The Quest Has Begun

 

Mylar balloons are the Night to Dawn mascotSince my last blog, I’ve been trying out and testing PDF software. Night to Dawn 33 never got published through Lulu; I usually use Lulu and CreateSpace for NTD issues. My difficulties with image compression were the reason I didn’t use Lulu, where CreateSpace seems to handle the files better. Per the Mylar balloons’ advice, I looked into PDF software programs.

Three of them made it past the “let’s leave this one alone” stage: PDF Pro (online), Adobe and Nitro Pro. I abandoned Adobe after a three-hour trial period – had no clue how to go about working it. PDF Pro was user-friendly, but could not handle the NTD uploads. I’ve had Nitro Pro five days and am sitting on the fence with this one. I haven’t been able to upload my Night to Dawn file for conversion. NTD 34 has 51 MB, and I had in mind to use the PDF software expressly for the NTD magazines and book manuscripts. Nitro Pro encountered errors with NTD upload attempts. However, I was able to upload one of the book files and convert it to a PDF. My sense is a lot of programs don’t handle files over 50 MB well. I spoke about this with my computer guy, and he suggested printing to PDF through Windows 10. I thought that printing to PDF and saving was cute and doable. Unfortunately, the folks at Lulu didn’t agree. I got a one-line message: contact support.

When the Mylar balloons said I had a problem, they weren’t kidding. I also believe that every issue has a solution.

I’m seriously considering updating my Word software. I currently use 2007, which is an excellent software for most users, but I may need to go with Word 2016 because you get more options with PDF saving. If I do go with Word 2016, this will preclude Nitro since the expense for both would be more than I’m ready to handle. I also believe Nitro can work, but there is a learning curve. So, it’s onto the fence, with my Mylar balloons to hold me upright.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.

About Barbara Custer

Author of: Twilight Healer Steel Rose Life Raft: Earth City of Brotherly Death Close Liaisons Infinite Sight When Blood Reigns Infinite Sight Publisher / Editor of Night to Dawn Books & Magazine
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4 Comments

  1. I am crazy about Adobe InDesign. Well worth the learning curve! I do book design for several different presses, and I wouldn’t use anything else. I abhor Word.

    • I wouldn’t mind dealing with a learning curve so long as I was able to understand the instructions and concepts as I went along. I couldn’t make sense out of the Adobe software for editing PDFs. I’ll take a look at InDesign though because I found out that Adobe has an add-on that works with Word 2016 that does all right. I appreciate hearing your suggestion. 🙂
      Barbara of the Balloons

  2. I too have a very old word program. Possibly this year I will get a new computer with all new bells and whistles. I get the feeling that the computer business is built on the fact that you, the consumer, MUST update every five to ten years. This is rotten of course but real enough. Meanwhile some of us battle on with what equipment we have.

    • I had no choice about new computers. However my computer guy managed to save my Word 2007. My other issue is that Microsoft is no longer supporting Word 2007. I’m going to buy a balloon and think about this some more. 🙂 Barbara of the Balloons

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