Re: .doc files in emacs

[Lennart Borgman <lennart.borgman.073@student.lu.se>]

Joe Fineman wrote:
> Gary Wessle <phddas@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>   
>> can a microsoft .doc file be viewed/edited/converted/whatever by
>> emacs?  if not, how do you people handle this file?
>>     
>
> As others on this thread have pointed out, there are various utilities
> that will convert a .doc file to a text file.  However, Word itself
> will do that for you (File -> Save as -> Text).  Such a file can of
> course be edited in Emacs, and that is useful as far as it goes.
>
> But AFAIK there is no way to edit a .doc file in Emacs in such a way
> that it remains a .doc file usable in Word.  I have tried it, and
> often it has seemed to work for minor changes, but I gave up after
> other users found that it corrupted the file in obscure ways.  I dare
> say that Microsoft would be horrified at the thought, but such a
> routine would improve my quality of life, as I am often called on to
> edit .doc files, and do not enjoy doing so in Word.
>
> Is a Word-to-TeX conversion program conceivable?
>   

Why not use OpenOffice.org? It can convert the .doc file to its xml 
format if I understand things correctly.