Re: extracting 7_bit_ascii from ms_word files
thanks to everyone for their assistance. thanks, especially, for reports of personal satisfaction with a particular solution. it appears, now, that i had found everything that there is to be found, currently. without the feedback, however, i would not know that. i will give these ideas a whirl. happy coding to all and to all a good compile. rob ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: extracting 7_bit_ascii from ms_word files
Quoting spellberg_robert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: i finally ran into a situation where my existing approaces are no longer satisfactory. i never bought "office". i have a twelve_year_old version of "wordperfect" from [ at that time ] novell that still works just fine [ i first used wordperfect in the early 1980's; why change ? ]. it doesn't recognize new ms formats. sometimes, i can use "wordpad" on my "win_98_se" box that still works; but not always. my lawyer insists on hard_copy and snail_mail, so my principal application is, actually, obviated. if files only had a few dozen lines, i could edit them by hand in "vi". i simply did not have enough situations to demand a more sophisticated approach; now, i do. i started here [ over 1000 entries ] http://www.freebsd.org/ports/textproc.html where i found nothing relevant under "doc" and where i found "word2x", which looks --really-- old and where i found "wv", which seemed more promising. wv by itself could probably do most of what you're looking for. It includes a "wvText" binary which produces quasi-formatted text-only output from .doc input. It also includes wvHtml, wvPS, wvPDF, wvLatex, etc. Others have already commented on the GUI-based Word workalikes available but I'll add my own. I like Abiword since it's lightweight but I tend to use OpenOffice.org on modern-ish machines since it can handle more bells and whistles (and if I'm using a word processor instead of a text editor then bells and whistles are frequently the reason). Koffice/kword is between the other two in regard to complexity and is a good alternative if something doesn't work quite right elsewhere. All can read and write Word documents compatible with the 97/XP/2003 versions of Office. Not sure about the Word 2007 format. -JN searching the questions and newbies mail archives, i found antiword and catdoc, but this is from 2002_feb. while reading up on "wv", i found this http://www.abisource.com/ which caused me to search. i found this http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=abiword&stype=all both of these seem to jog my memory, but my memory my application is to exchange text files, by e_mail, with someone who thinks ms products are the be_all and end_all [ after all, if "everyone" is spending thousands of dollars on software, just like he is, what makes me so special ? ]. i anticipate acquiring other people like this in the near future, so my time on this just may be well_spent. in general, these are not the kind of folks who find manipulating files intuitively obvious. yet, i may find that i have to give them special instruction. i am not looking for something wonderful, just reasonably competent and reasonably current. if, in addition to my desired direction, i can convert a 7_bit_ascii to a ".doc" file for his benefit, that's some further whining that i can avoid. i strongly suspect that, as soon as this becomes a solved problem, ms changes something critical, so this may be a fool's errand. none_the_less, i'll give it a try. which one or several things are generally accepted for this format_conversion task ? is this "abiword" one of them or do i seek something else ? if something else, can someone point me in a useful direction [ whether or not it is something i have named ] ? while 6.2 and, soon, 7.x are de rigeur, if it works on 4.11 [ very long story ], that's a plus. thanks whole bunches in advance. [ please cc me, as my attempt to re_subscribe to the list as a courtesy doesn't seem to be taking. ] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: extracting 7_bit_ascii from ms_word files
Hi, if I get you right, you just need something like Abiword or KOffice to read or write Wrod files. You also could use OpenOffice. I think that AbiWord is the smallest program with the most limitations and OpenOffice is the largest program with the least limitations. Install AbiWord and have a test run. I works fine for me most of the time. Erich spellberg_robert wrote: greetings --- i finally ran into a situation where my existing approaces are no longer satisfactory. i never bought "office". i have a twelve_year_old version of "wordperfect" from [ at that time ] novell that still works just fine [ i first used wordperfect in the early 1980's; why change ? ]. it doesn't recognize new ms formats. sometimes, i can use "wordpad" on my "win_98_se" box that still works; but not always. my lawyer insists on hard_copy and snail_mail, so my principal application is, actually, obviated. if files only had a few dozen lines, i could edit them by hand in "vi". i simply did not have enough situations to demand a more sophisticated approach; now, i do. i started here [ over 1000 entries ] http://www.freebsd.org/ports/textproc.html where i found nothing relevant under "doc" and where i found "word2x", which looks --really-- old and where i found "wv", which seemed more promising. searching the questions and newbies mail archives, i found antiword and catdoc, but this is from 2002_feb. while reading up on "wv", i found this http://www.abisource.com/ which caused me to search. i found this http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=abiword&stype=all both of these seem to jog my memory, but my memory my application is to exchange text files, by e_mail, with someone who thinks ms products are the be_all and end_all [ after all, if "everyone" is spending thousands of dollars on software, just like he is, what makes me so special ? ]. i anticipate acquiring other people like this in the near future, so my time on this just may be well_spent. in general, these are not the kind of folks who find manipulating files intuitively obvious. yet, i may find that i have to give them special instruction. i am not looking for something wonderful, just reasonably competent and reasonably current. if, in addition to my desired direction, i can convert a 7_bit_ascii to a ".doc" file for his benefit, that's some further whining that i can avoid. i strongly suspect that, as soon as this becomes a solved problem, ms changes something critical, so this may be a fool's errand. none_the_less, i'll give it a try. which one or several things are generally accepted for this format_conversion task ? is this "abiword" one of them or do i seek something else ? if something else, can someone point me in a useful direction [ whether or not it is something i have named ] ? while 6.2 and, soon, 7.x are de rigeur, if it works on 4.11 [ very long story ], that's a plus. thanks whole bunches in advance. [ please cc me, as my attempt to re_subscribe to the list as a courtesy doesn't seem to be taking. ] rob ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: extracting 7_bit_ascii from ms_word files
On Thu, 1 Nov 2007, spellberg_robert wrote: my application is to exchange text files, by e_mail, with someone who thinks ms products are the be_all and end_all i am not looking for something wonderful, just reasonably competent and reasonably current. if, in addition to my desired direction, i can convert a 7_bit_ascii to a ".doc" file for his benefit, that's some further whining that i can avoid. AbiWord and OpenOffice.org will both read and write Word .doc files. OO is larger and probably more capable of handling weird things to be found in a .doc file. AbiWord is smaller and quicker and will likely handle everyday .doc files fine. If the files you send can be read-only, consider using PDF. while 6.2 and, soon, 7.x are de rigeur, if it works on 4.11 [ very long story ], that's a plus. You may find old packages for either AbiWord or OpenOffice.org, but I don't know where to look. For the best support, you should consider upgrading to either 6.2 or 7.0. -Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: extracting 7_bit_ascii from ms_word files
On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:29:21 + spellberg_robert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > greetings --- > > i finally ran into a situation where >my existing approaces are no longer satisfactory. > > > is this "abiword" one of them or do i seek something else ? > Aloha Rob I have been using abiword for the past 5 years and have been able to read every .doc file sent to me. It also will save your letters as .doc if you want. HTH Robert ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
