4 ms·

Is anyone able to suggest software for writing technical books?

by astonex 4y ago

suslik 4y ago
org-mode, if you don’t mind using emacs.
- dotancohen 4y ago
  I recently had to print some of my notes - already in Org mode - for a meeting. After going through numerous options including reformatting in LibreOffice, pandoc, HTML, etc etc I discovered that org mode can export the documents to PDFs that look better than anything else. Unfortunately, I don't have the config options that I used any more! I changed some fonts and drastically reduced the margins. And some places in which underscores were used had to be escaped as the PDF export interpreted underscores as being subscript.
greglim81 4y ago
Just ms word for me
runjake 4y ago
Technical book writers seem to gravitate toward Latex or Microsoft Word.
jamesfinlayson 4y ago
I use HTML but it's not the best. Latex is probably a better option.
- tjr 4y ago
  Is LaTeX still a good choice for "modern" ebooks? Do folks still want PDFs?
  - _tom_ 4y ago
    May depend on your market, it amazon sells the vast majority of ebooks in the world. So, neither of those.
  - kome 4y ago
    if i don't see a pdf, i don't buy it
    - sitkack 4y ago
      I was the same way, but epubs can be quite good now, even for highly formatted technical content.
    - mr_mitm 4y ago
      Why is that, if I may ask? Do you print all your e-books? I find PDF to be an inferior format for consumption on a screen.
asicsp 4y ago
I write in GitHub flavored markdown (so that is readable on GitHub and I can reuse parts for my blog, etc). I use pandoc to generate pdf/epub versions [0] and mdbook to generate web version [1] [0] https://learnbyexample.github.io/customizing-pandoc/ https://learnbyexample.github.io/customizing-pandoc/ [1] https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook
disdi 4y ago
Use Kindle Create (available for Windows and MAC) for selling on Amazon.
mprovost 4y ago
I write in Google Docs mostly for the collaboration features. It's super easy to invite someone to leave comments. I use the Code Blocks add-on to format code. When it's time to publish I use the DocsFlow plug-in to import the doc into InDesign for typesetting.

Is anyone able to suggest software for writing technical books?

suslik 4y ago

org-mode, if you don’t mind using emacs.

dotancohen 4y ago
I recently had to print some of my notes - already in Org mode - for a meeting. After going through numerous options including reformatting in LibreOffice, pandoc, HTML, etc etc I discovered that org mode can export the documents to PDFs that look better than anything else. Unfortunately, I don't have the config options that I used any more! I changed some fonts and drastically reduced the margins. And some places in which underscores were used had to be escaped as the PDF export interpreted underscores as being subscript.

greglim81 4y ago

Just ms word for me

runjake 4y ago

Technical book writers seem to gravitate toward Latex or Microsoft Word.

jamesfinlayson 4y ago

I use HTML but it's not the best. Latex is probably a better option.

tjr 4y ago
Is LaTeX still a good choice for "modern" ebooks? Do folks still want PDFs?
- _tom_ 4y ago
  May depend on your market, it amazon sells the vast majority of ebooks in the world. So, neither of those.
- kome 4y ago
  if i don't see a pdf, i don't buy it
  - sitkack 4y ago
    I was the same way, but epubs can be quite good now, even for highly formatted technical content.
  - mr_mitm 4y ago
    Why is that, if I may ask? Do you print all your e-books? I find PDF to be an inferior format for consumption on a screen.

asicsp 4y ago

I write in GitHub flavored markdown (so that is readable on GitHub and I can reuse parts for my blog, etc). I use pandoc to generate pdf/epub versions [0] and mdbook to generate web version [1] [0] https://learnbyexample.github.io/customizing-pandoc/ https://learnbyexample.github.io/customizing-pandoc/ [1] https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook https://github.com/rust-lang/mdBook

disdi 4y ago

Use Kindle Create (available for Windows and MAC) for selling on Amazon.

mprovost 4y ago

I write in Google Docs mostly for the collaboration features. It's super easy to invite someone to leave comments. I use the Code Blocks add-on to format code. When it's time to publish I use the DocsFlow plug-in to import the doc into InDesign for typesetting.