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Comments
I am a little bit dissappointed by Mellel's stability. I think it crashed a dozen times already.
I am a Zettler
Well, that's not what you need, obviously. I would be interested in learning how to crash Mellel.
You might consider the user support option in the Help menu. I've heard that font cache problems may cause crashes, as well as things out of whack in Mellel's plist files, which I think can be deleted. As far as I know, they are recreated on next start-up of Mellel.
Support would be the best option, if it's something you would like to pursue. Can you suggest anything that would crash Mellel? I'd like to poke at the problem.
Why the world drifted away from almost every word processor except Word is both a mystery and a crying shame.
It happened when I inserted an images or a table (with one cell) that was too big for the remaining space of the page.
I reported the problem, I even tried to join the forum, but, strangely, complete silence from them.
I am a Zettler
I haven't been able to duplicate that crash. I'll keep trying.
The biggest worry I have with Mellel is that the company is small. I think they have a continuity plan in case of tragedy, but you're looking at the work of a single developer. That doesn't justify slow response, but it might explain it.
I am a Zettler
Will there be a physical copy to purchase?
Yes. In fact, the physical form will likely be available before the e-book.
I am a Zettler
All images but one are done.
I got pretty sick. I slept this night as much as the four nights before in total. Slowly recovering.
I am a Zettler
:>( Sorry to hear that, Sascha!
Lots of system maintenance going on when we sleep - best wishes for your recovery.
Thank you both. Most intense flu-like since Covid.
I am a Zettler
Health is at 40%, energy at 30%.
Still managed to slug through the manuscript. For the manuscript there are almost no tasks to do for the print PDF. This will be finished next week.
I once heard from an author that writing books is chewing on glass everyday. I get it.
I am a Zettler
Last round of improving page layout. Biography is built. Then I'll just to create the video the accompanies the introduction and translate the cover.
It is coming to an end.
I am a Zettler
I know (from a similar project) how long it takes, after your book is "done", until it is ready to send off to the publisher. Well done!!
Many thanks! If you are publishing your own book, contact me for any experience report on the whole process!
I hope I can streamline the process to a great extend for the next book. I am still on the fence whether it will be one for this project or one of the other.
I am a Zettler
Well, here is one "step" that lengthens the process considerably. When I completed the first draft of my "personal memories" book, I printed off a black and white version (even though 2/3 of the photos were in colour), just to get a sense for the look and feel of the book and to allow my wife and one daughter, who prefer to work with paper, a chance to edit and comment on the contents. Then another daughter did a formal editing of an electronic version of the book (in Atticus). Now I'm adjusting photos and paragraphs to get an efficient flow in each chapter, with no large white spaces. Then I will print off another, second draft version of the book (with colour photos). I'm sending that out today. When that (one copy) comes back, hopefully there will be only minor, last-minute editing before I can print the final version.
This project started as a Christmas present to me by one daughter at the end of 2023. I worked on the first draft in 2024 (one chapter a week for 54 weeks). I expected to send out the book as a present to all my kids and their families last Christmas (end of 2025). Hopefully they will get it by this Christmas (end of 2026). Yikes! It's a good thing I didn't expire before the book was done
@GeoEng51
Dang, I think I failed to actually say what I meant: I am surely interested in any experience reports from you. But as this is my 5th book, I wanted you to offer advice to smooth out any part of the workflow.
I share your experience 100%. It is death by thousand cuts to finalize a book. Finding any accidental space, position images, so you don't get too many white spaces, create all the internal references (page numbers, not section, please!).
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
PDF is finished
I am a Zettler
@Sascha Yes, and publishing to both paper book and ebook platforms is another wrinkle that adds many weeks if not months of extra work. I favour paper publishing first (and to start, one paper copy that you can handle and see, for last minute tweaks), which means producing a suitable PDF. After that, you can worry about publishing to some ebook format. One of Atticus' strengths is viewing your final product in any book or ebook format.
Every time your book or ebook format changes, your page layout changes, and you have to go through and move photos and graphs, and make other adjustments, that ensure the final product flows well, without large empty spaces, pages with only 1 or 2 lines, etc.
Having only 0.999 books under my belt, I can't pretend to much wisdom on this topic, though.