I have not posted much on many boards in the last few months because of a major project. I took my mother's hand-written 300 page manuscript and transferred it to the computer, then scanned 100+ photos, re-touched them, edited the document (many times), laid it out in a page layout program. I finished making the last PDF yesterday - after spending an additional 15 hours over the weekend to meet my own deadline. Now for a final proof and I can send to the printers for printing/binding. I should have the proof of the whole book in 2-3 weeks, then hope to have all copies printed/bound by late May.
Doesn't sound like much, but I have a 9 hours/day analyst position plus 2 hour commute; during this same time period I helped start a Bible College and taught half the courses, and I preach/teach 1-2 times per week in addition to that. It took 5 years - sending each section of each chapter to my mother to edit, re-edit, add more material. She has a diary entry for every day back to 1934.
I ended up using Papyrus XI (for Mac OS X, but also available for Windows), purchasing it in December. Originally I was going to use Word, but with auto numbering of photos, chapters, parts, etc. Word can become unstable. And I didn't need that. It worked very well. And I made the PDFs directly in OS X - and the proof prints of some of the photos are almost as good as the originals.
So, I am relieved, excited, and just trying to regain a sense of time, sleep, etc. Now I begin preparations to teach several Biblical sessions at TAALC Convention in June.
Oh, and this week I am interviewing for a manager of analytics position...
Good thing I haven't had too much to distract me. ;)
