ToC, Fast Indexes, OOo and AmiPro1

[Jared]

 > I am hoping there is a macro or some trick to quickly
 > add index entries for a document. Currently, I am
 > trying to add an index for a genealogy book, I've
 > written (still in alpha mode). This book covers about
 > 135 pages at letter size paper and about 600 people.
 > While the index will build all links to the
 > individual,that means tagging 600 entries. Not fun. I
 > know I should have done this as I created it, but it
 > was created en-mass from a database and then edited. I
 > originally had this in AmiPro, but I'll discuss that
 > later. Is there anything to make it faster, or do I
 > just need to bite the bullet?

OpenOffice uses BASIC as one of its scripting languages,
meaning that if you can generate a list of all the names
you want to "tag" then write a macro which cycles through
the list, searching the main document for each item,
then tagging it, your bullet is bitten.

You're probably going to spend as much time figuring
out how to do this, and then doing it, as you would the
manual method, but from that point forward, you'll know
OO macros and you'll be a poweruser.

 > Secondly, I'd like to know why OpenOffice doesn't
 > import AmiPro documents? Just a rant I guess.

Dunno. A quick Google search reveals that it does. You
can always save to RTF, which is a good portable
format for most purposes.

 > Lastly, I'm curious if there are any peopel out there
 > writing books in Linux and what they use? I've heard
 > of Latex and such things for layout, but not really
 > sure why you'd want to use them.
 > They just look confusing as Hell.


I plan to use Scribus for a book I'm working on when
it's ready to publish. I haven't used it yet, but it has
very good reviews across the spectrum.

http://www.scribus.org.uk/

-Jared