Re: Translating XyWin to Word or WordStar

["Michael P. Kube-McDowell" K-Mac@xxxxxxxx]

Hi, William. Thanks for your reply.

> Dear Michael,
>  Why not simply send them XyWrite files? They are, after all, mostly
> plain text that any word processor can read. If the recipients do not
> like the funny looking XyWrite stuff, tell them to use their own find
> and replace routines. But do insist that they send files back to you as
> plain text.

It's a matter of presentation, I suppose--just as I buy 90-bright 20#
paper and turn the print density up to 5 when printing a copy of the
manuscript, I want what appears on the screen to be professional and
readable from the outset. That means I'm looking for the cleanest
possible translation, and to try to take care of that translation
myself. I can't ask (in this case) Arthur C. Clarke to do hours of
fiddling before he starts reading.

> I am assuming that you have produced a manuscript with
> minimal formatting (still preferred by publisher's anyway). But even if
> you insist on translating files for other people to use, simply use an
> older version of the target format. MSWord version 2 (aka version 6?)
> can be read by all later versions, as I recall. Same goes for
> WordStar. Just use the older versions.

I would gladly do so if they'd produce a reasonably clean
translation. So far, they don't seem willing to do so.

> Unless you are collaborating on
> a virtually finished version that is camera ready, why worry about
> desktop publishing features in a manuscript anyway?

Actually, the manuscript is just about devoid of all DTP-type
features. I'd settle for a clean translation of the text into
double-spaced 65-character monospaced lines with paragraph indents,
no hyphenation, and a running header with page numbers. My files
really couldn't be much simpler, which adds to the frustration over
being unable to port them.

>Though I have been
> asked repeatedly by editors and publishers to provide text in a
> particular format, I have rarely complied; yet, they somehow managed to
> be able to use my XyWrite (well, actually NotaBene) files just fine.
> Remember plain text can be read by everyone. Let someone else worry
> about what it looks like on the page, especially when dealing with a 680
> page manuscript.

By and large, that's the approach I take. Bantam (our publisher) uses
a typesetting service which can cope perfectly well with XyWrite
files, and did so on my last three books for them. But I do consider
it understandable that my agent, editor, and collaborator all would
like to be able to use the software that they're familiar with, and
not have to do a lot of flyspecking or Computer Wizard tricks to get
there.

Best,

    K-Mac


  ---] Michael Paul McDowell, writing as Michael P. Kube-McDowell
  ---] Author of THE QUIET POOLS and STAR WARS: THE BLACK FLEET CRISIS
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