OpenSource e-book creation
By Leo Gaggl
After recently researching the available software for e-book creation for some of our clients (in the education sector) I came across quite a number of options. However after some further look into the option and trying some I was able narrowed the field down to 2 options that seem to be reasonably user-friendly and matured. The two are using a very different approach and will suit different types of users. One is a native e-book writer which will give better low-level control for the more technical types. The other is a plugin to the popular OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) Office Suites.
Sigil comes with installers for Linux, Windows and MacOS (http://code.google.com/p/sigil/downloads/list)
Installation on Linux :
wget http://sigil.googlecode.com/files/Sigil-0.4.2-Linux-x86_64-Setup.bin
chmod +x Sigil-0.4.2-Linux-x86_64-Setup.bin
./Sigil-0.4.2-Linux-x86_64-Setup.bin
(64 bit install – change appropriate download file if on i386)
Writer2ePub – OpenOffice (or LibreOffice) Plugin
Users of LibreOffice or OpenOffice might prefer a plugin to there text processing software rather than a native solution. The installation is very easy – just download the extension (http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/Writer2ePub) and double-click the downloaded file.
Extension install:
Don’t forget to restart Writer after the install. After the restart you should see new buttons in the toolbar.
Hope this helps somebody.