Re: converting text to pdf
Tim:
> As far as the original poster's question is concerned, I have
printed
> landscape documents, with text and diagrams. I used OpenOffice.org, or
> the LibreOffice version, and used its own export as PDF function.
lee:
I ruled out Libreoffice quite a while ago because it isn't up to
the
task. Not even a simple mailmerge worked without crashing LO, and the
closer I looked at it, the more bugs I found that were getting in the
way. So I went with LaTeX (and had to do without tables for that part
because LaTeX cannot reasonably handle tables that may go over several
pages and may contain tables --- which is something LO does just fine).
Well, the point was about using some program that lets you create a page
in the way that you preview it, and it will print quite close to how the
preview looked... (Most actual print-outs seem to have some
differences.) For what it's worth, I've never tried mail merge at home,
but I have tried it on Microsoft's Office (some time ago), and found
*that* buggy as hell. But I'm not surprised.
Just about all programs let you down in some area, often because what
you wanted to do was not considered important, or even known about, by
the program author. They wrote it to solve their own problems, if it's
useful for anyone else, that's just a bonus.
For anything serious and/or versatile/flexible, you can't get
around
LaTeX. Besides, things like LO come and go, and after a couple years,
you might not be able to read your documents anymore: The effort you'd
have to spend on learning how to program LO is much better spent on
learning more about LaTeX (and maybe perl) because those will very
likely still be around in another twenty years or so when LO may be long
gone.
Well, OpenOffice.org has been around for many years, somewhere around as
long as Fedora, if I recall correctly (it was StarOffice, before).
LibreOffice is newer, so I'm not that willing to predict its longevity.
Like OpenOffice.org, we could only predict the longevity of LaTex by
past experience, it *could* disappear tomorrow, if the authors give up,
or some patent arsehole goes after it. Or you could be stuck with your
distro or Operating System not supporting it.
I have been bitten by office software using proprietary data formats,
long ago, being left with mostly unusable data. It could be
hand-scraped, to try and get all the data out of the crap. But
fortunately, I really only cared about two documents on file, the rest
had been printed, and that was good enough for us. OpenOffice.org and
LibreOffice use an open document format, so future use of old data
should not be impossible.
I have looked at Tex/LaTeX in the past, and considered it akin to
learning to use an offset press, mechanically, by hand. Unless I had a
real use for it, such as providing print-ready data to an actual
printing house, I don't consider it worth my time.
DTP programs and WYSIWYG word processors and/or so-called
"office
software" like Libreoffice are totally different worlds. WYSIWYG word
processors don't even have the /concept/ of pages. Try to do something
with "a page" in one and you'll find that you need a DTP program.
Did they add a DTP module to LO now? If they did, I might even install
LO just to try out the DTP part.
I didn't say that. I mentioned two different things, in two different
paragraphs: (1) I've used OpenOffice and LibreOffice to do what the
original post talked about. And (2) using an export option in a desktop
publishing program should give you more control over layout, and maybe
more coherent placement of text.
Now, I'll emphasise that second one even more - exporting from a DTP
program *should* give you *more* control over layout.
I have used DTP software, in the past, and I'm well aware of the
differences between them. Hence what I said, earlier.
I don't agree that word processors (of the kind like in OpenOffice,
etc), don't have a concept of pages. They don't do a particularly good
job at it, but there are page-related controls and features. Some of
which sort-of work. e.g. Widow and orphan control finally being
included, a few years back. Though you still had to manually
reconfigure things so that the program couldn't stupidly put a page
break between a heading and the following content. Geez, that ought to
be preset, by default.
No matter what software you use, you're still left with having to
hand-control certain things. Like manually using no-break spaces in the
middle of phone numbers, between Mr and surname, and other similar
things, because that's just lousy presentation. And we're still left
with exceedingly inadequate keyboards for doing the most basic of
punctuation (proper dashes, proper quotes, etc).
> and maybe more coherent placement of text.
Uhm, did you ever try to coherently place text (and/or other stuff
that
goes on pages) with Scribus?
I've only vaguely played with Scribus, I found it horrible. Luckily I
don't have a real need for DTP, it's been well over twenty years since
I've used friendly, or even tolerable, DTP software.
--
[tim@localhost ~]$ uname -rsvp
Linux 3.8.13-100.fc17.x86_64 #1 SMP Mon May 13 13:36:17 UTC 2013 x86_64
All mail to my mailbox is automatically deleted, there is no point
trying to privately email me, I will only read messages posted to the
public lists.
George Orwell's '1984' was supposed to be a warning against tyranny, not
a set of instructions for supposedly democratic governments.