: Format + Editor for book writing A friend of mine is going to write a book. Therefore he is looking for an easy WYSIWYG solution. First I recommended latex, but this would be a bit to hard

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Abiword is really light and simple. It looks and feels like Word 2003 so has a minimal learning curve. It is a very small download (<10 Mb). It can save directly to PDF, which makes sharing documents trivial.

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LibreOffice is a perfectly viable option.
Use Alkinea to convert to kindle and nook formats: soft.alkinea.net

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Given that your friend is over 70 and apparently not IT oriented, I would recommend sticking to something he already knows. If he already uses and is familar with MS Word, then stick with that.

If he is planning to self-publish, there are tools that can convert a Word document to the appropriate e-book format. Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing does this through an online interface that doesn't require any extra software or any special steps. It may not always format the finished product perfectly, but it's usually pretty good. There are also people who will convert the finished product to different e-book formats, and usually pretty cheap. For example, I know a few who will convert a Word document into four different formats for about . That's a lot easier than buying and learning new software.

If he is going to self-publish in print format, then the printer will most likely be able to work with him to make sure everything turns out okay. They may even have certain formatting changes that they will request or require in order to ensure everything turns out okay, but they should be able to provide assistance with that. Here again, if he needs to change the formatting to accomodate the printer, there are people who will do the work for hire.

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If "he" is going to self-publish then the real question to ask is what format his target audience will want to use?

Second, perhaps the format he thinks he requires is not really required. Some readers don't read the same way some writers think they do.

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