Programs used for writing published books

[EarthsShadow]

I was wondering, what kind of tools/writing programs do you guys use to write your wonderful books so they look as amazing as they do? I have Word 2000 only and I know how to use it somewhat, but it seems that this program isn't enough to be able to write up a good book the likes of those that have been released recently.

Can anyone give any advice on this?

 

[TalonComics]

I would imagine most of the text is done in a text application like MS Word. The layout more than likely is either done in Quark or possibly Adobe Design. By far those are probably the most popular applications for layout right now.

~D

 

[Orcus]

Write it in Word. Thats fine. But Word isnt a layout or DTP program. You need a desk top publishing program. Quark seems to be the industry standard. But Pagemaker and Indesign seem popular to some. Frankly, if you are just doing PDFs you can get by on Publisher and export to Acrobat.

The full version of Acrobat 5.0 is priceless.

Clark

 

[Olive]

trust me, you CAN'T get away with publisher...

Quark is the industry standard internationally. InDesign is moving quickly (faster, compatible with mac OS X, works with the Adobe package much better). Pagemaker was fine when i got into the publishing industry, but is pretty much completely unused now.

so thats the programmes...

edit: oh yeah, there are specialist programmes such as FrameMaker (also adobe) but those are primarily used for things like mathematics and science texts, that aren't as layout intensive, but require alot of support for sybols etc. but for most RPG books, you'd be looking at Quark.

if you are looking to get a programme, go InDesign from what I've heard... it does everything that Quark does, is better supported and MUCH cheaper. And it's going to be the industry standard within 2 years, unless Quark actually manages to include multiple undos...

 

[Piratecat]

I'll move this into the publisher's forum, where the right people will see it!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you just want something for yourself, there are also some open-source or Freeware products out there, that allow you, as an example, to create PDFs.

Example: LaTex /Miktex: (http://www.miktex.org/setup.html)
If you don`t shy away from using Controlsigns in your text to create a table (instead of just "clicking" on an appropriate button), this might be already create some good results.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[HellHound]

We use Quark here, but yes, InDesign is making massive inroads in the publishing industry. Last year if you asked around to publishing industry (the newspapers, major print houses, etc), the answer was almost unanimous - QUARK.

That's why I started with Quark XPress. I tried pagemaker first, returned it to the store and bought Quark. 8 days later I released my first book using Quark, and received honorable mention for best layout and design at the 2002 ENnies.

Since I'm a PDF publisher, if I were to start NOW instead of a year ago, I would probably go with InDesign since it is better suited to PDF publication.

But I love my Quark.

 

[Blacksway]

Just to add a small point, only slightly off-topic...

I've come across this package http://www.pdf995.com/
which allows you to create PDFs in much the same way as Acrobat(i.e. just printing them, although I guess without all the funky options Acrobat must have)

And its free

 

[2WS-Steve]

I use InDesign 2.0; there are potential problems with it since some printing houses have trouble working with InDesign files. For the printing houses that do support it InDesign works really smoothly, just package for output, burn the CD, and off it goes.

One of my favorite features is the native support for tables; you make a lot of those in an RPG product and they were a real headache to make look nice when I was using PageMaker.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

I am trained on Quark, but my graphic designer just dragged me kicking and screaming to InDesign. Not that either of us are really up to speed with it, yet, but we were tempted by the whole Adobe package. We use a lot of Illustrator and Photoshop as well (as you can see from our covers).

I use InDesign 2.0... One of my favorite features is the native support for tables; you make a lot of those in an RPG product and they were a real headache to make look nice when I was using PageMaker.

What??? I'm still doing them by hand, dagnabbit!


Wulf