<chapter>


<chapterinfo>
<itermset>

<indexterm zone="html" scope="all">
<primary>html</primary>
<secondary>hypertext markup language file</secondary>
<tertiary>webpage</tertiary>
</indexterm>

<indexterm zone="rtf" scope="all">
<primary>rtf</primary>
<secondary>rich text format</secondary>
</indexterm>

</itermset>
</chapterinfo>

<title>Text tools</title>
<subtitle>Text editing with dyne:bolic</subtitle>

<section>
<title>Publish texts in most formats</title>

<para>
The tools described in this chapter are being included in dyne:bolic
to let you easily write and compose any kind of text document. Texts
can be published on the web and can be printed, depending for what
thei are intended for they might need a special way to be
formatted. Therefore we have formats, <emphasis
id="html">html</emphasis> is an example and is being used for web
pages, while <emphasis id="rtf">rtf</emphasis> for instance is
supported by the majority of word processors around.
</para>

<para>
Having clear the differences and the purposes of file formats, you can
easily distinguish between the application you need. We proceed by
distinguishing them by tasks:
</para>

<para>
Abiword and Ted are wordprocessors, they can open .doc and .rtf files
and allow you to set formatting on text like font size and face,
alignement and such.
</para>

<para>
Bluefish is a tool for web designers, allows to write the html scripts
aided by a series of toolbars which can write element templates for
you; it also gives a useful highlight to the different parts of the
text.
</para>

<para>
Nedit is a multipurpose text editor which has also syntax highlight,
but less bells and whistles, and is perfect to write text documents as
well sourcecode as well any other kind of plain text based file.
</para>

<para>
Tetradraw is just a cool ansi-art application that lets you draw
colorful things on the console screen, it can be used to draw text
based drawings and it can even animate sequences of text.
</para>

<para>
Antiword is a very handy commandline application that lets you convert
with a simple command any .doc file into a plain text file, keeping
the alignement of the lines intact. a quick start can be to try out
a simple command on a .doc file:
<screen>
<prompt>[d:b] ~ #</prompt><userinput>antiword evil.doc > good.txt</userinput> <lineannotation><keycap>[Enter]</keycap></lineannotation>
</screen>

<tip>
<para>you'll find more documentation about antiword in the system manual with the command</para>
<screen><prompt>[d:b] ~ #</prompt><userinput>man antiword</userinput> <lineannotation><keycap>[Enter]</keycap></lineannotation></screen>
</tip>

</para>

<para>
Now we'll proceed looking more in depth inside the programs.
</para>


&abiword;
&ted;
&bluefish;
&nedit;
&tetradraw;

</section>

</chapter>
