Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
failed to transfer the content.

Thanks.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

Robert Riches wrote:

> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
> failed to transfer the content.
> 
> Thanks.
> 

Can Applix export to "RTF" if so OO can import it.

-- 
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:51:47 +0000, Robert Riches wrote:
> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried several
> methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or failed to
> transfer the content.

Given how dead Applix is these days (or has it been revived!?), I
doubt there's anyway that's better than using RTF as the exchange
medium - and I suspect you've tried that and found it unsatisfactory,
which isn't surprising.

Robert Riches wrote:
> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
> failed to transfer the content.
> 
> Thanks.
> 

You might try Oxygen Office.  They have a lot
more importers, such as M$ Works.  They may have
one for Applix.  Oxygen Office is a cleaned
up extension of Open Office.  If they can import
Applix, then you can save it as an ODT.

http://ooo42.org/openofficeorg.html

-T

Steve Wampler wrote:
> On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:51:47 +0000, Robert Riches wrote:
>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried several
>> methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or failed to
>> transfer the content.
> 
> Given how dead Applix is these days (or has it been revived!?), I
> doubt there's anyway that's better than using RTF as the exchange
> medium - and I suspect you've tried that and found it unsatisfactory,
> which isn't surprising.
> 

Here is an idea.

1) Open your Applix document and a new Open Office document

2) on the Applix document, copy the contents to the clipboard
    <ctrl><A> <ctrl><C>

3) paste the clipboard on to the Open Office document
    <ctrl><v>

If that does not work, go the RTF or Oxygen Office route.

-T

On 2009-11-23, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
> Robert Riches wrote:
>
>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>> failed to transfer the content.
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
>
> Can Applix export to "RTF" if so OO can import it.

I had already tried it but tried it again to confirm.  The
formatting is mangled almost beyond recognition.  The text of
each bullet point now starts about 60% across the page.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

On 2009-11-24, Todd <todd@invalid.com> wrote:
> Steve Wampler wrote:
>> On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:51:47 +0000, Robert Riches wrote:
>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried several
>>> methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or failed to
>>> transfer the content.
>> 
>> Given how dead Applix is these days (or has it been revived!?), I
>> doubt there's anyway that's better than using RTF as the exchange
>> medium - and I suspect you've tried that and found it unsatisfactory,
>> which isn't surprising.
>> 
>
> Here is an idea.
>
> 1) Open your Applix document and a new Open Office document
>
> 2) on the Applix document, copy the contents to the clipboard
>     <ctrl><A> <ctrl><C>
>
> 3) paste the clipboard on to the Open Office document
>     <ctrl><v>
>
> If that does not work, go the RTF or Oxygen Office route.
>
> -T

Somewhat surprisingly, the copy-and-paste route actually
preserves formatting a little better than going through RTF.
However, the document would have to be almost completely
reworked.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

At 24 Nov 2009 04:25:00 GMT Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:

> 
> On 2009-11-24, Todd <todd@invalid.com> wrote:
> > Steve Wampler wrote:
> >> On Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:51:47 +0000, Robert Riches wrote:
> >>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
> >>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried several
> >>> methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or failed to
> >>> transfer the content.
> >> 
> >> Given how dead Applix is these days (or has it been revived!?), I
> >> doubt there's anyway that's better than using RTF as the exchange
> >> medium - and I suspect you've tried that and found it unsatisfactory,
> >> which isn't surprising.
> >> 
> >
> > Here is an idea.
> >
> > 1) Open your Applix document and a new Open Office document
> >
> > 2) on the Applix document, copy the contents to the clipboard
> >     <ctrl><A> <ctrl><C>
> >
> > 3) paste the clipboard on to the Open Office document
> >     <ctrl><v>
> >
> > If that does not work, go the RTF or Oxygen Office route.
> >
> > -T
> 
> Somewhat surprisingly, the copy-and-paste route actually
> preserves formatting a little better than going through RTF.
> However, the document would have to be almost completely
> reworked.

Welcome to the world of proprietary closed formats...

It is looking like you may not have any choice but to rework the
document...

Random anecdote:

We needed the reference manual from an early 80's (maybe late '70s)
vintage package.  I was able to pull the LaTeX source files off an
old VMS backup disk (CD -- ISO9660) and run it through a modern LaTeX
system on a Linux box.  Yes, it grumbled about old school
\domcumentstyle vs. \documentclass, but it did produce a perfect
PostScript file.  It just plain worked.

> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller@deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
                                                                                                                        

On 2009-11-24, Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:

> Somewhat surprisingly, the copy-and-paste route actually
> preserves formatting a little better than going through RTF.
> However, the document would have to be almost completely
> reworked.

In my experience, that's about the best you can hope for when
moving from one WP format to another (especially when one of
the formats is a proprietary, closed-source one).  If all you
lost was formatting, count yourself lucky. ;)

-- 
Grant Edwards                   grante             Yow! ... he dominates the
                                  at               DECADENT SUBWAY SCENE.
                               visi.com            

Robert Riches wrote:

> On 2009-11-23, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
>> Robert Riches wrote:
>>
>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>> 
>>> Thanks.
>>> 
>>
>> Can Applix export to "RTF" if so OO can import it.
> 
> I had already tried it but tried it again to confirm.  The
> formatting is mangled almost beyond recognition.  The text of
> each bullet point now starts about 60% across the page.
> 

RTF is supposed to be a standard format, a bit like PDF.
Is Applix putting tabs in front for each space or is there a different
code page in use ?

You can always use search and replace to remove the extra tabs.

-- 
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
> failed to transfer the content.
> 

Maybe if you listed all the formats that Applix can
output, someone here might see a possible path?

Stan

On 2009-11-24, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
> Robert Riches wrote:
>
>> On 2009-11-23, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
>>> Robert Riches wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks.
>>>> 
>>>
>>> Can Applix export to "RTF" if so OO can import it.
>> 
>> I had already tried it but tried it again to confirm.  The
>> formatting is mangled almost beyond recognition.  The text of
>> each bullet point now starts about 60% across the page.
>> 
>
> RTF is supposed to be a standard format, a bit like PDF.
> Is Applix putting tabs in front for each space or is there a different
> code page in use ?
>
> You can always use search and replace to remove the extra tabs.

Now, that sounds like a promising idea.

Thanks.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

On 2009-11-24, Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 2009-11-24, Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>> Somewhat surprisingly, the copy-and-paste route actually
>> preserves formatting a little better than going through RTF.
>> However, the document would have to be almost completely
>> reworked.
>
> In my experience, that's about the best you can hope for when
> moving from one WP format to another (especially when one of
> the formats is a proprietary, closed-source one).  If all you
> lost was formatting, count yourself lucky. ;)

Actually, I haven't lost anything.  Applix works very well, and
its .aw files are human readable, very loosely kind-of like XML
but with different delimiters.  Recovering the content would be
pretty easy.  Even writing a .aw to .ps converter would not be
too terribly difficult, at least for simple documents.

My motivation for trying to convert a document is some staffing
firm recruiters insist on the _undocumented_ _binary_
closed-source format called M$ Worst for resumes.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

On 2009-11-24, Stan Bischof <stan@newserve.worldbadminton.com> wrote:
> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>> failed to transfer the content.
>> 
>
> Maybe if you listed all the formats that Applix can
> output, someone here might see a possible path?
>
> Stan

Here's the list:

    Frame MIF 2.0, 4.0, and 5.0 (.mif)
    HTML
    Interleaf 4.0 and 5.0 (.doc)
    MS Word 2.0 (.doc)
    MS Word 95/97/2000, 6.0 through RTF
    MS word (DOS) (.msw)
    RTF (.rtf)
    WordPerfect 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 (.w50, .w51, .w60)

Thanks.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

On 2009-11-24, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
>
>
> Robert Riches wrote:
>
>> On 2009-11-23, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
>>> Robert Riches wrote:
>>>
>>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks.
>>>> 
>>>
>>> Can Applix export to "RTF" if so OO can import it.
>> 
>> I had already tried it but tried it again to confirm.  The
>> formatting is mangled almost beyond recognition.  The text of
>> each bullet point now starts about 60% across the page.
>> 
>
> RTF is supposed to be a standard format, a bit like PDF.

Well actually, RTF is far from standard. I've encountered the format first
back in the days of Word for DOS. The only constant in it is it's change. It
follows MS-Word's evolution closely. And even if some part is supposed to be
open en stadard, many nterpretations exist.

