I hate MS Publisher with a vengeance - counter-intuitive but it Came With The Computer... aaarrcgh. I think it's quite costly if you buy it seperately - you might want to look at Quark?
Using MS publisher and a HP printer, I can do double sided printing - just. It screws up if I do runs of more than 5 at time; as a result, I'm currently sitting at the PC and printing booklets off One At a Time. Nyuck.
What I really want to do is this:-
render the poetry in XML
use an XSLT style-sheet and XSP-FO (Formatting Object) to produce a PDF file.
I already do this, somewhat, in HTML for the CCCP website, where the old CCCP reviews get transferred to XML then I run it through the Xalan XSLT processor with an XSLT processor, and the HTML is produced as a result. I side step the matter of formatting by having a standard set of Style-sheets - one for the site, one for the reviews, one for each review and one for each page, so the HTML formating object isn't there but it works.
The other reason I jump through the hoops is that I hope to produce the CCCP website in different formats - WAP, for example.
Now, all I have to do is find out how to print PDFs double-sided, get a decent Duplex laser printer and I'll be there :-) Does any one know anything about printing PDF's?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2001 21:55
Subject: Re: Self-publication: pagination
> Randolph:
>
> > I offered my pamphlet on home publishing yonks ago. So don't say you
> weren't
> > asked.
>
> Sounds just what I was (am!) looking for -- but I haven't come across it.
> Tell more?
>
> > Before I started to use MS Publisher to do the pagination of booklets I
> used
> > to make up a mock book, cutting a sheet in half repeatedly until the final
> > thing had the right number of pages. It usually looked turned out as a
> > booklet the size of a matchbox. Then each page number was filled in by
> hand.
> > The advantage of this was that for double sided printing I knew what went
> > behind what.
>
> What drove me to where I am was something similar -- three days of cutting
> and pasting with staples. When I discovered that I'd stappled the entire
> mag onto a set of JUST ONE TOO FEW pages, and so the cut-and-staple
> pagination was screwed yet once more, I thought it was time to try another
> tack.
>
> MS Publisher sounds like what I'm looking for (something into which you can
> pour a linear WORD file and have it slosh into the rightly-paginated boxes).
> But what does it cost? I don't currently have ANY dtp programs installed.
>
> I think I (earlier tonight) managed, finally, to produce an electronic
> master of Chide 1 in two WORD files.
>
> Tomorrow, the test-print. ***
>
> (A 14 page test-pamphlet [4 A4 sheets + wrap] I tried, with two blank pages,
> was +much+ easier -- Chide [physically] uses 17 A4 sheets + wraparound
> cover.)
>
> Cheers
>
> Robin
>
> *** Thinking of which, and as a memo to myself, my current formula means
> that when the first run of sheets emerges from the printer, you have to
> shuffle them into reverse-sequence before reinserting them, to print the
> second side. Gawd, I +hope+ I remember that tomorrow ...
>
> r2
>
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