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I'm getting ready to start writing a complete sourcebook for my Tensided RPG system. I'm no expert at formatting, but I want it to look nice, so I plan to take cues from textbooks about putting things that are not part of the main thrust in blue boxes and such off to the side. I also plan on including some artwork, though probably only at the beginning of each chapter. I'd also like to have a faux-parchment style background like the one in the 3rd Edition Forgotten Realms sourcebook.

I don't know how to do any of this stuff in Word, and given the complaints I've heard about Word and large documents, I wonder if I should try to figure it out in Word or whether I should use a different program instead. Ultimate destination is a .pdf. I am good with computers, but don't have much patience, so extremely unintuitive programs are out.

Any suggestions?

If your ultimate destination is a PDF, you probably should get adobe acrobat. As far as I know, no better tool for layman layout exists. It's expensive, but such is life. I'm entirely unaware of any alternatives, however.

A normal word processor would be fine for actually typing it out but you'll probably want something like Adobe InDesign for page layout. It will natively export to PDF as well.

So I could type it out in more or less plain text, and then use that to make it look the way I want it?

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:So I could type it out in more or less plain text, and then use that to make it look the way I want it?

Yes, that's more or less the way you should do it. Write it out and get it edited and proofread it first. Then fuck with how pretty it looks after you've finished the aforementioned tasks.

If you are planning to write a multiple hundred page document, then you should learn to use lAtex. The amount of time spent learning will be small compared to the time saved in the actual writing process.

I poked around on Latex's web site. It looks pretty intimidating. What are the advantages?

Graeme Dice wrote:If you are planning to write a multiple hundred page document, then you should learn to use lAtex. The amount of time spent learning will be small compared to the time saved in the actual writing process.

LaTeX has a extremely steep learning curve, though, and if he wants to use fonts not included with the system - well, that's an exercise in pain. That said, there are some very nice layout templates available (such as the memoir class).

It is a mighty powerful typesetting system, but for his needs he might as well bite the bullet and get InDesign or maybe FrameMaker.

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:I poked around on Latex's web site. It looks pretty intimidating. What are the advantages?

It's very, very powerful. It is also written using a plain-text editor (if that's your thing) and handles long documents exceptionally well. In the science, engineering and mathematics world it (until recently) is the standard for journal submissions.

Making a PDF isn't all that difficult from most document types if you use something like CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com). It installs as a printer device, which you can select from the print options of most programs. It writes the printout to a PDF file.

I wouldn't necessarily use Word for a multihundred page document, and OpenOffice is something of a pain in the ass if you want to include pictures (at least if you haven't actually reduced the mimages to the size they are supposed to be, it doesn't allow shrinking them like word does).

IF you can get Word to be stable, then it could work well with CutePDF, otherwise I refer to the previous posters.

Edi

Edi wrote:Making a PDF isn't all that difficult from most document types if you use something like CutePDF (http://www.cutepdf.com). It installs as a printer device, which you can select from the print options of most programs. It writes the printout to a PDF file.

Yes, but if you want to output to PDF well those solutions don't quite cut it. I suppose it depends on what he wants to do - if he wants a nicely laid-out book he might as well go with the usual Word + InDesign combo.

I might be willing to shell out a few hundred bucks for something like InDesign if I had the money, but that's not really an option right now. OpenOffice sounds like the way to go, maybe paired with Scribus? I'd have to install Linux, but that's no big deal. I've done that before, and have 20 GB unpartitioned set aside for it. For making the PDF, I actually do have access to Acrobat Professional 6.0, so that base is covered.

I worked on a college newspaper when I was in undergrad, and I'll definitely echo what everyone said here: whatever word processor you use, don't even attempt using it for your final layout. It'll just be pain. Word processors just don't have the power and flexibility you need.

We used QuarkXPress for our layout, a program I got to like a lot once I learned it, but that was several years ago and I understand now that there are several programs which demolish it.

RedImperator wrote:We used QuarkXPress for our layout, a program I got to like a lot once I learned it, but that was several years ago and I understand now that there are several programs which demolish it.

Quark got too complacent, users got angry and Adobe sensed an opportunity. The market is now more or less split between Quark XPress and Adobe InDesign.