Consider it a way to avoid re-type a document, and some simple formatting.
Nothing more.

> Is Applix putting tabs in front for each space or is there a different
> code page in use ?

Code pages would affect accents and symbols, mainly. Not tabs. Besides,
bullets are not build with tabs. I'd not try to change the text, but look at
the definition of the indentations. Correcting those might bring the entire
document closer to what is needed, in one stroke.


> You can always use search and replace to remove the extra tabs.

If there are some, but I can't see him mensionning any tabs.


-- 
Any time things appear to be going better, you have overlooked
something.

Robert Riches writes:
> HTML

Package: html2ps
Description: HTML to PostScript converter
 This program converts HTML directly to PostScript. The HTML code can be
 retrieved from one or more URLs or local files, specified as parameters on the
 command line. A comprehensive level of HTML is supported, including inline
 images, CSS 1.0, and some features of HTML 4.0.
Homepage: http://www.tdb.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html

> RTF

Package: unrtf
Description: RTF to other formats converter
 UnRTF is a moderately complicated converter from RTF to other
 formats, including HTML, LaTeX, text, and PostScript. Converting
 to HTML, it supports tables, fonts, colors, embedded images,
 hyperlinks, paragraph alignment among other things. All other
 conversions are "alpha"--just begun.

> MS Word 2.0 (.doc)
> MS Word 95/97/2000, 6.0 through RTF
> MS word (DOS) (.msw)

Package: wv
Description: Programs for accessing Microsoft Word documents
 wvWare (previously known as mswordview) is a library that allows access
 to Microsoft Word files.  It can load and parse the Word 2000, Word 97,
 Word 95, and Word 6 file formats.  (Work is underway to support reading
 earlier formats as well: Word 2 documents are converted to plain text.)
 .
 This package provides the following programs:
 .
  * wvWare: Converts to HTML and LaTeX.  It's used by a small army of
    helper scripts able to preview Word documents and convert them to
    various other formats, like PostScript, PDF, DVI, etc.
 .
  * wvRTF: Converts to Microsoft's Rich Text Format.
 .
  * wvSummary: Displays the summary information stream of all OLE2 files,
    i.e. Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Access, etc.
 .
  * wvVersion: Outputs the version of the Word format a document is stored
    in.
 .
 Note that conversion to DVI, PostScript, or PDF requires the tetex-extra
 package; PDF conversion also requires Ghostscript.  Having ELinks, Links,
 or Lynx will greatly improve the plain text output.  ImageMagick may help
 with the quality of images.  If you wish to preview Word documents from
 the comfort of your mail reader, install a PostScript viewer like gv.

> WordPerfect 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 (.w50, .w51, .w60)

Package: wp2x
Description: WordPerfect 5.x documents to whatever converter
 This program converts simple WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1 files into any
 other document processing languages that use plain text files, like
 TeX, LaTeX, troff, GML and HTML.


Abiword can also import MS and RTF documents.
-- 
John Hasler 
jhasler@newsguy.com
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA

Robert Riches wrote:
> On 2009-11-24, Stan Bischof <stan@newserve.worldbadminton.com> wrote:
>> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>>
>> Maybe if you listed all the formats that Applix can
>> output, someone here might see a possible path?
>>
>> Stan
> 
> Here's the list:
> 
>     Frame MIF 2.0, 4.0, and 5.0 (.mif)
>     HTML
>     Interleaf 4.0 and 5.0 (.doc)
>     MS Word 2.0 (.doc)
>     MS Word 95/97/2000, 6.0 through RTF
>     MS word (DOS) (.msw)
>     RTF (.rtf)
>     WordPerfect 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 (.w50, .w51, .w60)
> 
> Thanks.
> 
Am I missing something? OO can read word 200 easily..

At 25 Nov 2009 01:06:32 GMT Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:

> 
> On 2009-11-24, Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> > On 2009-11-24, Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Somewhat surprisingly, the copy-and-paste route actually
> >> preserves formatting a little better than going through RTF.
> >> However, the document would have to be almost completely
> >> reworked.
> >
> > In my experience, that's about the best you can hope for when
> > moving from one WP format to another (especially when one of
> > the formats is a proprietary, closed-source one).  If all you
> > lost was formatting, count yourself lucky. ;)
> 
> Actually, I haven't lost anything.  Applix works very well, and
> its .aw files are human readable, very loosely kind-of like XML
> but with different delimiters.  Recovering the content would be
> pretty easy.  Even writing a .aw to .ps converter would not be
> too terribly difficult, at least for simple documents.
> 
> My motivation for trying to convert a document is some staffing
> firm recruiters insist on the _undocumented_ _binary_
> closed-source format called M$ Worst for resumes.

