Hi all, For the first time I've gone beyond book outlining in VO (VimOutliner) and am actually writing the book (via body text) in VO. What this does is eliminate the artificial demarkation between outlining and writing.
It's very possible, and in fact quite likely, that some chapters will be ready for writing long before others are fully outlined. In the past this led me to either retard writing certain chapters, or prematurely convert to LyX. Now, to an extent, I can write one chapter while outlining another, and have everything come out well in the end. This is not a rigorous process. The VO writing will be only a very rough draft. It can't include things like Tips, Notes, character styles etc. Well, it could, but not without time consuming difficulty. Instead, this is an informal extension of traditional outlining. The goal is still to have the book really take shape in LyX. Fortunately, recent versions of LyX include an outline mode similar to what MS Word has had forever. This means that in all stages of development, outlining methods can be used. Early, when outlining speed is paramount, VO is used for speed, but some writing and formatting capabilities are available.. Later, when writing and formatting capabilities are most important, LyX is used, with the advantage that some outlining capabilities are still retained. Stay tuned... SteveT Steve Litt Author: Universal Troubleshooting Process books and courseware http://www.troubleshooters.com/
