Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Depends on the kind of software you're looking for. For commercial, off-the-
shelf stuff, I usually just go to someplace like MicroWarehouse (guess the
URL; I think they might also be just warehouse.com). For share- and
freeware, there's shareware.com and download.com and tucows, among other
places. You can search by type of app, by product name if you know it, by
platform, or whatever.
  

    

Okay, here's another question that may not be up your alley.  I'm sick of
wordprocessors with their merging and all their business weirdness.  I want
a nice wordprocessing program that does what I want.  Which is write books,
have footnotes, chapters, outlines...anyone?
  

    

A DTP package, maybe? Framemaker, for example. Runs on a lot
of Unix terminals I have been working on.
  

    

Many of the doc writers here use, and love, framemaker for the reasons you
mention <plum>, so I'll add my second-hand recommendation to <levant>'s.
  

    

okay, since I know nothing of what you're talking about, like what DTP is, I
will now start doing research.  Thank you!
  

    

Desktop Publishing. What your publishers do to your manuscripts to make them
into books.
  

    

This will give people some weird ideas what DTP is ... :->
  

    

Okay, so maybe I was condensing the description somewhat, but <plum>'s smart
enough to extrapolate.

Besides, I kind of like the idea of spreading confusion.
  

    

No, I totally got it Mr. Raff.  I like this idea.  Then I can give my
publishers a *really* completed manuscript.
  

    
Which will make them scream. The very last thing an art director at a
publishing house wants to receive is a manuscript that is full of fancy
formatting added by the author. Or one done in Framemaker if the publisher
uses Quark or PageMaker.

Framemaker is a great product for lots of purposes, but I think it is *way*
over the top for a ms of the kind of books <plum> writes.
  

    

Yo!  I was kidding, Mr. Doty!

But really *all* word processors are over the top for what I want.  And I
don't know of a simple one that does the things I need.
  

    



Um, not to be a pain about it, but it isn't the "art director" who takes
charge of a manuscript -- whether hardcopy or electronic -- and sees to
getting it properly turned in to set type.

In fact, the art director has nothing to do with this process unless the
book is illustrated, and even then their interaction with the manuscript
itself is peripheral.
  

    

<plum> , you can find simple wordprocessing modules in any of the
"Works" integrated packages : Claris, Lotus, Microsoft, ...
  

    
The person who was responsible for formatting my three computer books was
styled "art director." Your Publisher May Vary.
  

    


Huh.  Okay, computer publishing, I guess I know nothing about that.

In trade publishing, the hands-on-the-text folks who deal with copyediting
and typesetting and text design are called "production editors" and "managing
editors."  Art directors handle the outsides of books and, sometimes, any
illustrations inside of them.

Apologies for an excessively categorical statement.
  

    

levant:  see #136.
  

    
On my computer books, the copyediting, text-editing and typesetting
people are also called "production editors."  The art director is
the one who obtains ridiculous-looking avant garde graphics for the
cover and chapter title pages that have to be trashed by an
author-production alliance.
  

    

yep.
  

    
        If you think the word processor you use now is too full of weirdness,
then stay the hell away from FrameMaker. Seriously. If you're designing a
technical manual, page by page, numbered illustration by numbered illustration,
that's different, but if you're mainly, you know, typing, avoid it. Or any other
product with "Maker" in the name. 
  

    

True. I spent two weeks just to unlearn everything I knew about
wordprocessing, just to understand how Framemaker worked. And
learning new applications is part of my job ...
  

    

Oh, geez.  I'll just stick with good ole wordperfect.  Bugginess and all.
  

    

There's always BBEdit. It doesn't suck.
  

    

tell more vardley.
  

    
I was wearing my 'BBEdit: It Doesn't Suck' shirt the other day...
  

    

BBEdit is a text editor. Plain text. It has some nice features that make 
it pretty easy to strip weird formatting out of other pieces of text so 
you can work with them (I use it for copying info from websites and 
pasting it into email or Well posts). It is easy to use and I like it. I 
don't have the very newest version so I don't know every feature it now 
has, but I like it a lot.