General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Marvin Doyley]

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Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research notes.
The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to microsoft word, and
thus my only work around is to  export my notes and draft from Org to plain
text and then reformat everything in word, which real time sync., especially
when I have to retype equations in Mathtype.  I know there are bunch of
commercial software that claim to be able to convert latex files to word,
but most are far from perfect. Is there a more efficient way of tacking
this  problem ?  Is there is any plans of developing a org-export-rtf or
org-export-docx  function ?


cheers
M

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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Graham Smith]

Marvin,

Although, not exactly answering your question, I have just started using

https://docq.com/

and

http://a.nnotate.com/

You can compile as PDF from OrgMode and upload to either of these
sites. Send a web link to the reviewer, who can then annotate and
comment on your document.

You still have to then manually add the comments back into OrgMode,
but at least the reviewer sees the document as it is meant to look.

Both are commercial sites, but have free options for low levels of use.

Graham

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Marvin Doyley]

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Graham,

This looks very interesting, and would definitely save time - no more
reading into word and reformatting.
How much does docq cost ?

cheers
M

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 1:13 PM, Graham Smith <myotisone@gmail.com> wrote:

> Marvin,
>
> Although, not exactly answering your question, I have just started using
>
> https://docq.com/
>
> and
>
> http://a.nnotate.com/
>
> You can compile as PDF from OrgMode and upload to either of these
> sites. Send a web link to the reviewer, who can then annotate and
> comment on your document.
>
> You still have to then manually add the comments back into OrgMode,
> but at least the reviewer sees the document as it is meant to look.
>
> Both are commercial sites, but have free options for low levels of use.
>
> Graham
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
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>

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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Graham Smith]

Marvin

> This looks very interesting, and would definitely save time - no more
> reading into word and reformatting.
> How much does docq cost ?

I'm using the free version of docq,  which has some limitations in
terms of number of uploads etc.  Paid versions are $7 and $13
depending on requirements https://docq.com/reg/pricing

If I end up going the paying route, I will go with annotate as it is
payg, and better suited to my occasional spurts of collaboration, with
long periods of not needing to use it. This seems better than a
monthly fee.

Pricing for annotate is at http://a.nnotate.com/hosted-pricing.html

Graham

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Tomas Hlavaty]

Hi Marvin and Graham,

>> Although, not exactly answering your question, I have just started
>> using
>>    
>> https://docq.com/
>>    
>> and
>>    
>> http://a.nnotate.com/
>>
>> You still have to then manually add the comments back into OrgMode,
>> but at least the reviewer sees the document as it is meant to look.

> This looks very interesting, and would definitely save time - no more reading into
> word and reformatting.

As an alternative to https://docq.com/ or http://a.nnotate.com/, you can
have a look at OnDoc http://logand.com/sw/ondoc/index.html which I wrote
to annotate PDF documents.  Being an enthusiastic org-mode user, I would
welcome any ideas that could make it worthwhile and easier to use OnDoc
for people using org-mode.

Cheers,

Tomas

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Graham Smith]

Tomas

>
> As an alternative to https://docq.com/ or http://a.nnotate.com/, you can
> have a look at OnDoc http://logand.com/sw/ondoc/index.html which I wrote
> to annotate PDF documents.  Being an enthusiastic org-mode user, I would
> welcome any ideas that could make it worthwhile and easier to use OnDoc
> for people using org-mode.

I will have a look at this, but you also have an email from me.

Graham

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Jambunathan K]

Hello Marvin

> Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research notes.
> The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to microsoft word, and
> thus my only work around is to  export my notes and draft from Org to plain
> text and then reformat everything in word, which real time sync., especially
> when I have to retype equations in Mathtype.  

I am currently working on a converter that converts directly from
Orgmode to OpenDocumentText (.odt). It is likely to take another 1-2
months before I get a preview version out.

Please watch out for announcement in this list.

Looks like you are particularly interested in reproducing Math
equations. At this stage, it is not clear to me how I would support
equations. Since the converter is built from HTML exporter it would
handle the equations just the way HTML exporter handles equations.

For now, AFAICS, people either resort to

1. Orgmode->HTML->OpenOffice 
2. Orgmode->Docbook->Openoffice

Have you tried any of (1) and (2). What are your observations
particularly wrt equations?

