Conversion of threads to longform/book
Thanks everyone!
I thought I already knew all this, but I got a little closer by messing with the options for the D/L.
Is there any way to remove post subjects? Or suggestions for using programs outside of RPOL itself? Not sure if anyone else has tried this. We have about 9,000 posts to assemble over a number of threads.
If not this certainly got me a little further along. Much appreciated!
Some notes for others who might try this:
One method is to paste into a spreadsheet* and set columns for:
timestamp
player
thread
post
The posts can then be sorted by player, thread, and chronological order
After sorting the columns can be eliminated or the post column alone can be copied over to a word processor. For me on a windows PC going into Openoffice Writer, I hit Ctrl+Shift+V to paste without formatting. It sucks losing italics, but otherwise mostly works.
Then its a matter of setting indents and combing through the text to make it a little more book-like (and replace italics). Thngs like brackets from private messages and words like "Private to" can be removed with the search and replace feature of most word processors.
I use Openoffice Writer, though I might use Scrivener to make it easier to move things around. This is because at times threads coincide and the book format will have to be linear, or at best (worst?), split into text columns to contrast what is happening in each thread.
After that it's time to format based on the size of the book you're making, then typesetting, page numbers, table of contents, etc., and hit up a printing service, online or local, for your final product.
*It would be nice to automatically import to a spreadsheet. Lemme know if you figure this out!
This message was last edited by the user at 01:07, Thu 01 Aug 2019.