#CD-ROM Book Production
4 messages in this thread
Dale:
I gather from your message that you have looked around for software and
have a good idea of what you want to do. I have perceived a split into two
basic (though somewhat amorphous) groups. First there is the "traditional"
database and free text retrieval software (vendors are noted in Lib #14,
"sftwr.txt"). And then there is a large and growing collection of
multimedia development tools that handle more sophisticated presentation,
like Hypercard, Supercard, MacroMind (for the Mac), and Asymetrix's
ToolBook and AutoCad's Animator for Windows environments.
If you are talking about a "book" in the primarily-text oriented way, the
former might serve you well. If you are talking about "book" in a
new-generation sense, with multimedia elements etc. then the latter might
be more useful. If you can be more specific about your ultimate product, I
might be able to help lead you to some good resources.
Rich Bowers
Thank you for your reply.
> If you can be more specific about your ultimate product, I might be able
to help lead you to some good resources.
Since we are more interested in developing our product for a professional
market, I feel that many of the hype elements of multimedia (like digital
sound, 24 bit color and animation) would be out of place. The final product
is envisioned as something similar to a digital version of Scientific
American's ring-binder series for Surgery and Medicine. These books come as
two large binders. As chapters become obselete they are replaced with
quarterly mailings of new pages. I would like our product to have a digital
update path, probably in the form of a new CD or possibly a floppy.
Therefore I think that we would be more interested in the traditional
database and free text retrieval software.
Another thing that I am not sure of is the way that development/authoring
software influences the platform that the product can be used on. I would
like to develop on the Macintosh, yet, I would like the final CD to be
produced in versions for IBM and Mac. I have recently downloaded some of
the text documents available in this forum and am in the process of
contacting some of the vendors.
Dale:
An increasing number of the "authoring" tools (indexing/retrieval software)
have engines for both Mac and PC. If this is your goal, then it should be
one of your first questions. It sounds as if your project – from a
technical point of view – is pretty straightforward. You will likely find
several candidates from which to choose. Then you can look at the way data
is searched, represented etc. in order to meet your customers' needs –
Good Luck! Rich
Dale,
Have you seen the Scientific American Consult CD-ROM? It's available for
DOS and the Mac and is updated quarterly . If this is the type of product
you will be developing you may want to give Rick Glasby at Online Computer
Systems a call, 301-428-3700 or 800-922-9204.
Glen Chapman – Online