Try using tr ... The character '^@' is a null byte (for tr, this is '\000'). You can strip out all control chars by:
tr -d '[:cntrl:]' < xxx.wpd > xxx.txt (or, in vim: gg!Gtr -d '[:cntrl:]') This won't strip out chars with the top bit set, but read the man page! On Tue, 2007-03-13 at 15:15 -0600, Clarke Echols wrote: > This is only partly on/off topic, but I need help with a messy > little problem. > > I have been asked to evaluate a book project with the possibility > that I will be producing it for publication. The author sent me > a WordPerfect file (.wpd suffix) that my Microsoft stuff won't read. > Like Word, it's a binary file that has the text embedded in it. > > Words are separated by a single character that displays in vim as > a (blue) couple of characters: ( ~@ ) and there are other characters > showing up as ( ^U, ^^, ^@, ) etc. I know how to do regular > expression search and replace for control characters like ^U, but > this ~@ stuff is something I don't know how to specify in a search > string. > > Any clues? Or an easy way to convert this to plain text without > buying a bunch of software? > > I'm a vim/groff bigot and don't like canned "authoring" software-- > especially if I have to pay for it. :-) > > Thanks, > > Clarke > >
