Hi Steve,
> I'm not quite sure what you guys mean by "semantic import/export", but if you
> mean exporting the text marked up with (empty) styles and the (empty) style
> definitions so all I have to do with the MSWord file is fill in the styles,
> then I'm on it like a squirrel on a tree. Let me tell you why.
>
> The (insert your own curse phrase here) fools controlling the various eBook
> formats have made it almost necessary to use MSWord as the input to the eBook
> conversion process. Saaayyy whaaaaat??? So let me get this straight. I write
> my book in a good software like LyX, and then have to rewrite it in (insert
> your favorite phrase meaning "incompetent" here) MSWord in order to put it on
> a Kindle? Really?
If you're using version 2.0 of LyX, you can also export to XHTML. Kindle and
Barnes and Noble PubIt let you upload HTML files without first converting to
Word. If you don't mind hacking the layout files, you can also get a huge
degree of control over how your document appears.
For example, if you wanted to change the heading for chapter style so that it
exports to <h1> (right now, it exports to <h2>), you could use the following in
the local layout of your file.
Style Chapter
HTMLTag h2
End
If you wanted to modify how the CSS appears, you could then use the HTMLStyle
tag to do something fancy. For example, the CSS below would allow you to make
an off-white headline example with small caps.
Style Chapter
HTML Tag h2
HTMLStyle "font-family:Georgia,serif: color: #4#443C;
font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: none; font-weight 100; margin-bottom:
0;"
End
You can use this technique to override any of the of default CSS for any
document class.
it's also a very good way to import a file into Word, since you can specify
exactly what you would like for the styles to appear as, and Word will do its
best to imitate them (as will OpenOffice). Generally, it does a pretty good job
of getting both the styles and the appearance.
I've been using it to exchange chapters of the neverending book project with
the editors. So far, no major mishaps. It may even be pretty easy to automate
using either the Java tool I created for importing Word files or an external
tool.
What I'm curious about, though, is if there is an HTML import script. That's a
part of LyX I haven't played with at all.
Cheers,
Rob
