Re: Typesetting LibreOffice (ODT) documents with ConTeXt

[Bill Meahan <subscribed_lists@meahan.net>]

On 01/30/2013 05:13 PM, Idris Samawi Hamid ادريس سماوي حامد wrote:
>
> But in general odt is too much of a mess for my limited skills. And 
> although Bill does not "like it in the least" I am not aware of a 
> better cross-format solution than markdown/pandoc whenever I am forced 
> to deal with M$-Word workflows and ConTeXt in my own writing.
>

Everybody has their own preferences. As one-time net.god Henry Spencer 
put it, "The nice thing about standards is there are so many of them."

> If I can go out on a limb: What Bill seems to want is a general 
> WYSIWYG->ConTeXt solution. Generalizing Thomas's remark, I'm not sure 
> that the word-processor paradigm is appropriate for such a thing 
> (unless one is very disciplined in using the word processor). But a 
> WYSIWYG structured layout processor like Framemaker (is there some 
> free imitation out there?) may output xml that is more regular, 
> predictable, and easier to map to ConTeXt than any M$-Word imitation.
>
Scribus (~InDesign) has an XML-based format, too but no direct 
conversion to M$-word. Doesn't look all that bad to me but I'm hardly an 
XML expert. At least it's free (beer and freedom). Sigil works directly 
on epub2 (XHTML+) but doesn't support epub3 (XHTML++) yet. TEI tools can 
convert odt -> XHTML, epub2 epub3 and several others including LaTeX but 
not ConTeXt. How successfully is another question.

I write fiction with an occasional stab at poetry (mostly as part of a 
fictional work) not academic papers so my considerations are somewhat 
different. The content and theme often require different typography and 
formatting on an individual book basis. (See Bringhurst)

Sadly (and I really mean that) there are a couple of ebook publishers 
who /insist/ on submissions being in M$-Word format and then they will 
do the conversions to mobi, epub, fb2 and pdf themselves even if I can 
do a better job. Plus, most of my writer friends work in word processors 
which means that it is far easier to exchange manuscripts for proofing & 
feedback is via the (ugh) .doc file.

> Best wishes
> Idris


-- 
Bill Meahan
Westland, Michigan USA

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