RTF/Word/WP <-> LaTeX
Petr Sojka
sojka at daeron.fi.muni.cz
Thu May 30 20:04:11 CEST 1996
Dobry den,
vzhledem k zivem zajmu o schizofrenni svet rtf<->tex nize prikladam
pro zajemce kompilaci soucasnych konvertoru.
Petr Sojka
This is a list of RTF/Word/WP <-> LaTeX - converters,
as of April 23, 1996
Please supplement if you know more and/or better ones.
There are some more converters on the CTAN sites,
but the following seem to be most promising for conversion
to and from the currect versions of wordprocessors.
Neither correctness nor completeness is guaranteed.
Please send corrections, enhancements and supplements
to the following e-mail address:
<W.Hennings at kfa-juelich.de>
Non-commercial converters can be found on CTAN sites.
LATEX -> RTF (WORD / WORD PERFECT)
==================================
When using an RTF converter, the converter output will be in RTF format.
This is a pure ASCII file containing all the formatting information which
can be read-in by Word for DOS, Word for Windows and Word for Macintosh.
As far as I know, also WordPerfect and others can read RTF.
A. Non-Commercial:
***********************************************************************
>>citation begin
+++++ Announcing Tex2RTF 1.47 +++++
+++++ A Free LaTeX to RTF, Windows Help RTF, HTML & wxHelp converter +++++
Purpose
=======
* Allows you to maintain manuals in printed and hypertext formats.
* Allows conversion of existing LaTeX documents to word processor
formats (usually some 'tweaking' is required to conform to
Tex2RTF restrictions).
Input
=====
A LaTeX subset with some additional hypertext macros; no maths,
minimal table support.
Caveat: Please do not expect to convert arbitrary LaTex files without
editing: this is not the primary intention of Tex2RTF. Success converting
existing LaTeX depends on your expectations and the style in which
the LaTeX was written. Tex2RTF does not accept pure TeX (non-LaTeX)
documents.
Output
======
* ordinary RTF
* Windows Help hypertext RTF
* HTML (the World Wide Web hypertext format)
* wxHelp (the wxWindows GUI library help file format)
Installation
============
Under Windows, please run the supplied install.exe program. The Tex2RTF
manual itself serves as an example input file, in the docs subdirectory
with various .sty, .ini, and .gif files that you may need for your
own documents. See the online manual for further details.
Platforms supported
===================
* SPARC Open Look
* SPARC Motif
* Windows 3.1
Where to get it
===============
The latest version of Tex2RTF can be accessed by anonymous ftp from
ftp.aiai.ed.ac.uk in the directory /pub/packages/tex2rtf.
The WWW pages are at http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~jacs/tex2rtf.html.
Tex2RTF was developed using the free Open Look/Motif/Windows 3.1 C++
class library wxWindows, also available from the above FTP site in the
/pub/packages/wxwin directory.
The wxWindows WWW pages are at http://www.aiai.ed.ac.uk/~jacs/wxwin.html.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Julian Smart, June 1995
Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute
University of Edinburgh
80 South Bridge
Edinburgh
Scotland
EH1 1HN
EMAIL: J.Smart at ed.ac.uk
TEL: 0131 650 2746
citation end<<
Also available from CTAN sites, dir .../support/tex2rtf
***********************************************************************
latex2rtf
LaTeX to RTF converter for Unix machines.
>>citation begin
latex2rtf is a translator program that translates LaTeX text into the
RTF format used by several textprocessors, including Microsoft Word and
Word for Windows. It was written by Fernando Dorner and Andreas Granzer
in a one-semester course in our department. For the Copyright of the
Program see the file Copyright.
...(installation description deleted)...
- Try the program and report any errors to the address below.
--
Ralf Schlatterbeck
Treitlstr.3/182/1 email: ralf at vmars.tuwien.ac.at
A-1040 Wien Phone: +43/1/58801/8176
Austria FAX: +43/1/569149
Source and makefiles are available from CTAN sites,
dir .../support/latex2rtf
***********************************************************************
B. Commercial:
***********************************************************************
>>citation begin
TexPort converts TeX and LaTeX to WordPerfect format files.
WordPerfect files can be imported into Microsoft Word.
TexPort converts:
Font styles, such as bold and italic
Footnotes
Greek characters
Math equations and scientific notation
Inline and display format equations
Simple tables, such as those that use the LaTeX macro "as is".
Non-English phrases, European accent characters
\def and \newcommand
K-Talk Communications specializes in equations -
TexPort converts equations into MathEdit format equations,
K-Talk's equation editor.
These equations can then be used in WordPerfect, Word, TeX,
and other documents. The Professional Edition
of MathEdit is included with TexPort.
The MathEdit for Windows demo can be obtained via FTP or WWW.
See details below.
Also available via FTP is the MathEdit Challenge.
Why take 44 hours to produce a technical document
when you can do it in 4?
K-Talk Products Information:
WWW home page http://www.ktalk.com
FTP Site ftp.infinet.com, directory /pub/ktalk
K-Talk Communications, Inc.
phone: (614) 488-8818 1287 King Ave, Suite 203
fax: (614) 488-9505 Columbus, OH 43212-2220
email: lisa at ktalk.com
TexPort is offered with either the DOS or Windows version of
MathEdit. With DOS MathEdit, TexPort sells for $400(US).
