[lug] Re: [rmiug-discuss] Document format conversion

[J. Wayde Allen]

On Fri, 2 Feb 2001, David wrote:

> This snip triggers me to act on some questions that have been around
> in my head for a while now.  I use Linux, Emacs, and ascii, and I like
> it that way.  However, "The fact of the matter is that a Word
> formatted document is lingua franca in business".

Business yes - more or less.  It is my understanding that in the legal
profession the WordPerfect format is the most common.  In general it
probably depends on what your business is.

> So, the question is: what software is available to translate from and
> to .doc format? Is there anything that will strip out the Word-isms
> and leave me with ascii.

Depends on what you are looking for:

 - wordview http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/2000/downloadDetails/wdvw9716.htm
 - wv           http://www.wvware.com/
 - kword        http://www.koffice.org/kword/
 - abiword      http://www.abisource.com/
 - Applixware   http://www.vistasource.com/
 - Star Office  http://www.sun.com/staroffice/
 - Word Perfect http://www.wordperfect.com
 - Framemaker   http://www.adobe.com/products/framemaker/main.html

> And is there anything that will wrap ascii text into an
> acceptable Word document?

ASCII files automatically open in MSWord so there isn't a particularly
compeling reason to force these into MSWord format.  MSWord format for
pure text is a VERY ineficient way to share text.  However, many of the
applications I've listed above can do this.

The place where you run into problems is if you are working with certain
graphics and especially mathematical equations.  MSWord doesn't do these
particularly well, and converting between any of the proprietary formats
often fails on these kinds of objects.

- Wayde
  (wallen at its.bldrdoc.gov)