Arg... Those same recruiters seem to have only ONE application on their
desktop: an (old) version of mess-word.  They use it for *everything*,
even E-Mail...  And it seems that their company policy is against
installing Adobe's reader (bizare as that sounds).

I have a 'static' resume I created with OO, which *I* found to be
extremely difficult, since *I* never learned how to use any Word
Processor and found oowriter hard to use, mostly because I just don't
really understand the WYSIWYG / point-and-click world of Word
Processing.  I only send this version of my resume out if/when some
recruiter is totally at a loss dealing with my PDF resume (generated
from LaTeX), and I tell them that it is probably out of date and no, I
won't be updating anytime soon.

> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Download the Model Railroad System
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows
heller@deepsoft.com       -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/
              

On 2009-11-25, The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> Robert Riches wrote:
>> On 2009-11-24, Stan Bischof <stan@newserve.worldbadminton.com> wrote:
>>> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>>>
>>> Maybe if you listed all the formats that Applix can
>>> output, someone here might see a possible path?
>>>
>>> Stan
>> 
>> Here's the list:
>> 
>>     Frame MIF 2.0, 4.0, and 5.0 (.mif)
>>     HTML
>>     Interleaf 4.0 and 5.0 (.doc)
>>     MS Word 2.0 (.doc)
>>     MS Word 95/97/2000, 6.0 through RTF
>>     MS word (DOS) (.msw)
>>     RTF (.rtf)
>>     WordPerfect 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 (.w50, .w51, .w60)
>> 
>> Thanks.
>> 
> Am I missing something? OO can read word 200 easily..

The "through RTF" means Applix creates a .rtf file, and the
Micro$oft program is supposed to read the .rtf file.  I already
tried creating the RTF from Applix and reading that into
OpenOffice.  The formatting is tremendously mangled.  It would be
easier to rework the formatting from plain text than from the
RTF.

If I remember correctly, I tried _ALL_ the other file formats as
well.  All had the same or worse problems.

Thank you, all who responded.  It looks like there is no path
that works any better than the ones I had already tried, but
thank you for the suggestions.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

On 2009-11-25, John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> wrote:
> Robert Riches writes:
>> HTML
>
> Package: html2ps
> Description: HTML to PostScript converter
>  This program converts HTML directly to PostScript. The HTML code can be
>  retrieved from one or more URLs or local files, specified as parameters on the
>  command line. A comprehensive level of HTML is supported, including inline
>  images, CSS 1.0, and some features of HTML 4.0.
> Homepage: http://www.tdb.uu.se/~jan/html2ps.html
>
>> RTF
>
> Package: unrtf
> Description: RTF to other formats converter
>  UnRTF is a moderately complicated converter from RTF to other
>  formats, including HTML, LaTeX, text, and PostScript. Converting
>  to HTML, it supports tables, fonts, colors, embedded images,
>  hyperlinks, paragraph alignment among other things. All other
>  conversions are "alpha"--just begun.
>
>> MS Word 2.0 (.doc)
>> MS Word 95/97/2000, 6.0 through RTF
>> MS word (DOS) (.msw)
>
> Package: wv
> Description: Programs for accessing Microsoft Word documents
>  wvWare (previously known as mswordview) is a library that allows access
>  to Microsoft Word files.  It can load and parse the Word 2000, Word 97,
>  Word 95, and Word 6 file formats.  (Work is underway to support reading
>  earlier formats as well: Word 2 documents are converted to plain text.)
>  .
>  This package provides the following programs:
>  .
>   * wvWare: Converts to HTML and LaTeX.  It's used by a small army of
>     helper scripts able to preview Word documents and convert them to
>     various other formats, like PostScript, PDF, DVI, etc.
>  .
>   * wvRTF: Converts to Microsoft's Rich Text Format.
>  .
>   * wvSummary: Displays the summary information stream of all OLE2 files,
>     i.e. Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Access, etc.
>  .
>   * wvVersion: Outputs the version of the Word format a document is stored
>     in.
>  .
>  Note that conversion to DVI, PostScript, or PDF requires the tetex-extra
>  package; PDF conversion also requires Ghostscript.  Having ELinks, Links,
>  or Lynx will greatly improve the plain text output.  ImageMagick may help
>  with the quality of images.  If you wish to preview Word documents from
>  the comfort of your mail reader, install a PostScript viewer like gv.
>
>> WordPerfect 5.0, 5.1, 6.0 (.w50, .w51, .w60)
>
> Package: wp2x
> Description: WordPerfect 5.x documents to whatever converter
>  This program converts simple WordPerfect 5.0 and 5.1 files into any
>  other document processing languages that use plain text files, like
>  TeX, LaTeX, troff, GML and HTML.
>
>
> Abiword can also import MS and RTF documents.

