Ubuntu® 8.10 Linux® Bible

Chapter 16. Creating and Publishing Documents

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Markup Languages: TeX and LaTeX

• Using OpenOffice.org Writer

• Using KWord

• Using Scribus

• Other word processors for Linux

Chapter 15 discussed using text editors on Linux systems. Text editors are fine for creating documents if the document you're creating is a shopping list, To-Do list, or ransom note. For more sophisticated documents, most people nowadays expect an actual word processor, which is an application that enables you to create documents that use multiple fonts, and different styles within a font (bold, italic, and so on); create bulleted and numbered lists automatically; and provide some port for page layout using advanced constructs such as tables, multiple columns, and so on.

This chapter explains how to do various types of word processing on your Ubuntu or Kubuntu Linux system. It begins by discussing the various markup languages, which are text-format ways of creating formatted documents in a text editor on your Linux system. Although somewhat old school, markup languages are still popular, and Ubuntu supports popular, open source, markup-oriented document production systems such as TeX, and even provides a clone of the venerable troff system from bygone UNIX days.

Note

If you're reading this chapter and thinking, "Where the heck does he talk about markup languages that I actually care about, like HTML and XML?" I'm sorry to disappoint you. These markup languages are not discussed in detail in this book because they ...