Re: [NTG-context] Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.
It's also true that On 8 May 2006, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) approved the OpenDocument Format (ODF) for release as ISO/IEC 26300 ODF can be an important xml format in next years. luigi ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
[NTG-context] Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.
Frequently I find myself in the position of needing to combine
several MSWord and/or rtf documents into a single file for either
pdftex or Context. I have settled on this strategy.
1. If necessary I convert the documents to rtf with Open Ofice
Writer.
2. I convert the resulting rtf documents to LaTeX using rtf2latex2e.
3. I need to rename some of the LaTeX commands to their plain
TeX or Context equivalents, and simply ignore others. Instead of
editing each and every occurrence, I add the following to my
macros.tex file which heads up the document:
\def\documentclass{}
\def\newcommand{}
\def\usepackage{}
\def\tab{}
\def\hspace{}
\def\begin{}
\def\end{}
\def\textbf#1{\bf #1}
\def\nobreakspace{~}
\def\underline{}
\def\newpage{}
\def\textmd#1{\rm #1}
\def\textit#1{\it #1}
\def\large{\tfb}
\def\reg{\rm\char174\ }
\def\textregistered{\reg}
--
I create a master file that calls in each of the .tex files
and compile the whole goulash. If I missed a latex tag then I add
it to my \defs shown above and recompile until I get a
clean run. Now I have a readable pdf file and can start correcting
the format.
The scattered Latex tags give me hints where centering etc. might
be needed even though the tags are inoperative in Context, thanks
to my nullifying \def statements shown above.
Someday there will be an elegant solution to the MSWord to
Context problem. For now there is my ugly hack as described here.
--
John Culleton
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Re: [NTG-context] Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.
John R. Culleton wrote: Someday there will be an elegant solution to the MSWord to Context problem. For now there is my ugly hack as described here. maybe the word xml output, since that can be parsed Hans - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.
On Jun 13, 2006, at 5:29 PM, John R. Culleton wrote:
Frequently I find myself in the position of needing to combine
several MSWord and/or rtf documents into a single file for either
pdftex or Context. I have settled on this strategy.
snip
Someday there will be an elegant solution to the MSWord to
Context problem. For now there is my ugly hack as described here.
MEMORY DISCLAIMER: In these examples none of the function names are
really what they are in Word or VB for Word. The functions are
available in VB for Word, but it's been some time since I've done
this, i don't have the macros these days and don't really know the
real names anymore. So they are just representative of the functions
available.
STYLE COMMENT: These methods should work even if styles are not being
used. For example the primary heading may be Arial, 18pt, bold and
not the Heading 1 style. That's okay because you can search for font
attributes in Word. If the document is not consistent, well, convert
to text and markup manually. :)
MORE OR LESS CURRENT EXAMPLE
It's not particularly elegant, but I used to convert from MSWord to
whatever by writing VB find/replace macros based on styles and
formatting. In newer versions of Word (at least on OS X), Replace has
a function that includes what you found, plus you can add other text.
Example:
Find: Heading 1%find stuff formatted with heading 1 style
Replace: \subject{WhatItFound} %replaces what it found and
wraps \subject{} around it.
Because Word stores its formatting in the line feed/carriage return,
for paragraph styles you end up with something like this:
\subject{Some TeX
}
So my last VB find/replace removes the carriage returns globally:
Find: ^p}
Replace: }
When done with all find/replace functions, save as text.
That's it.
Not being much of a script writer, I record the first find/replace,
then edit the macro and duplicate the find/replace as needed.
The VB find/replace function has options for starting at the top of
the file, replacing globally, continuing if nothing is found and that
sort of thing.
The macro looks something like this:
Find: Heading 1%find stuff formatted with heading 1 style
Replace: \subject{WhatItFound} %replaces what it found and
wraps \subject{} around it.
Find: Heading 2%find stuff formatted with heading 2 style
Replace: \subsubject{WhatItFound} %replaces what it found and
wraps \subsubject{} around it.
Find: Heading 3%find stuff formatted with heading 3 style
Replace: \subsubject{WhatItFound} %replaces what it found and
wraps \subsubsubject{} around it.
The above method uses global replacement and it's pretty zippy, for
Word.
ANOTHER OLDER METHOD
Another method I used before Find/Replace had the WhatItFound
function was to put the found string into a variable, then use that
variable for the replacement text, plus any TeX control sequences
wrapped around it.
In summary:
1. Put your finds and replaces in an array:
ArrayFind(0) Heading 1; ArrayReplace(0) \subject{
ArrayFind(1) Heading 2; ArrayReplace(1) \subsubject{
ArrayFind(2) Heading 3; ArrayReplace(2) \subsubsubject{
Note the closing } is missing. It is hardcoded in the replacement code.
