Well-Formed Document Workflow

Convert with Ease

The WFDW simplifies the transition from one publishing stage to another, resulting in a seamless production process. Whether for print, electronic, or round-tripping changes for new editions, a single tool—Scribe’s Digital Hub—is used for all conversions, no matter the order.

Control Your Content

By keeping conversions in-house, you maintain control, cut costs, and reduce (or eliminate) dependency on multiple vendors or overseas workers.

Improve Typesetting and E-book Development

WFDW improves your process at every stage. Replacing ad hoc methods of pulling content into InDesign, our method employs robust IDTT output that simplifies and speeds up typesetting. Fully accessible and navigable e-books, featuring automatic linking (tables of contents, notes, and indexes), become a natural outgrowth of print book development.

Tools to Help You Work

A WFDW subscription includes two offline tools: the Scribe Add-In (SAI) and InDesign Tools. Online, the Digital Hub performs the heavy lifting.

The SAI is a Word plug-in that facilitates applying styles and automatically performs many editorial functions. These include cleansing manuscripts of common errors, intelligently applying title case, building style sheets, and flagging problems according to style guides. The SAI aids communication among all involved in the process, even authors.

Scribe’s InDesign Tools facilitate typesetting best practices and assist with the many nuances of the craft, such as creating page ranges for notes and placing images. The tools enable clean exports to XML, prepare documents for accessibility, and enable custom settings.

The Digital Hub is our online conversion center, converting publications from one format to another. It features customizable stylesheets, an ePub rezipper, alt-text/accessibility capacity, and automatic print articulation (spacing for proper typography).

One Language

Scribe Markup Language (ScML) is a robust, comprehensive XML schema natively designed for publishing. Because it is mapped to standard styles and employs intuitive nomenclature, it’s also easy to learn. From developmental editing through e-book production, everyone involved speaks the same language. The advantages are clarity and consistency in work, fewer errors, and a streamlined publication process. The result is better publications.

Fast-Track to E-books/Galleys

Once styled in Word, files can be fast-tracked to produce print and electronic galleys. The same process enables the resurrection of backlist titles, e-books at any stage, HTML for web publishing, and instant XML output.

Single Flow, Multiple Outputs

The WFDW allows you to work in a single stream, yet you can create output file types at any stage, publishing print first, electronic first, or in any combination. Alter publications in one place, and the changes are preserved in every subsequent form. The WFDW allows for automated outputs of IDTT, fully accessible ePub, Mobi/Kindle, HTML, XML, or round-tripped Word files.

Durability

Scribe Markup Language (ScML) documents are future proofed because the underlying XML is a robust, universal method for archiving publications. ScML is a living standard and therefore evolves with publishers’ needs. With or without the WFDW, compatibility is never an issue. This isn’t true with formats like Microsoft Word and Adobe InDesign. These proprietary formats, along with PDF, ePub, and even HTML, are poor repositories for archiving books. With the WFDW, you’ll never be stuck with outdated formats and are able to take full advantage of future book technologies.