Thank you for the suggestions, but there is no path above that
can be fed to OpenOffice to create a M$ Worst file that does not
mangle the formatting so badly that I would have to rework the
whole document.  Going through HTML looks a little better at
first glance than going through RTF, but it's still a no-go.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

Rikishi42 wrote:

> On 2009-11-24, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Robert Riches wrote:
>>
>>> On 2009-11-23, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
>>>> Robert Riches wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>> 
>>>>
>>>> Can Applix export to "RTF" if so OO can import it.
>>> 
>>> I had already tried it but tried it again to confirm.  The
>>> formatting is mangled almost beyond recognition.  The text of
>>> each bullet point now starts about 60% across the page.
>>> 
>>
>> RTF is supposed to be a standard format, a bit like PDF.
> 
> Well actually, RTF is far from standard. I've encountered the format
> first back in the days of Word for DOS. The only constant in it is
> it's change. It follows MS-Word's evolution closely. And even if some
> part is supposed to be open en stadard, many nterpretations exist.
> 
> Consider it a way to avoid re-type a document, and some simple
> formatting. Nothing more.

Yes the comment was a bit "tongue in cheek"  hence "supposed" in there. 

>> Is Applix putting tabs in front for each space or is there a
>> different code page in use ?
> 
> Code pages would affect accents and symbols, mainly. Not tabs.

I agree !  Robert mentioned "Bullet points"  The bullets might be
symbols.

> Besides, bullets are not build with tabs. I'd not try to change the
> text, but look at the definition of the indentations. Correcting those
> might bring the entire document closer to what is needed, in one
> stroke.

I suggested that the indentations were tabs !  I've had that happen with
some document conversions where the original used 4 or 6 spaces in
front of a line and the conversion inserted a tab for each space giving
the effect described.

>> You can always use search and replace to remove the extra tabs.
> 
> If there are some, but I can't see him mensionning any tabs.
> 

Hey if it works for him, then great.

-- 
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

Robert Heller wrote:

> At 25 Nov 2009 01:06:32 GMT Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net>
> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On 2009-11-24, Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>> > On 2009-11-24, Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Somewhat surprisingly, the copy-and-paste route actually
>> >> preserves formatting a little better than going through RTF.
>> >> However, the document would have to be almost completely
>> >> reworked.
>> >
>> > In my experience, that's about the best you can hope for when
>> > moving from one WP format to another (especially when one of
>> > the formats is a proprietary, closed-source one).  If all you
>> > lost was formatting, count yourself lucky. ;)
>> 
>> Actually, I haven't lost anything.  Applix works very well, and
>> its .aw files are human readable, very loosely kind-of like XML
>> but with different delimiters.  Recovering the content would be
>> pretty easy.  Even writing a .aw to .ps converter would not be
>> too terribly difficult, at least for simple documents.
>> 
>> My motivation for trying to convert a document is some staffing
>> firm recruiters insist on the _undocumented_ _binary_
>> closed-source format called M$ Worst for resumes.
> 
> Arg... Those same recruiters seem to have only ONE application on
> their
> desktop: an (old) version of mess-word.  They use it for *everything*,
> even E-Mail...  And it seems that their company policy is against
> installing Adobe's reader (bizare as that sounds).
> 
> I have a 'static' resume I created with OO, which *I* found to be
> extremely difficult, since *I* never learned how to use any Word
> Processor and found oowriter hard to use, mostly because I just don't
> really understand the WYSIWYG / point-and-click world of Word
> Processing.  I only send this version of my resume out if/when some
> recruiter is totally at a loss dealing with my PDF resume (generated
> from LaTeX), and I tell them that it is probably out of date and no, I
> won't be updating anytime soon.
> 
 
I deal with Agencies the other way.  I tell them I won't accept HTML or
M$ Word resumes, period.  Its plain text, ODT or nothing.  They can
always put it in the post, which they never do.  It certainly cuts down
the crap they try to send out, a lot of which is bogus.