2. Find the first array item starting from the top of the document.
This highlights the text in Word:
Find = $ArrayFind(n)
3. Put the highlighted text into a variable. Maybe you can even strip
the CR's from formatted pagagraphs:
stripCarriageReturns($FoundThisStuff) = CurrentSelection
4. Put the variable and the first replace item in the Word Replace
function. Note the hard coded closing bracket. And the CR assuming
you stripped the CR in step 3:
Replace = $ArrayReplace(n)+$FoundThisStuff+}+CR
5. Repeatedly use Replace and Find Next until nothing else is found.
Replace and Find Next
.
.
.
6. Repeatedly find the next array item to the end of the array.
n = n + 1
Find = $ArrayFind(n)
.
.
.
7. Save the file as text.
FilesSaveAs using the text option
Hum. After thinking about this and typing it in, maybe I should still
use the OLD method. It appears to be a little easier to manage. Maybe
a lot easier.
Oh well, not a real programmer.
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Re: [NTG-context] Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.
On Thursday 15 June 2006 08:50, Hans Hagen wrote: John R. Culleton wrote: Someday there will be an elegant solution to the MSWord to Context problem. For now there is my ugly hack as described here. maybe the word xml output, since that can be parsed Hans Interesting suggestion. I don't have a copy of MSWord. And my clients are naive so that asking them to save in exotic formats is likely to be unproductive. Open Office does not save as xml. Abiword, however does. In a simplistic test case (Now is the time for all good men.) Abiword saved the document as xml with a little coaxing and texexec compiled it clean. So at least there is something there to experiment with. Next I will try a real MSWord document, save it as xml from Abiword, and see what Context does with it. One question: How do I mix in the necessary Context commands such as papersize, font selection etc.? What are the rules and no-nos for blending Context commands into an xml document? -- John Culleton Books with answers to marketing and publishing questions: http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf Book coaches, consultants and packagers: http://wexfordpress.com/tex/packagers.pdf ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.
John R. Culleton wrote: On Thursday 15 June 2006 08:50, Hans Hagen wrote: John R. Culleton wrote: Someday there will be an elegant solution to the MSWord to Context problem. For now there is my ugly hack as described here. maybe the word xml output, since that can be parsed Hans Interesting suggestion. I don't have a copy of MSWord. And my clients are naive so that asking them to save in exotic formats is likely to be unproductive. Open Office does not save as xml. Abiword, however does. In a hm, open offices uses xml as storage format, just save in oo format and unzip the file and you will end up with xml files (however, the xml is typical office xml, complete with tab elements that spoil the idea) One question: How do I mix in the necessary Context commands such as papersize, font selection etc.? What are the rules and no-nos for blending Context commands into an xml document? just set up a style Hans - Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.com | www.pragma-pod.nl - ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
Re: [NTG-context] Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.
On Thursday 15 June 2006 13:55, Hans Hagen wrote: John R. Culleton wrote: On Thursday 15 June 2006 08:50, Hans Hagen wrote: John R. Culleton wrote: Someday there will be an elegant solution to the MSWord to Context problem. For now there is my ugly hack as described here. maybe the word xml output, since that can be parsed Hans Interesting suggestion. I don't have a copy of MSWord. And my clients are naive so that asking them to save in exotic formats is likely to be unproductive. Open Office does not save as xml. Abiword, however does. In a hm, open offices uses xml as storage format, just save in oo format and unzip the file and you will end up with xml files (however, the xml is typical office xml, complete with tab elements that spoil the idea) The abiword xml is neat and parsimonious thus: -- !DOCTYPE book PUBLIC -//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd; book !-- -- !-- This DocBook file was created by AbiWord. -- !-- AbiWord is a free, Open Source word processor. -- !-- You may obtain more information about AbiWord at www.abisource.com -- !-- -- chapter title/title section role=unnumbered title/title paraNow is the time for all good men./para /section /chapter /book The Open Office file unzipped is a lot more verbose and a lot less readable. There are five files in fact. The file content.xml will in fact compile correctly via texexec and yield the expected result. The character count in that file alone is three times that of the corresponding Abiword xml output shown above. The experiments continue... -- John Culleton Books with answers to marketing and publishing questions: http://wexfordpress.com/tex/shortlist.pdf Book coaches, consultants and packagers: http://wexfordpress.com/tex/packagers.pdf ___ ntg-context mailing list ntg-context@ntg.nl http://www.ntg.nl/mailman/listinfo/ntg-context
