Al Bradley wrote:
I've been paying attention to what you guys are saying and, while I am
interested and have some things to contribute, I can't spend the time to
convert everything to text files and THEN send in to somebody or
everybody the printed form of it all. I have a life that extends far
beyond sitting in front of this box and I already spend too much time
here. If you make this all too difficult, you'll be here by yourself, I
fear.
Al, over 10 years ago I was using PageMaker 2 on a Mac to do publishing. If I
had only saved documents in that format, they would be unreadable by any
pagination program today. ASCII (or text) versions of important files were
also saved, and guess what... they are readable by any pagination program I
use (and word processor too). Ten years from now, long after PageMaker 6.5
(the current version) is just a memory, text files will still be readable.
They are the only universal text format we have. When you factor in that some
people use a Macintosh and some people use a Wintel machine, and who knows
what will be in use in 10 or 20 (or more) years, archived text files are even
more attractive.
Text files are easy to create out of most any pagination program or word
processor, and it should only take a few seconds to create them from a well
designed document.
Ron Mitchell wrote:
I've been trying to get all 48 newsletter editors affiliated with the Austin
Healey Club of America to standardize our Publisher Software so we can
exchange newsletters via the Internet and save the cost of printing and
postage associated with putting out editions monthly to other than my local
membership. By receiving copies of other Newsletters it affords the
opportunity to use (with permission of course) tech tips and articles of
interest from other clubs.
Ron, all of the above and ... Standardizing on any specific program for
articles is not a good solution (other than in a tightly controlled
organization or business). One person's choice of fonts, headlines, column
heads, captions, etc. may not be another person's choice... thats what makes
each club or organization's documents unique and neat! Most people doing
publishing with their computers are new to the publishing field, and don't
really know how a lot of composition should be handled. Some editors are more
sophisticated than others... Best to be able to grab a text file from some
archive, do the bold, italic, highlight, format, etc. to the text the way YOU
want to do it, and let your documents reflect your artistry.
Personally I am into archiving PDF files (a format intended for archiving) of
everything I create, but I still save text files of important stuff. I wrote
on this list some time ago that PDF exchanges would be a good way to go... No
matter the computer, no matter the software we could look at ANYONE's
newsletter with all the pictures, line art, text, etc. in place and yes, even
extract text files from the PDF document!
Bob Lang was right on the money... Listen to the old pro (sounds like he's
definitely been there done that). Text files, text files, text files...
Dave Tietz - Florida Suncoast MG Car Club
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