On 11 Apr 01 at 4:06, owner-arachne-digest@arachne wrote:
>Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 04:04:52 -0400
>From: "Clarence Verge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Readable format
>
>Does anyone know how to convert a document in the moronic MS word
>format to something readable ?
Clarence,
1. I suppose you are referring to MS-Word for DOS. How to convert
documents? It is very easy: Just cut off the head and the tail and
you have pure text. I actually like this MS software and have been
using it for 12 years now!
2. Just in case you need to read some documents produced under
Windows. Here are my links:
http://www.res.bbsrc.ac.uk/wp2html/
Wp2Html Read DOS WP/Word
http://mdrury.hypermart.net/text.html
Word View Windmill
http://word2x.alcom.co.uk/
Word2x - MSWord to HTML e.a. - official site
http://www.d3.net/joerg/word2html.html
Word2html for DOS
http://www.d3.net/joerg/word2x.html
Word2x for DOS
http://www.ice.ru/~vitus/catdoc/index.html
catdoc and xls2csv - MS-Office format readers
The most interesting is the last one. It is the main alternative
to view.exe. It is highly customizable (by command line) and allows
codepage conversion for ANY language and configuration.
During the last months I have been receiving more and more
MS-Word documents in the 16-bytes-Unicode codepage. The files are
really big, true. But with catdoc I can convert them very reliably
into pure text in my local codepage, whereas non proprietary RTF
causes many problems as far as different codepages are involved.
View.exe allows you to convert the file to pure text with command
line parameters, too. But 8bit code will probably be corrupted.
3. And just one more link:
http://www.xlhtml.org/
xlHtml
Excel - this is the worst case that can happen. I received mail from
business people who used to write everything (letters, treaties,
memos, really everything!) into spreadsheet and then attach those
files to email. They are idiots. You should not read their mail at
all.
4. How to open more complex files?
If you dispose of 13 MB free HD capacity and a Windows machine you
might consider to install the Czech freeware "Office" from Soft602.
It will be near to 100% able to open even documents with graphics and
Excel spreadsheets. Just for the case of emergency. This software can
convert to HTML format, too. Do NOT buy MS-Office. Do NOT steal
MS-Office. Do NOT download MS's freeware viewers for Word and Excel.
Do NOT give your friends with Window boxes the feeling of
superiority. The Czech company wants your registration, but not your
money. In the 1980s they created a very intelligent DOS text editor
for simple and real office use. Although their products had to change
to Windows later, they opposed to MS's "anti-software- piracy"
campaigns.
Regards
Christof Lange
