[buug] create .doc files on linux/BSD

John Landahl john at landahl.org
Fri Nov 22 12:06:19 PST 2002


On Friday 22 November 2002 07:50 am, Bob Read wrote:
>    I'm working with a guy who needs to generate
> dynamic documents in microsoft word .doc format.  He
> says he can do it with VB and COM.
>    I suggested he do it in pdf instead on linux/BSD
> with the abundance of .pdf tools.

As others have said, the first thing to do will be to determine the person's 
needs more exactly.  Unfortunately some places /demand/ submissions in Word 
format, so that could be part of the requirement.

I've found HTML to be a fairly decent way to get text into Word, but you do 
have to get /into/ Word to make sure all looks well and then save it out as 
a doc file.

On the RTF side, there's JFOR if you're doing XML authoring (DocBook, etc.).  
Again, though, you'll almost certainly want to look at the RTF in Word and 
save it out as a doc file.

But then even if you author in Word from the start you have no guarantee 
that your document will look exactly the same on another computer.  So if 
later editing is not a requirement and high quality *is*, PDF is of course 
the best bet.

>    Anybody created word docs from LaTeX?

If your intent was to disturb and horrify your audience, you have succeeded.  
18,000 lashes with a wet noodle for even suggesting such a thing.  :)

BTW, hi everyone, I'm new to the list.
-- 
John Landahl     | http://landahl.org/john
john at landahl.org | ICQ: 11191999





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