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Re: Plain Text Files Preferred
I think this debate is fairly unnecessary, after all no one is going
to write these in notepad. We are all going to use word, open office
or something similar to do this ourselves. Why not just make the
original document and a txt file available?
I suppose the ultimate is HTML, after all if we can read this group we
can read the HTML, its just getting it into HTML in the first place
that's difficult (and don't tell me that you can save as HTML from
word, the output is horrible :--(
I would probably provide a .doc, rtf and txt (not exclusively pdf as
no one else can edit it easily). All of these are a simple "save as"
from word or open office
David
PS I think we should change the numbering system now because:-
1) this will be a working document and we will need to change the
numbers as we add/remove sections. If we have continuous numbers like
DQ we have to re-number and re-print every following page
2) I presume we will divide up the book, so if I, for example (I'm not
volunteering yet although I'll do some), do section 6.5 I don't have
to worry about every body else's numbers
3) It will be a more sensible numbering system, eg all combat will be
in section 4 rather than sections 9. to 24.
4) its more modular for people to add house rules without having to
have inconsistent numbers
--- In dq-rules@yahoogroups.com, "J. Corey" <john@d...> wrote:
> I am with Viktor. They can be easily taken from Word to a more
> portable format (PDF TXT whatever) why not start with word and down
> grade if needed. I think the emphasis that formatting, bold text,
> tables, colors is invaluable to a written text. We have spent a couple
> of decades trying to get away from plain text... At the risk of
> sounding combative... TXT would be a huge mistake in my opinion.
>
>
> On May 27, 2004, at 2:12 PM, Viktor Haag wrote:
>
> > rthorm@c... writes:
> > > I'm not sure what benefit we would get from RTF.
> >
> > I can think of several reasons to use a proper word processor
> > for this project:
> >
> > 1) Tables. Rolegames have lots of tables, and creating and
> > manipulating tables in a word pro is much much easier than in
> > plain text.
> >
> > 2) Cross references. DQ is *littered* with cross-references;
> > having a word processor take care of this for you is *far
> > easier* than trying to manage cross references by hand.
> >
> > 3) Auto-numbering, especially with section numbering. Trying to
> > keep numbering consistent by hand in long documents is
> > devilishly difficult, especially if you have more than one
> > person working on the project. Using a word-processor that
> > can handle this for you takes care of a lot of that worry.
> >
> > 4) Building lists of tables, sections. Can be automated with a
> > word processor.
> >
> > 5) Building indexes. Good word-processors can provide good tools
> > to help with this and make the job much easier.
> >
> > 6) Some limited amount of formatting actually makes it easier to
> > work on the document. With visual clues in place (like
> > different faces and weights used for headings, bullets,
> > indented text, emphasis, and the like) it's actually easier to
> > write large documents because these visual clues provide you
> > with non-"word" context that's valuable for the writer.
> >
> > 7) Automated error checking. Nothing can replace the need for a
> > good proof-read, but automated spelling and grammar checking
> > can make it far easier to produce a cleaner first draft.
> >
> > If what you're worried about is access, then I think Open Office
> > is an excellent suggested tool -- it has decent features, and is
> > available on many platforms, and it is available for free.
> >
> > There are other open source word processors available as well,
> > but I seem to think that Open Office provides the best feature
> > set at the moment.
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Viktor Haag : Software & Information Design : Research In Motion
> > +--+
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