[CALUG] outputting PDF or PS from FOSS?

[Bryan J Smith]

On Sat, 2009-06-27 at 05:06 -0700, Ed Browne wrote:
> Hi, I assumed this would be easy, but apparently it's not - I need to
> turn in my final paper in either PDF of Postscript format, but now I
> see that OpenOffice does not produce either of those two formats.

I believe every release of OpenOffice.org, has supported PDF Export.
Some components even support other exports (e.g., Impress can export
Flash).

> The tools the university recommends are either Windows-only or cost a
> fair bit.

If you're hearing that from your instructor, it is likely instructor's
ignorance more than anything.  Most departments, at least engineering
and science departments, often allow submissions in a variety of
formats.  Same for professional societies.

[ E.g., the IEEE still uses FrameMaker and [La]TeX (TeX is required for
transactions), although allows Word and [Open/Star]Writer as long as
they use the style template (especially if they will feed other
documents).  Most publishers I've worked with have similar
requirements. ]

> The only option I see as possible from my Ubuntu distro is Tex (which
> can output both ps and pdf) but I've always found Tex a bear to use
> (and I ought to be spending my time finishing my paper and not
> learning tex to compose my paper.)

For the last dozen years, I've been using LyX, the WYSIWYM ("what you
mean") editor for many typeset/markup, but largely LaTeX (with ERT**
in-lining):  
  http://www.lyx.org  

With an in-line, computer algebraic system (CAS) for equation editing
(both point'n click as well as direct, real-time, ERT** in-lining ;), I
can crank out equations 10x faster in LyX than in Word/Writer and their
non-sense of "insert equation/whatever object."

[ E.g., When I was coaching MathCounts students, I could crank out
worksheets faster than the dedicated worksheet programs the teachers
used.  That's how good LyX is, let alone when you're doing
post-secondary engineering/science systems of equations. ]

[ **ERT = Evil Red TeX -- the LyX acronym for TeX in-line ]

> Any suggestions?

Yes, see what you've been missing in the Open Source world.  ;)

- Word Processor:  OpenOffice.org
- WYSIWYM Typeset:  LyX (http://www.lyx.org)
- Desktop Publishing:  Scribus (http://www.scribus.org)  

Both LyX and Scribus utilize Qt (standalone, not KDE integrated), and
are available for Windows and, natively (non-X11) MacOS X.  I highly
recommend both.  The LyX 1.6.x release is outstanding, and I cannot live
without its automatic sectioning and navigation (word processors never
do it remotely as well), especially for huge documents.

Scribus is a professional-quality DTP with full PDF/A compliance for
publishers.  In addition to the framing and input in the program itself,
it can frame and layout external ODF/MathML (Writer/Calc) and TeX/EPS
(LyX) files as well.  When I want to lay my ODF or TeX into a
non-report/book publication, such as a piece of marketing or other
graphics-highlighting form with unique layout, Scribus is the ultimate
tool. 

Modern Desktop Publishing (DTP) started on Mac and the first WYSIWYG on
Windows as Ami, a hybrid DTP that was easy to use "like a word
processor" and had none of the layout issues of word processors
(although WordPerfect always had a strong typeset for a word processor,
and despite common assumption, version 6 was available at the time of MS
Office 4.x for Windows).  Unfortunately Microsoft adopted Jochaim
Kempin's German proven-model -- bundle and rebate (include Windows and
MS Office for free, pay OEMs a "rebate" to not ship the competitor's
products they already paid to bundle), causing companies to save $700+
on software purchases with every new computer, and people assumed word
processors with poor/no underlying language (e.g., Word) were preferred.

Word is crash-happy after about 50 pages and 10 figures and Writer does
the same after about 100 pages and 25 figures.  I wish WordPerfect was
an option, but the last version for Linux was version 8 (which was
re-released for newer GCC 3 / GLibC 2 systems several years ago for only
$25 or so).  As such, I typically use LyX (especially for all the
sectioning, tables of contents/figures/tables, indexing, Biblio, etc...
that it does "for free").  TeX also converts to/from everything (LyX
even does Linux man pages very easily, along with DocBook, including
LinuxDoc for HOWTOs).  But when I want to lay my ODF or TeX into a
non-report/book publication, Scribus is the ultimate tool. 

After a very, very messy conversion from Word 7 (95) to Word 8 (97), and
the loss of _all_ my templates and _endless_ reformatting of existing
documents, I permanently switched to StarOffice 4.0 (OpenOffice.org is
based on StarOffice 5.x -- StarOffice 3.0+ for Windows included an Ami
converter, so I brought in all my old Ami/Ami Pro documents) and LyX at
that time.  While some engineering firms are installing virtualization
just so they can run Office 7 or 8 on Windows 9x/NT and edit old
documents, I'm still editing my old SXW and TeX documents from the
mid-'90s without issue.



-- 
Bryan J  Smith     Professional, Technical Annoyance 
Linked Profile:   http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith 
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