Idly wondering if any of the three readers of this blog are authors, I whipped up a book template site yesterday. Actually, I built this for my mum, who's using Wikidot to write a book on the history of language.
Why use Wikidot to write a book? Mainly, because it lets others review the work in progress, join in as editors, and it means the text is safe from getting lost. On the other hand, Wikidot is not yet ideal as a book writing tool. No easy import/export to word processors, no print to PDF.
1. Congrat to the idea…!
2. This is not realy true - there are a lot of printer drivers, which simulate a printer, but write to a "pdf" - file - with all options available you need.
I think, the print command/Link at the bottom is not so bad ! :)
What we need here in wikidot, is more the "print"-CSS dependent commands… like formfeed before or after a line.- I can remember. there was such a wish and I think Ed JOhnsin fiund a little solution.
Service is my success. My webtips:www.blender.org (Open source), Wikidot-Handbook.
Sie können fragen und mitwirken in der deutschsprachigen » User-Gemeinschaft für WikidotNutzer oder
im deutschen » Wikidot Handbuch ?
Idea one: Why not use Google Docs API? It's easy to "upload" a html file (EDIT: actualy - upload from a printable version url) to anyone with a Google account. Then export to DOC, PDF, RTF and lots of others as well…… I found the ability to do this in PHP. http://code.google.com/apis/documents/docs/1.0/developers_guide_php.html
Kenneth Tsang (@jxeeno)
Just curious, but wouldn't this mean that you couldn't copyright your book.
And what 3 readers?
Well, perhaps there are four… just a small joke, GM. :-)
Copyright is automatic on all works, and authors then have the right to license their work as they wish.
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James Kanjo made this some time ago.
Timothy Foster - @tfAuroratide
Auroratide.com - Go here if you're nerdy like me
I missed this http://stories.wikidot.com/ which is actually a living Gamebook.
I imagine you could use feedbooks to get it into pdf, epub, or mobi if you format the book so your content is in the first wikidot division of the pages you draw it from, and appropriately organized.
I've been mulling starting a collection of my own serial shorts in a blog here. One thing standing in my way is a good bookish theme. There are a couple of paper/folder themes on the theme site but nothing has quite struck my fancy. And when I start to try to create my own, I just get a headache.
I picture a side bar theme where the sidebar is separated from the main content by a fold, like the middle of an open book. Main content has a full page-like interface with a little bulge on one side and pages leafing out on the other. Side content is just a partial page, the bulge and then it cuts off. Top nav is old style book binding. Someday I'm actually going to get around to that.
I am, admittedly, a writer not a programmer but I have a sufficiently developed left brain that I can muck about with Wiki Markup Language and get things done. Perhaps not elegantly so, but I'm learning as I go.
I was very excited when I ran across this post about a book template, as I've just started a collaborative blogging project with another writer. The automatic numbering feature and elegant little buttons that lead from one piece to the next are just stunning. It seemed to me that this template would work really well for our collaborative effort with just a bit of customization. And that naive assumption is where the trouble began…
So I cloned the template as a new site http://jtd.wikidot.com/ and set to work. The problem is that we're writing articles for a blog, not a book. So we need neither chapters nor appendicies. I thought it would be a snap to change the titles to something more appropriate, but have been unable to do so because I can't get into the module where those terms are set up (don't laugh, I already feel like an idiot). Ideally, I'd like to pop in and set up three levels for this: Project, Topic, and Article, then get on with the writing.
It strikes me that this bit of customization might make a nice variation on the book template, targeting journalists and bloggers who write serial pieces.
Any thoughts for a javascript-disabled wordsmith? I'm really new to Wikidot, so even some pointers to the appropriate pages in the documentation might help me. Many thanks in advance for sharing your wisdom.
Not to mock or anything, but I've experienced that wiikidot doesn't perform so well with large chunks of text. The cursor takes more than a split second to react when there is a substantial amount of text in the edit part. For me, Wikidot is just not the tool suitable for these kinds of tasks. At least, not with the hardware I am using.
The solution of typing the text offline and once in a while pasting it in the wikidot is not a solution.
If the book is a one-person project, then work offline in general. And if more than one person is involved, then this wonderful page-lock feature is missing. And, with using wikis in a collaborative way: The hard part is in general to get the people to do something different than what they are used to (eg type in their pre-installed word processor, and emailing the Most Recent Version around). Sloppyness in copy-pasting the material in the wiki also after just a bit of work is very likely to occur.
Sorry to say, but wikidot is not my preferred application to work on a book.
It's true that large pages can be slowish to edit. I find that browsers are not the same, for example Chrome is much faster than FireFox. For larger chapters, you can also use the section edit feature, so that you edit smaller parts of the page.
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Also very true. Perhaps it would be good that the text is by default divided in sections if the size is bigger then some specific amount of signs. The thing is: solutions are easy, but they should be _very_ obvious for the not tech-savy. Especially if you are making a project with people who are forced by the initiator to use another platform then they are used to. I keep on being astounded how much reservations people have for working in a new way.
Would this qualify as a feature request?
Sure, feel free to discuss on projects.wikidot.com. Better, try to experiment with this yourself, using the "edit sections" functionality. It won't happen automatically but can still be fairly usable IMO.
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