[OT] Create RTF with Emacs?

[OT] Create RTF with Emacs?

[Kai Großjohann]

Sorry for this off-topic post, but I was hoping that like-minded
people would give better suggestions ;-)

I'm part of a workflow based on MS Word documents.  Luckily, I get to
create the MS Word document that should be processed by others.  I
have a template.doc file that I copy and then fill in.

So I was hoping that the recipients will be fine with an RTF file, or
that I could use OpenOffice to convert *.rtf into *.doc.

I guess for Emacs users the right approach is to use some kind of
markup language.  Do you have some suggestions?

The requirements for formatting are: the resulting RTF file should
look very similar to the template MS Word document I've got.  The most
difficult part of the layout is probably the table at the top.  Other
that that, I will be fine with bold and italics and perhaps also
indented paragraphs.  It would be nice if I could insert some text in
another color, to provide annotations/remarks.

There is latex2rtf, there are surely some DocBook tools, but do they
provide access to the layout.

tia,
Kai

Re: [OT] Create RTF with Emacs?

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

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>>>>> "KG" == Kai Großjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> writes:

KG> I guess for Emacs users the right approach is to use some kind of
KG> markup language.  Do you have some suggestions?

Does HTML work,  if those guys in Redmond learnt the  use of CSS (that
includes some  patent owned  by Microsoft AFAIK)  you could  have good
results.

I uset this method but I can't be sure it'll be O.K. for you.

-- 
 /\            ___
/___/\__|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_____________________
  //--\ | | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamico  
\/		    e coltivatore diretto di software

Re: [OT] Create RTF with Emacs?

[Peter Dyballa]

Am 17.01.2005 um 10:30 schrieb Kai Großjohann:

> There is latex2rtf, there are surely some DocBook tools, but do they
> provide access to the layout.

Since latex2rtf reads in a LaTeX source you have in LaTeX up to 
indefinite choices to set tables and others. But beware: latex2rtf 
can't translate everything to RTF because of missing RTF primitives.

Just try it and see whether it's good enough!

In Emacs you can install AUCTeX (http://www.gnu.org/software/auctex/) 
to be able to insert environments or commands ... If you deal with 
mathematical formulas too preview-latex 
(http://preview-latex.sourceforge.net/, 
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/preview-latex/) would give a preview 
of this in Emacs.

--
Mit friedvollen Grüßen

   Pete

"I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've
always worked for me."
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Re: [OT] Create RTF with Emacs?

[Marco Parrone]

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Gian Uberto Lauri on Mon, 17 Jan 2005 11:43:41 +0100 writes:

>>>>>> "KG" == Kai Großjohann <kai@emptydomain.de> writes:
>
> KG> I guess for Emacs users the right approach is to use some kind of
> KG> markup language.  Do you have some suggestions?
>
> Does HTML work,  if those guys in Redmond learnt the  use of CSS (that
> includes some  patent owned  by Microsoft AFAIK)  you could  have good
> results.
>
> I uset this method but I can't be sure it'll be O.K. for you.

You can name an HTML file using a .DOC extension too, and M$ Word will
not notice the user of the different format.

This is useful when you are asked for a .DOC (for example for a resume).

The idea comes from comp.lang.lisp, for .DOC-named plain-text files IIRC.

-- 
Marco Parrone <marc0@autistici.org> (0x45070AD6)

Re: [OT] Create RTF with Emacs?

[Gian Uberto Lauri]

>>>>> "Marco" == Marco Parrone <marc0@autistici.org> writes:

Marco> You can name an HTML file using a .DOC extension too, and M$ Word will
Marco> not notice the user of the different format.

Yep, that's how  whe "fool" Word when people asks  "A document to work
it with Microsoft Word" from a web application...

-- 
 /\            ___
/___/\__|_|\_|__|___Gian Uberto Lauri_____________________
  //--\ | | \|  |   Integralista GNUslamico  
\/		    e coltivatore diretto di software

Re: [OT] Create RTF with Emacs?

[Oliver Scholz]

kai@emptydomain.de (Kai Großjohann) writes:

> Sorry for this off-topic post, but I was hoping that like-minded
> people would give better suggestions ;-)
>
> I'm part of a workflow based on MS Word documents.  Luckily, I get to
> create the MS Word document that should be processed by others.  I
> have a template.doc file that I copy and then fill in.
>
> So I was hoping that the recipients will be fine with an RTF file, or
> that I could use OpenOffice to convert *.rtf into *.doc.
>
> I guess for Emacs users the right approach is to use some kind of
> markup language.  Do you have some suggestions?
>
> The requirements for formatting are: the resulting RTF file should
> look very similar to the template MS Word document I've got.  The most
> difficult part of the layout is probably the table at the top.  Other
> that that, I will be fine with bold and italics and perhaps also
> indented paragraphs.  It would be nice if I could insert some text in
> another color, to provide annotations/remarks.
[...]

As I see it, RTF is the format invented by Microsoft for distribution
of files (it gives the impression of fitting MS Words internals very
well anyways, including the use of "twips" for measurement). Whereas
*.doc is just the format for local working copies. I won't say that MS
does not like to see that *.doc is used for distribution, but that is
how it is supposed to be. Unless your documents include VBA, RTF
should be fine.

For simple cases, writing *specialised* Elisp code for producing RTF
from a, say, Wiki-like markup language is rather easy. Could you be
more specific on what you need?

    Oliver
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