Update on Conversion of Chemical Documents

From: rw-abiword-user@altern.org
Date: Wed Apr 24 2002 - 06:03:33 EDT

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    Thank you for thinking and for responding, your
    expertise is greatly appreciated. I would be very
    pleased to hear your comments on the following
    beginnings of a plan.

    Clarifications

    o The majority of the documents are in WP9 format,
      only a minority are in Word97 format.

    o The documents are not all completed for widespread
      use, and they need to be editable. If I just convert
      everything to postscript or to PDF then the documents
      are no longer practically speaking, editable.

    Requirements

    o The conversion MUST save graphics, superscripts,
      subscripts, and chemical symbols that are a part of
      different Windows fonts.

    o Equations do NOT need to be saved.
      I will retype the equations since there aren't
      a lot of them. Some kind of place-marker is
      needed so I can find the spot where the new
      equation should be typed.

    o The conversion does NOT have to maintain exact
      look. I just don't want to have to retype the
      chemical formula and redraw the graphics!
      

    Revised Plans
    (thanks to Dom Lachowicz and Reuben D. Budiardja)

    Option I

    (a) Convert WP9 files to Word97 format using WP9's
        export features (File --> Save As --> MS Word 97).

    (b) Convert these Word97 files to HTML using either
        Abiword's command line option, or using wvWare's
        command line option.
        
    (c) Use a custom script to change these HTML files
        to simple LaTeX.
        
    Option II

    (a) Convert WP9 files to Word97 format using WP9's
        export features (File --> Save As --> MS Word 97).

    (b) Convert these Word97 files to the Abiword file
        format using either Abiword's command line option,
        if there is one, otherwise doing each one at a time.
        
    (c) Use a custom script to change these Abiword files
        to simple LaTeX.

    Rebuttals

    Q: Why don't I just convert these Word97 files
       directly to LaTeX using wvWare?
    A: Because Dom says I lose graphics.

    Q: Why does Option II change the Word97 files to
       Abiword's file format?
    A: Because hopefully it is in a sane format that I
       can parse reasonably easily. To be honest, I have
       a lot more faith in Abiword than in anything else.

       
    Queries

    (q1) In Option I (b), I convert Word97 files to HTML.
         Which one is better to use, Abiword's command
         line option, or wvWare's command line option?

    (q2) Word97 files can be transformed to HTML and to
         LaTeX using wvWare / Abiword. Is it possible
         to access the information from the Word97 file
         in an intermediate format, i.e. before it is
         converted to HTML or LaTeX, and after it is
         processed by wvWare? This would enable me to
         access the information in a Word97 file without
         having to go spelunking through the binary format.

    (q3) What happens to the different fonts that are
         used to represent the various chemical symbols?
          

    Final Thoughts

    I want to thank Abiword, wvWare, and their community
    for all their hard work, user support, and for being
    here for us. You're SUPER!

    I really can't wait for people to be able to learn all
    this chemistry ;>

    Sincerely,
    Ro Wiijkejak
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