Programs used for writing published books

[Fast Learner]

Just chiming in with the same info. I was a Quark fiend for 10 years, and it still has the broadest support, but I switched to InDesign a couple of years ago. As noted it's less expensive, and I've found that if you have the right imagesetter drivers that your printer will be using and you generate a PDF (built into InDesign), rather than leaving it as an InDesign file, there are no compatibility problems whatsoever.

 

[2WS-Steve]

Wulf:

I just make the basic tables in Word while I'm writing then copy and paste all the text, including tables, into InDesign. Then I go back to each of the tables and format them using InDesign's features, often cutting them out and pasting them into their own floating text box. I'd really like a "Styles" feature for this since my tables for a publication all follow a similar format.

Regardless, it's worlds better than formatting tables in Excel, copying and pasting to Illustrator, then saving as a TIFF for placement in Pagemaker

Fast:
Thanks for the info; my current printer is having a lot of problems dealing with fonts in files output to PDF by InDesign.

 

[jmucchiello]

I actually use Word 97 (with a huge template doc), Aladdin Ghostscript (to get to PDF), and hand edits of postscript. Of course, I don't do background images on my pages. If I did, Word would not work and I would probably switch to LaTeX at that point.

Joe

 

[MacPhail]

I think I have the least sophisticated (and probably least effective) solution. I do all the layout in Word, using their silly little table maker. Import graphics as file jpgs. Juggle header and footer bars for titles. Save the whole thing as a PDF using Acrobat (that wonderful little "save as pdf" button that appears on your word toolbar when you install Acrobat). It's primitive, but I'm not selling products, so can't justify a lot of time invested. Generally, I'm happy with the results. Here is an example:

www.darkloch.com/misttreader.pdf

 

[Lizard]

Doesn't anyone use Framemaker? I learned it at my day job to do our documentation, and I quickly came to love it. It's easy, fast, good for long, technical documents (which an RPG *is*), and you can actually write your text in it, unlike, say, Pagemaker.

 

[EarthsShadow]

wow

lots of cool info. I have word 2000 and adobe 5, but I don't have anything else for adobe, like photoshop or illustrator (and if I do have them I don't know I do). I want to write a good document to see if I can do it, and because I have lots of ideas swirling around in my head right now.

I will do a search for the costs of those other products you mentioned, and thanks again for all the info you guys have provided.

 

[MacPhail]

Earthshadow-

It really doesn't sound like you are missing anything from the basic PDF creation process... I have Illustrator and all that, and don't have time to learn to use it. Just prep your document in Word, pass it through Adobe... it'll be dirty, but it'll be done!

 

[kingpaul]

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?

Mine's a bit primitive. I have all the NPCs for my netbook in Access, and use the MailMerge feature in Word to compile the NPCs and their animals. I then use the "save as PDF" feature that comes with Acrobat to create the PDF. I am not artistically inclinded (unfortunately), and, therefore, do not have any kind of graphics in the book. Pretty much bare-bones document.

 

[Brudewollen]

Access database?

kingpaul,

do you have your Access character database available? I always wanted to write something like that for myself for ingame use, but was always a bit too lazy, I guess. Is this useful for ingame searches (like crossreferencing by locale/town, by level, by class, whathave you?)

It always seemed like such such a natural and useful tool to me, but also a bit of a bitch to put together - I never had quite a strong enough urge to sit down for a few full days (or more) to actually put all that together.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

I use Word 2000 and convert to rtf so that I don't have to tailor it to each publisher's preferences. I once worked for a company that INSISTED that I use Wordperfect; great program for formating because you can see all of your codes, but terrible when it comes to stability and reliability.