For a limited time, TexPort with Windows MathEdit is also $400.
(C) Copyright 1995 K-Talk Communications, Inc.
citation end<<
***********************************************************************
WORD/WORDPERFECT/RTF -> LATEX
=============================
Some notes in advance:
One advantage of LaTeX is that it forces to structure a document,
whereas wordprocessors like Word/WordPerfect allow unstructured
documents. It is hardly possible to automatically structure
a document where there was no structure before.
However it is nevertheless possible to write a structured
document with a wordprocessor by consistently using styles.
Therefore, wordprocessor documents using styles
can be converted to LaTeX e.g. by a macro written for the
specific wordprocessor.
To use an RTF converter, the wordprocessor document must first
be "saved as" Rich Text Format.
A. Non-Commercial:
***********************************************************************
RTFLATEX, a package consisting of a program in pascal which
translates RTF to LaTeX-like commands and a separate sty - file
containing the TeX macro definitions for these commands.
It does not yet support formulas or tables.
Disadvantage: TeX file does not conform to LaTeX style.
Can be found on all CTAN sites, dir .../support/rtflatex
***********************************************************************
rtf2TeX and rtf2LaTeX for use on Unix-like systems.
The Word document must first be saved to disk in RTF format.
I'd like to hear of experiences with these.
(They only handle RTF versions up to WinWord 2, not yet WinWord 6;
there are great differences between these rtf versions and
I definitely have problems with WinWord6-rtf with any rtf-converter.)
First, Paul Dubois <dubois at primate.wisc.edu> wrote an RTF reader
and converter to plain text or troff.
The version is dated April 1991.
a)Based on this reader, Robert Lupton <rhl at astro.princeton.edu>
wrote the rtf2TeX converter.
Last revision date: May 1992
He comments on this as follows (README-file):
>>citation begin
This is a first attempt at an RTF to TeX converter. The parts that
handle fonts and such like seem to work pretty well, although they
could be improved, but the table handling is a problem. I had a good
deal of trouble trying to figure out what particular rtf control codes
were supposed to do; this makes it hard to convert them into TeX.
I have tried to produce good TeX, but this is not easy due to the
sloppy way that many RTF writers generate redundant font and other
changes.
Many things are not handled at all, more due to my lacking motivation
than to their intrinsic difficulty. For example, I don't support
double columns, but it would be easy enough to do (I'd generate a
control sequence to do it, and add the TeX code required to the
TeX_defs file. I even have the TeX somewhere...).
citation end<<
So far the beginning of the README file. Later he commented:
>>citation begin
Most (all?) RTF is hopelessly unstructured (the equivalent of
\bf \it Hello \rm World \bf He \it \rm said.
) and the code that I wrote tries valiantly to convert this to something
sensible, in this case
{\it Hello\/} World {\bf He} said.
It is this attempt to make the output TeX usable that makes the code
complicated...
I did not try to convert equations or tables as I could find no adaquate
description of either; I don't think that it would be very hard.
citation end<<
My comment is: Tables yes, but formulas will be difficult.
Can be found on all CTAN sites, dir .../support/rtf2tex
b)Based on these two, Erwin Wechtl wrote the rtf2LaTeX converter.
Last revision date: Aug. 1993
He comments on this as follows (README-file):
>>citation begin
rtf2LaTeX is a filter built on Paul DuBois' RTF reader that converts
RTF (Microsoft's Rich Text Format) into LaTeX.
rtf2LaTeX expends a good deal of effort in an attempt to make the resulting
LaTeX maintainable and modifiable.
citation end<<
At the moment converts text elements, but no formulas and no graphics.
Can be found on all CTAN sites, dir .../support/rtf2latex
***********************************************************************
w2latex, written in C. (C compiler necessary.)
Actually converts RTF to LaTeX.
The Word document must first be saved to disk in RTF format.
Advantages:
Converts text elements and formula fields.
Converts nearly all special characters of the
basic TrueType fonts (Arial, Courier New, Times New Roman)
I personally made some changes to additionally support
German left quotes and a few other special characters.
Disadvantages:
Does not convert the document structure
(i.e. headings are not recognised as such).
Does not handle other fields, equation editor objects, graphics.
Table handling is rudimentary (conversion of table cells
to minipages, but problems with borders).
It only handles RTF versions up to WinWord 2,
not yet WinWord 6.
Can be found on all CTAN sites, dir .../support/w2latex
German version is in dir .../support/w2latex/german
***********************************************************************
WINW2LTX - a set of macros for WinWord 2
now also available for WinWord 6
by Allin Cottrell <cottrell at wfu.edu>
Advantages:
Converts the document structure, i.e.
headings level 1 and 2 (and level 3 in German version),
bulleted lists and numbered lists,
and some of the special characters.
I personally adapted the macros to the German WinWord versions.
If I had more time, I would add conversion of the other
special characters and also of symbol font characters
into mathmode. (Should be rather straightforward.)
Disadvantages:
No conversion of tables, graphics, formulas, fields.
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