2011/7/15 John Haltiwanger
<john.haltiwanger@gmail.com>
Cecil, I don't think its fair to constrain yourself from ever using Context again.
That was not what I mend. When making my own stuff where I do not have the need off interoperability I will keep using it. But in other case I should evaluate the situation correctly. Between a rock an a hard place is not a nice position. ;-}
What does 'competely independent' mean?
Properly that anybody that knows how to write a document in Microsoft Office can change the document. So standard software, with a low learning curve. I had some problems getting them to accept to use Adobe. And now that turns out to be not a real option. Learning all the time as Benny Hill said.
If you have been asked to hand over layout decisions, the best is to reproduce your document in XHTML, copy it into a word processor, and let them proceed with their own desing in their proprietary WYSIWYG software.
No the problem is not the layout. They are satisfied with that. They just do not want to be dependent on our company.
Even if they just want to make textual changes, this is probably still be your best bet. You can then relatively easily convert them back to Context (a matter of re-mapping text into Context).
That sounds like a good plan. Converting back is properly not necessary. But it would not hurt if it is possible.
There is a plan I have to produce an easier-for-point-and-clickers interface to collaborate on high quality Context based layouts, but the time hasn't appeared to materialize it yet.
Sounds good. If I could be of help …
If you search through the archives for 'pandoc' you will see that many of us have chosen to abstract ourselves from direct dependence on Context for our document 'coding'. There is a tangible flexibility provided by writing in a visually semantic preformat like Markdown. It helps during the editing stages because it is easy to generate other formats that people are more familiar with (OpenOffice can be converted to Word---then it is a matter of 'backporting' changes to the Context source).
I'll do that.
If they weren't clear about planning to take on this design responsibility--which they should have long before the deadline--than I feel it is the fault of the editors and not the fault of Context. Under such conditions I would have written text for these people in something they understand, like an word processor document (LibreOffice can save as MS Word easily enough).
That is what I mend that in hindsight I should not have used ConTeXt. ;-}
Sorry to hear you are having trouble with this. I know what it is like to face the edge of a deadline.
I'll survive, I always did. :-D
I have to thank this list for the help and support.