Hello all,
I'd like opinions about which format would be most advantageous for
keeping a document with multiple intended output formats -- specifically
a resume. At a minimum, I'd like the ability to output in HTML, text,
and PDF.
Short version and question: Which format would be superior for
maintaining it, and why? I'm aware of TeX/LaTeX, and
LinuxDoc/DocBook/SGML. Also, I noticed xml2doc in portage, but it
appears that there's only been one release, and that was nearly a year
ago, and I have no idea how the PDFs it creates look. Note that I don't
know TeX and LaTeX, or DocBook, but I'm willing to learn. I really like
the idea of editing, say, resume.ltx, typing "make", and just being done
with it and having good-looking documents as a result.
Longer explanation, including stuff I've already tried: I currently
maintain my resume in HTML. I use w3m to convert it to text and htmldoc
to convert it to PDF. The main problem is that htmldoc is the only
HTML-to-PDF converter I know of, and I think it does a rather ugly
job[1]. Also, I tend to need to do some minor editing on the text
version when I generate it.
My frustration grew a couple days ago when I needed a hard copy of my
resume. I didn't want to just print the HTML version from Mozilla,
since for some reason Mozilla prints it as four pages (print preview and
PostScript version, anyway; I didn't actually send it to a printer) when
it's actually only two.
I tried using OpenOffice.org, but it seemed to go into some sort of
reduced-functionality mode when opening an HTML file. I finally
resorted to copying and pasting the text, manually formatting it, and
exporting as PDF. This is the best-looking PDF of my resume I've had,
but the problem is maintenance, obviously. I'm adding more and more
steps for every format conversion. I can't just maintain it in OOo,
either, since I tried saving as HTML and the result just looks awful.
Thanks very much for any suggestions.
[1] Perhaps it's just some option I'm missing. Here's the command I've
been using recently:
htmldoc --webpage resume.html -f resume.pdf --header " " --footer " "
--top 0.25in --bottom 0.25in --right 0.25in --left 0.25in
--
Bill Jonas * bill@billjonas.com * http://www.billjonas.com/
"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your front door. You step
into the Road, and if you don't keep your feet, there is no knowing
where you might be swept off to." -- Bilbo Baggins
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