Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Geek Speak => Topic started by: A Davis on 14/01/2009 16:24:33

Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: A Davis on 14/01/2009 16:24:33: I wanted to buy Adobe Writer but when i found out what it cost on Amazon changed my mind too dear. I started thinking about young Science Students they couldn't afford to pay that sort of money, is there a student version. If there is an alternative it must be good a equations and drawing. Please Help.
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: BenV on 14/01/2009 16:45:03: I'm really not certain, but I know open office can export as pdf, and may be able to perform the functions you require. Best thing is, it's free.
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: RD on 14/01/2009 16:55:54: Free PDF creators ... http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=14027.0
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: A Davis on 15/01/2009 00:01:01: Thanks BenV I haven't tried open office yet so I don't even know if it is capable of writing equations, up to now have used MSWord it can give equations using insert symbol (greek alphabet) but the fonts never match with Ariel Italic for english alphabet.
Thanks RD read the link I have already downloaded Cutepdf but this isn,t a true writer it only converts an existing doc to pdf when i print. I don,t know why but my labtop jumped out of this site when I closed the link, there was a message from HP but that shouldn't have done it odd!
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: RD on 15/01/2009 00:23:50: If you already have a programme which can produce the equations you could do a screen grab to produce a png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_Network_Graphics) image which you insert into your PDF : like inserting a photograph into a document only the photograph is a picture of the equations, e.g.

[ Invalid Attachment ]

This solution would use a lot of memory though: the PDF would be much larger by the addition of images.
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: RD on 15/01/2009 00:57:30: I've just had a look at openoffice suite, it does contain a "Math" programme which can write equations which can be exported as a PDF...

Quote
OpenOffice.org Math is a tool for creating and editing mathematical formulae, similar to Microsoft Equation Editor and is part of the OpenOffice.org office suite. The created formulae can then be embedded inside other OpenOffice.org documents, such as those created by Writer. It supports multiple fonts and can export to PDF.

Released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public Licence, Math is free software.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Math
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: A Davis on 16/01/2009 17:00:44: Thanks RD time to get Open Office suite.
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: RD on 17/01/2009 04:18:54: Quote from: A Davis on 16/01/2009 17:00:44
Thanks RD time to get Open Office suite.

It's big ~300Mb: in my case it took about 15 min to download the 2.4 version of OpenOffice suite.
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: Chemistry4me on 17/01/2009 06:45:52: Some Adobe files that I save can be edited, e.g. I can copy and paste form it whereas others just can't, I can only select a section and nothing else. Anyone know why that is?
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: MonikaS on 17/01/2009 10:11:43: Quote from: Chemistry4me on 17/01/2009 06:45:52
Some Adobe files that I save can be edited, e.g. I can copy and paste form it whereas others just can't, I can only select a section and nothing else. Anyone know why that is?
The PDF format allowes to disable those features, sometimes the author doesn't want you to be able to copy from the file. Sometimes printing is disabled too.
<whisper>There are tools around to remove the restrictions.</whisper>
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: Chemistry4me on 17/01/2009 10:23:15: Psss... what tools? Was that too loud? Sorry, I'll keep it down next time [:I]
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: Chemistry4me on 17/01/2009 10:24:33: Are they illegal? I don't want to get caught up in that kind of stuff [:o]
Title: Alternative to Adobe Writer
Post by: MonikaS on 17/01/2009 12:09:43: It's not really legal, but isn't illegal either. Dunno what the law has to say about it in New Zealand.
One tool that worked well for me is A-PDF Restrictions Remover (http://www.a-pdf.com/security/restrictions_remover.htm). It's not free, but has a 15 day trial and costs only $9.90.