Question
Using FM for print and epub
I've used FM to write several books for conventional ink-on-paper publication.
We recently took these and adapted them for publication as PDFs, too, a task
that involved easy stuff like generating PDFs with live internal xref links
(e.g., from TOC and index -- handled more or less automatically by FM) as well
as more labor-intensive stuff like live links to the Internet (URLs and email
links), changing the color of link text to indicate that it was clickable,
replacing black and white photos with color, and eliminating gutter margins so
that page images didn't see-saw back and forth when scrolling vertically through
a book.
I'm getting ready to write another book, and I know from the outset that it will
be published both as ink-on-paper and as a PDF. Because I know that PDF will be
one of the publication formats, I'm planning to make much more liberal use of
color and live links than I have in the past, but because I know that
ink-on-paper will also be a target (and probably the one that will sell better),
I have to make sure that the book will look good in that format, too.
The books I write tend to require modifications between printings (e.g., to fix
bugs, address changes that have taken place in the world I live in, etc.), and
it is not uncommon for there to be a dozen or more printings in a few years, so
the process of going from FM document to PDFs (one for ink-on-paper, one for PDF
epublication) needs to be as close to automatic as possible.
I'm trying to figure out how to set up my FM document to achieve the above.
What I'd really like is two sets of styles for pages, paragraphs, characters,
etc., because that way I could use one set when generating PDF for ink-on-paper
and another set when generating PDF for epublication. That would handle
different coloring of link text, the presence or absence of a gutter margin,
etc. It would not handle using a color photograph or diagram when generating
epub PDF and a black and white photograph or diagram when generating
ink-on-paper PDF. (I could use color for everything and rely on it being
converted to black and white by e.g., the printer, but that doesn't yield
results as good as using different images/diagrams specifically designed for the
use of the PDF being generated.)
One of my concerns is that if I try to maintain two sets of styles, I could
easily tweak one without making the corresponding tweak to the other. Also, if
I make a change to one set, I'd have to be careful to import it to all the files
making up the book.
Does anybody have any experience with this kind of problem or suggestions on how
to approach it? FWIW, I'm using FM6, but I'd be willing to upgrade to a newer
version if that would be helpful. (Reading through feature lists and reviews of
FM7 and FM8 has not revealed any new features that sound particularly useful or
compelling, although I do covet multiple-level undo.)
Thanks,
Scott
We recently took these and adapted them for publication as PDFs, too, a task
that involved easy stuff like generating PDFs with live internal xref links
(e.g., from TOC and index -- handled more or less automatically by FM) as well
as more labor-intensive stuff like live links to the Internet (URLs and email
links), changing the color of link text to indicate that it was clickable,
replacing black and white photos with color, and eliminating gutter margins so
that page images didn't see-saw back and forth when scrolling vertically through
a book.
I'm getting ready to write another book, and I know from the outset that it will
be published both as ink-on-paper and as a PDF. Because I know that PDF will be
one of the publication formats, I'm planning to make much more liberal use of
color and live links than I have in the past, but because I know that
ink-on-paper will also be a target (and probably the one that will sell better),
I have to make sure that the book will look good in that format, too.
The books I write tend to require modifications between printings (e.g., to fix
bugs, address changes that have taken place in the world I live in, etc.), and
it is not uncommon for there to be a dozen or more printings in a few years, so
the process of going from FM document to PDFs (one for ink-on-paper, one for PDF
epublication) needs to be as close to automatic as possible.
I'm trying to figure out how to set up my FM document to achieve the above.
What I'd really like is two sets of styles for pages, paragraphs, characters,
etc., because that way I could use one set when generating PDF for ink-on-paper
and another set when generating PDF for epublication. That would handle
different coloring of link text, the presence or absence of a gutter margin,
etc. It would not handle using a color photograph or diagram when generating
epub PDF and a black and white photograph or diagram when generating
ink-on-paper PDF. (I could use color for everything and rely on it being
converted to black and white by e.g., the printer, but that doesn't yield
results as good as using different images/diagrams specifically designed for the
use of the PDF being generated.)
One of my concerns is that if I try to maintain two sets of styles, I could
easily tweak one without making the corresponding tweak to the other. Also, if
I make a change to one set, I'd have to be careful to import it to all the files
making up the book.
Does anybody have any experience with this kind of problem or suggestions on how
to approach it? FWIW, I'm using FM6, but I'd be willing to upgrade to a newer
version if that would be helpful. (Reading through feature lists and reviews of
FM7 and FM8 has not revealed any new features that sound particularly useful or
compelling, although I do covet multiple-level undo.)
Thanks,
Scott
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