PUBLISHING

07
TOWARDS A
HYBRID WORKFLOW
BASED ON MARKDOWN
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Hybrid publishing gives the best results based on a
single source document which can then be converted to
different output formats (InDesign, EPUB, HTML, etc.).
The traditional Microsoft Word + Adobe InDesign
workflow does not work well for ebook publishing.
Markdown, a plain-text format with simple markup,
has many pragmatic advantages as a source format
for hybrid publications.
Markdown can be learned quickly, and makes clear
formatting easy.
There are many text editing and document
conversion programs that support Markdown.
XML is technically superior, but often too complex
for small publishers.
Hybrid publication projects can also be authored
in database-driven content management systems,
which have their own advantages and limitations.
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