Dear all,
those using LyX or direct LaTeX (pdflatex) often need to convert sources
in MS Word .doc format into .lix format.
On Linux platforms there are at least AbiWord and Kword that can open
doc files and save them in various other formats, .tex included.
Unfortunately the LaTeX file thus obtained is pittyful.
>From the wiki page of LyX it is possible to download of a
Word2LyXMacro that works well for on Windows platformas, but I did not
succeed to make it work on a Mac with MSOffice2004. On Windows the macro
performs very well and the LyX code produced allows LyX to view the file
without problems and possibly to save it in .lyx format, of course but
also in a pretty good LaTeX format, which in general requires just a few
minor adjustments, for language, input encoding, output font encoding,
font usage (Latin Modern would be a better default then EC if the
pdflatex option is selected), and few other small things.
Somewhere on the package description for the Debian/Ubuntu package the
wv software is suggested; apparently this software has so many
dependencies that even on a Ubuntu platform it's difficult to compile
and install it, even if the wv libraries are already installed.
I would kindly suggest to examine the possibility of integrating into
LyX the necessary code to open, read, edit a .doc file on any LyX
implementation (Linux, Mac, Windows), so as to be able to save it in
.lyx format. Any user can reopen the .lyx file and do with it anything
LyX is capable of.
Thanks for your attention
Claudio Beccari
PS, as a member of the Italian TeX Users Group (GuIT) I edited (in
Italian) a Guide for the usage of LaTeX as a typesetting tool; see the
GuIT web site http://www.guit.sssup.it; I wrote a specific paragraph on
LyX; I would be pleased if I could add the information that LyX is the
/*only* instrument for converting, editing and typesetting/ a source
document originally in doc format. ;-) CB
