flyspeck23]

I was wondering if some of you could give me an idea of what programs you use to integrate artwork and text before saving to PDF.

You're looking for a layout program, right?

InDesign and QuarkXPress are both pretty decent (I've used Quark at my job), but also expensive. There are cheaper alternatives, but not many. My advice: take a look at eBay and grab an older version of any layout program (InDesign, Quark, Pagemaker, ...). Or switch to Linux (if you haven't already), there's at least one free layout program (the name escapes me right now) for that OS.

Of course you could always do your layout in Word (or OpenOffice, or similar), although I wouldn't advice it. Still, it can be done...



There once was the idea for an "ePublishing Support Group". Sadly, that seems to have died.

 

[Scribe Ineti]

I also recommend InDesign, Quark, and PageMaker.

I've used Microsoft's Publisher as well, but for some reason all of my files end up really, really huge file size-wise, which makes it unwieldly for large documents.

 

[Neruda7]

You're looking for a layout program, right?

InDesign and QuarkXPress are both pretty decent (I've used Quark at my job), but also expensive. There are cheaper alternatives, but not many. My advice: take a look at eBay and grab an older version of any layout program (InDesign, Quark, Pagemaker, ...). Or switch to Linux (if you haven't already), there's at least one free layout program (the name escapes me right now) for that OS.

Thanks so much to you and Scribe for your quick replies. I will look into the choices you mentioned and see which is the best fit for me...

Regards,
Scott

 

[Neruda7]

You're looking for a layout program, right?

InDesign and QuarkXPress are both pretty decent (I've used Quark at my job), but also expensive. There are cheaper alternatives, but not many. My advice: take a look at eBay and grab an older version of any layout program (InDesign, Quark, Pagemaker, ...). Or switch to Linux (if you haven't already), there's at least one free layout program (the name escapes me right now) for that OS.

Thanks so much to you and Scribe for your quick replies. I will look into the choices you mentioned and see which is the best fit for me...

Regards,
Scott

 

[Neruda7]

You're looking for a layout program, right?

InDesign and QuarkXPress are both pretty decent (I've used Quark at my job), but also expensive. There are cheaper alternatives, but not many. My advice: take a look at eBay and grab an older version of any layout program (InDesign, Quark, Pagemaker, ...). Or switch to Linux (if you haven't already), there's at least one free layout program (the name escapes me right now) for that OS.

Thanks so much to you and Scribe for your quick replies. I will look into the choices you mentioned and see which is the best fit for me...

Regards,
Scott

 

[Dimwhit]

Sort of depends on what you're going to do. My feeling is that there is a reason Quark and InDesign are expensive. Because they're worth it. And if you want an excellent, professional-looking layout, that's the way to go. I've used both (Quark for a number of years, and InDesign for the last year and a half). I'd recommend InDesign without hesitation. But it costs...

 

[annadobritt]

I use Word for doing the text and save it as an rtf, then import it into InDesign CS then add the images to the document in InDesign CS.

When doing tables in word and then importing them to a layout program, it's best to do the tables with tabs not as a table layout, then convert the text to table format. Gives you more control over how the tables look.

 

[Neruda7]

I use Word for doing the text and save it as an rtf, then import it into InDesign CS then add the images to the document in InDesign CS.

When doing tables in word and then importing them to a layout program, it's best to do the tables with tabs not as a table layout, then convert the text to table format. Gives you more control over how the tables look.

Wow - Thanks again everyone - I started the day with no idea of what to use and now I feel like I'm beginning to understand how it all falls together...

And sorry for the triple post - newbie mistake...

 

[Flyspeck23]

I use Word for doing the text and save it as an rtf, then import it into InDesign CS then add the images to the document in InDesign CS.

When doing tables in word and then importing them to a layout program, it's best to do the tables with tabs not as a table layout, then convert the text to table format. Gives you more control over how the tables look.

Very good advice.
I always forget to mention such things, as this process is pretty natural to me. But it's worth noting, especially if you've never done such a thing before.

I'd like to add one advice: if your layout program doesn't support tables (for instance: the Linux program I talked about earlier has some flaws on that regard), try doing your tables in Word and take screenshots, to import the tables as images into your layout - that's neither pretty nor practicable, but depending on the program you're using it might be the only way...