-- 
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

On 2009-11-25, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:

> I deal with Agencies the other way.  I tell them I won't accept HTML or
> M$ Word resumes, period.  Its plain text, ODT or nothing.

You can't handle PDF?

> They can always put it in the post, which they never do.  It
> certainly cuts down the crap they try to send out, a lot of
> which is bogus.

-- 
Grant

Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>> Robert Riches wrote:
>>> On 2009-11-24, Stan Bischof <stan@newserve.worldbadminton.com> wrote:
>>>> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>>>>
>>>> Maybe if you listed all the formats that Applix can
>>>> output, someone here might see a possible path?

[...]

>>>     MS Word 95/97/2000, 6.0 through RTF
> 
> The "through RTF" means Applix creates a .rtf file, and the
> Micro$oft program is supposed to read the .rtf file.  I already
> tried creating the RTF from Applix and reading that into
> OpenOffice.  The formatting is tremendously mangled.  It would be
> easier to rework the formatting from plain text than from the
> RTF.

It's possible that the formatting is being lost by OpenOffice during
import and that MS-Word would load the file correctly.

Grant Edwards wrote:

> On 2009-11-25, Baron <baron.nospam@linuxmaniac.nospam.net> wrote:
> 
>> I deal with Agencies the other way.  I tell them I won't accept HTML
>> or
>> M$ Word resumes, period.  Its plain text, ODT or nothing.
> 
> You can't handle PDF?

I never mention PDF simply because of the size. Anything over 25K gets
auto dumped.

>> They can always put it in the post, which they never do.  It
>> certainly cuts down the crap they try to send out, a lot of
>> which is bogus.
> 

-- 
Best Regards:
                     Baron.

On 2009-11-26, Dave Gibson <dave+news002@gibson-hrd.abelgratis.co.uk.invalid> wrote:
> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>>> Robert Riches wrote:
>>>> On 2009-11-24, Stan Bischof <stan@newserve.worldbadminton.com> wrote:
>>>>> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> wrote:
>>>>>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>>>>>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>>>>>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>>>>>> failed to transfer the content.
>>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe if you listed all the formats that Applix can
>>>>> output, someone here might see a possible path?
>
> [...]
>
>>>>     MS Word 95/97/2000, 6.0 through RTF
>> 
>> The "through RTF" means Applix creates a .rtf file, and the
>> Micro$oft program is supposed to read the .rtf file.  I already
>> tried creating the RTF from Applix and reading that into
>> OpenOffice.  The formatting is tremendously mangled.  It would be
>> easier to rework the formatting from plain text than from the
>> RTF.
>
> It's possible that the formatting is being lost by OpenOffice during
> import and that MS-Word would load the file correctly.

Yes, that is a possibility.  Thank you for that suggestion.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> writes:

> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
> failed to transfer the content.

AbiWord ships a plugin that imports and exports Applix format
documents.  And then once imported abiword can export to a couple dozen
formats including OpenOffice Writer's format.

That might be the simplest way depending on how good the importing
plugin works for you.

-- 
Do they only stand
By ignorance, is that their happy state,
The proof of their obedience and their faith?

On 2009-11-28, Les Harris <me@lesharris.com.invalid> wrote:
> Robert Riches <spamtrap42@verizon.net> writes:
>
>> Is there any reasonable path to take an Applix Words document and
>> convert it so it can be imported into OpenOffice?  I tried
>> several methods, but they all badly mangled the formatting and/or
>> failed to transfer the content.
>
> AbiWord ships a plugin that imports and exports Applix format
> documents.  And then once imported abiword can export to a couple dozen
> formats including OpenOffice Writer's format.
>
> That might be the simplest way depending on how good the importing
> plugin works for you.

Thanks.  I'll give it a try.

-- 
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@verizon.net
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)