Re: How do people do this?

[Tabatha Persad <tabatha3 attbi com>]

On Thu, 2002-09-19 at 22:09, Malcolm Tredinnick wrote:
> Also, I find the markup phase to be mind-numbingly boring. Honestly, I
> would rather clean my apartment than markup documents sometimes and I
> suspect that this stops me writing more than I do (this is _not_ a quiet
> plea for help, since I don't think anybody would _enjoy_ doing the
> markup).

Hi Malcolm,

You may find this sick and twisted, but I actually enjoy marking up
documentation.  And you know what's even more sick?  I do it all without
the help of macros.  I use a few keyboard shortcuts in XEmacs, but I
type most everything in as I go.  

> What do other people do? Does the final editing process just suck for
> everybody, or am I missing some cool technique?

If I had to explain why I markup as I go, I'd stick by my tried and true
outline method as the answer.  I start by creating a plain text table of
contents, markup the document to get it ready for processing (insert the
doctype statement, bookinfo etc), and start writing and marking up my
sections as outlined, on the fly.  I find this gives me the top level,
and that when I do get caught up in the markup mire, it's easier to find
my way back out.

I started a Notepad HOWTO and posted it on my web site.  Though it's
incomplete, it probably helps illustrate what I mean!

Hope that satisfies your curiosity!

Tabatha



-- 
Tabatha Persad
Web: www.merlinmonroe.com
Linux Documentation Project Editor (http://www.tldp.org)
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