Re: Nota Bene files

[Robert Hemenway robhem@xxxxxxxx]

At 03:54 AM 11/13/98 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm about to submit copy to an editor I haven't worked with before.
>
>I've never used Nota Bene but understand that it's based on XyWrite. If
>this editor uses Nota Bene, can I send him a XyDOS file and be confident
>that he'll be able to open it in NB? Does it matter which version of NB
>he's using?

Eric, I use Nota Bene 4.5 and XyDOS 4.17. Reading XyDOS files in NB works.
Just tried with a couple, and NB flagged the "improper formatting commands"
but that was all; they were highlighted, and easy enough to delete. The
commands
were UF and SZ, which you wouildn't be using anyhow, would you? I doubt that
the version number of Nota Bene would matter, but I can't be certain.

Ital and bold come through fine. (Xy4 uses MDIT). The upper-level
characters will
carry over--except for any characters that must be called in XyWrite with
numbers
above 255 or so, and that show correctly in XyDOS 4 only in the graphic
mode. The 'oe' ligature [660] is one. The printer's quotes and the fi, fl,
etc. ligatures are others.
But there aren't many.

NB's import capablilites include straight ASCII files and files using DOS
code page 850. But not Xy itself. That, I suppose, is because an import
program is hardly needed for Xy.

To make sure, can't you send a brief sample file to your editor and see how
it goes?
The editor may have to do a little touching up, but don't editors expect that?

Pam Upton's response adds quite a bit to mine. As for the converters, Word
for Word doesn't do Xy to NB. WordPort is the only one I know of that does,
but there's no *substantial* improvement in WordPort over simply calling
the file up in NB, and there's still a little manicuring to be done.
WordPort drops in an asterisk for the chars it can't convert. I saw quite a
few. And WordPort is pricey.

Regards,

Robert Hemenway