Editing Posts into Book Format--A Challenge

Editing posts into book format is a challenge.  I've been working with Blurb.com's software and, while cumbersome, I'm about 1/8th of the way through my posts.  I have everything copied into Microsoft Word as well, though that appears even harder.

One of the challenges is that the labels (tags, categories) I have included in my blog don't make it into the version used for editing--at least not in the same format.  Microsoft Word captures the html code, though not for printing.

I've edited the first fifty plus posts out of 244.  The page count is already over three-hundred.  I know from reading books that people of my age and beyond need Arial font and 12 point typestyle or higher.  That's what I'm using for the body of the book.

I have to see how to get the book ready for publication at a reasonable cost and availability.  My 95-year-old mother is interested in reading my drafts.  (She read my draft dissertation three times almost 20 years ago.)

Books and Movie Scripts (Screen Plays)--Challenges for Readers

In earlier posts I spoke of Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code which I recently listened to as an English audiobook, read as a Spanish companion book, and listened to as a Spanish audiobook.  Today I saw the movie--playing the movie in Spanish with Spanish subtitles.

Ron Howard was the director of the film and Dan Brown was one of the executive producers.  Having recently read and listened to the book so much, it was clear to me where the movie diverged from the book.  Some of the changes were to bring the movie-goer "up to speed" as things progressed during the movie.  Other changes seemed to involve representatives of the Roman Catholic Church in more negative ways that were shown in the book.

If you have read the book, the movie is enjoyable and you can spot the differences between the book and the movie.  If all you see is the movie, much of the richness expressed in the book is lost--along with much of the human dynamics expressed in the book.

I have had similar experiences with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books and movies.  Knowing the book makes a lot of difference in experiencing the movie.

Keeping Current with Technology Changes--Challenges to Communication

Creating web sites to share information becomes a challenge when the software used to post the information changes without notice.  For example, I used Adobe Presenter to share a presentation on my website in May and the software has changed (improved).  The old presentation no longer worked and I needed to recreate it and to post a revised copy on the website--done today (http://www.joelmonty.net/information_links/information_links.htm).

We need to keep revisiting what we have created to make sure that it is still accessible, especially as people are using a variety of web browsers.  As I begin to build more and more presentations, webinars, podcasts, and teleconferences, I will be using all sorts of new technology to make these accessible to as many people as possible.

It is always a challenge to keep things current and active, both in terms of content and in terms of the technology used to access the content.  Books were recorded and became audiobooks.  Audiobooks have been digitized and become eAudiobooks available for download.  Along the way the players and the software keep changing--much more rapidly that the transition of home-based audio from vinyl record to  cassette tape and CD to digital fines available on MP3 players, iPods, computers, etc.

Another dimension is to keep the content interesting with interesting graphics.  "Black and white" are boring.  Oops, I'll have to change the format of this blog pretty soon.