LabRat wrote:
Sending story docs between myself and the GEs, we use text - simply because it seems to throw up less compatibility issues between pcs. But I think the GEs themselves use various formats when working with the authors. Whatever they're most comfortable with. I don't think they all use MS WORD, no. I have no idea what would be involved in using something other than WORD or text docs, but that's no reason not to give it a go if it makes things easier for you guys.
Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this -- it's a very interesting idea.
It probably would save a few steps in epub creation if we standardized on a word processor format, but I think the larger picture is how you, the general editors and the writers interact. We definitely don't want to throw a monkey wrench into a system that works. That said, if you all are looking for a change and are interested in moving away from the text-only format, that's something we can explore.
If you want, LabRat, you could start sending me the weekly upload stories in whatever format you receive them in from your general editors. Or if you do some editing on them after, you could send them on to me in Word. I can convert copies to text for posting on the archive and keep the originals on the back burner for conversion experiments.
It'd be nice to standardize on something that preserves basic formatting (bold and italics), that eliminates the need to worry about line breaks, and that poses no compatibility problems.
Actually I think MS Word would be a good choice if we were to standardize on a file format for story submission. Not Word itself, necessarily, because Word is expensive, but the Word .doc format. I think it'd be a bad idea if people felt they had to buy a copy of Word in order to write fanfic. Fortunately lots of word processors these days can read and write Word .doc format -- even the free ones.
I'm curious about the compatibility issues you mentioned, especially involving problems with story files in different flavors of Word. Is that a problem? Files saved in Word 2010 vs. Word 2003 vs. Word 97, etc.?
I definitely do not want to make your job as editor-in-chief more difficult, LabRat. Or that of the general editors.
Would changing things make it easier? And are there program features not being used now but which could improve the experience for writers and editors? Redlining/revision tracking, for example?
Any writers or general editors, if you're reading this, have you experienced any compatibility issues involving your word processor of choice when you've sent or received story files? Is there something we could do or decide upon that would make your job easier? What are your thoughts?
Speaking of free word processors that can read and write Word .doc format (from a few paragraphs back), just to throw out some options...
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OpenOffice can read/write Word docs in a variety of flavors (Word 2003, Word 97/2000). It's not a Word clone, it's a suite -- an MS Office clone. Well, not a clone exactly, but very much a work-alike. Available for Windows, Macintosh and Linux. OpenOffice Writer can save documents as PDFs without requiring Adobe's expensive PDF creator. Its native format is an open document format that allows programmers to easily get at the file's innards.
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AbiWord can also read and write Word files. Available for Windows and Linux. AbiWord is small and fast and speedy even on older PCs. The download is under 10Mb. It feels more responsive to me than OpenOffice Writer.
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Google Docs is for writing in the cloud. If you've got a Gmail account, you've got Google Docs. It can "upload" and "download" files in MS Word and OpenOffice formats. You edit and save your Google doc files online, so they're out of harm's way in case of hard drive crashes. Google Docs also allows
collaboration -- up to 50 people can work on a document at the same time! Can you imagine? I wonder what it'd be like to use it to write a story with several other people in real time. Chaos? Genius? Any authors out there willing to put their heads together and give it a try -- and then report back on the experience?
Other options I've read about but haven't tried:
ZoHo Writer is part of a large online suite of tools and also allows collaboration. Microsoft's
Office Live is supposed to allow online collaboration, but I'm not sure if you need to have purchased a copy of Office to use it. I've heard some buzz about other Microsoft tools in the cloud too.
My personal preference for my own word processing is either AbiWord or OpenOffice Writer. I know there are some quirky things about OpenOffice writer, and that it's a little clunky compared to Word, but it does most everything I need it to do. Except let you find and manipulate paragraph markers, like Word can with its ^p. (AbiWord can't do that either.) But I've found other ways. The text editor
Notepad++ -- also free -- is great at searching/replacing returns and tabs. (Instead of Word's ^p and ^t, it's \n and \t)
My favorite text editor is an old program, Arachnophilia. The maker stopped programming for Windows and does a Java version now, but the interface changed so drastically I stayed with my old tried-and-true. You don't hear much about
Arachnophilia 4.0 these days, but it's still my go-to tool. It deals effortlessly with paragraph marker and tab search/replace operations. It's not freeware, though, it's careware. You have to be a nice, non-whiny person for a day to use it.
I've always been interested in free and open-source software, but ever since my laptop was stolen a few years ago, I've been almost obsessed with it. Much cheaper to replace software that didn't cost anything in the first place. I lost Quark XPress when my laptop was stolen. It was an older version I registered off a British computer magazine cover disc, so it was sort of free. But it had a one-time registration code and I wasn't able to re-register it. Buying Quark would've set me back $800+. Anybody know of a good free/open-source desktop publishing program?
LabRat wrote:
Yes, and hasn't that saved my butt time and again over the years. Well, hours of tedious work, at least. Great little macro. Which, unfortunately, I lost when I updated WORD and couldn't replace it because the new version of WORD was ridiculously complicated to set up macros. <wistful sigh> I really miss that little guy.
I'm sorry the macro didn't work for the newer Word. Don't you love it when software makers "improve" their program, breaking something you liked about the old version?
That happened to me with Paint Shop Pro. Version 7 -- ugh. Version 6 -- sweet spot.
Karen wrote:
I know there are a few sites that can change the font/background colors with a drop-down menu (fanfiction.net has recently done this with a dark/light option). It's a fairly simple javascript that can be added to the HTML pages.
Definitely something to add to the to-do list! Thanks for the suggestion, Karen. For long streches of reading, I prefer reading light text on a dark background and use EditPad Lite for reading stories offline. It lets you configure font styles, sizes, and foreground and background colors. Something like that would be very cool on the archive, and very restful for the eyes.
I don't know if space is an issue on the archive, but I was recently looking at how to make PDFs on the fly. ezPDF was one option, but I was having problems getting it formatted. The drawback is that every file is formatted the same way (single column, double column, etc). It can pull the format out of the original file, though, so if it's converting an HTML file, it can convert all of the bolds and italics.
Speaking of space issues, when I logged into our control panel the other day, and it's been a while since I'd logged in, one important piece of information was missing -- the part where it shows you how much space the archive is allotted and how much is left to use! The contract with our original Web host allowed 250Mb for storage with unlimited bandwidth, and we'd been inching closer to the limit. I called to find out what was going on, and it turns out we've been put on a new plan -- unlimited space, unlimited bandwidth. So, no more nail-chewing over space. We've got room for multiple story formats.
Thanks for the tip on ezPDF too. It sounds like it does exactly what we'd need. It might not be a problem for us if every file is formatted the same way.
Some epub news: Thanks to Doranwen and bobbart, there are 50+ epubs now on the archive. We'll open it up soon. Watch for an announcement probably sometime this weekend.
Best wishes,
Lauren