> I know there are bunch of commercial software that claim to be able to
> convert latex files to word, but most are far from perfect. Is there a
> more efficient way of tacking this problem ?  Is there is any plans of
> developing a org-export-rtf or org-export-docx function ?

Jambunathan K.

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Marvin Doyley]

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Hi Jambunathan,

This would be wonderful, I will keep a watch for the announcement.

Rewriting the equations shouldn't be a major problem

Best
M

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 2:42 PM, Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com>wrote:

>
> Hello Marvin
>
> > Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> > teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research
> notes.
> > The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to microsoft word,
> and
> > thus my only work around is to  export my notes and draft from Org to
> plain
> > text and then reformat everything in word, which real time sync.,
> especially
> > when I have to retype equations in Mathtype.
>
> I am currently working on a converter that converts directly from
> Orgmode to OpenDocumentText (.odt). It is likely to take another 1-2
> months before I get a preview version out.
>
> Please watch out for announcement in this list.
>
> Looks like you are particularly interested in reproducing Math
> equations. At this stage, it is not clear to me how I would support
> equations. Since the converter is built from HTML exporter it would
> handle the equations just the way HTML exporter handles equations.
>
> For now, AFAICS, people either resort to
>
> 1. Orgmode->HTML->OpenOffice
> 2. Orgmode->Docbook->Openoffice
>
> Have you tried any of (1) and (2). What are your observations
> particularly wrt equations?
>
> > I know there are bunch of commercial software that claim to be able to
> > convert latex files to word, but most are far from perfect. Is there a
> > more efficient way of tacking this problem ?  Is there is any plans of
> > developing a org-export-rtf or org-export-docx function ?
>
> Jambunathan K.
>

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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Russell Adams]

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 12:49:28PM -0400, Marvin Doyley wrote:
> Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research notes.
> The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to microsoft word, and
> thus my only work around is to  export my notes and draft from Org to plain
> text and then reformat everything in word, which real time sync., especially
> when I have to retype equations in Mathtype.  I know there are bunch of
> commercial software that claim to be able to convert latex files to word,
> but most are far from perfect. Is there a more efficient way of tacking
> this  problem ?  Is there is any plans of developing a org-export-rtf or
> org-export-docx  function ?

Are you using Latex due to the equation support?

I have better luck importing HTML exports into Word, perhaps you can
look into Latex snippet support for just the math and leave the rest
in HTML.

Good luck!


------------------------------------------------------------------
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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Marvin Doyley]

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This sounds like a good plan. I think I can convert my latex snippet to pdf
using latexit and past it directly in word, which should be a breeze.

Cheers
M

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 3:48 PM, Russell Adams <RLAdams@adamsinfoserv.com>wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 12:49:28PM -0400, Marvin Doyley wrote:
> > Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> > teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research
> notes.
> > The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to microsoft word,
> and
> > thus my only work around is to  export my notes and draft from Org to
> plain
> > text and then reformat everything in word, which real time sync.,
> especially
> > when I have to retype equations in Mathtype.  I know there are bunch of
> > commercial software that claim to be able to convert latex files to word,
> > but most are far from perfect. Is there a more efficient way of tacking
> > this  problem ?  Is there is any plans of developing a org-export-rtf or
> > org-export-docx  function ?
>
> Are you using Latex due to the equation support?
>
> I have better luck importing HTML exports into Word, perhaps you can
> look into Latex snippet support for just the math and leave the rest
> in HTML.
>
> Good luck!
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Russell Adams                            RLAdams@AdamsInfoServ.com
>
> PGP Key ID:     0x1160DCB3           http://www.adamsinfoserv.com/
>
> Fingerprint:    1723 D8CA 4280 1EC9 557F  66E8 1154 E018 1160 DCB3
>
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> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Russell Adams]

Perhaps Babel can do it inline?

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 04:47:01PM -0400, Marvin Doyley wrote:
> This sounds like a good plan. I think I can convert my latex snippet to pdf
> using latexit and past it directly in word, which should be a breeze.
>
> Cheers
> M
>
> On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 3:48 PM, Russell Adams <RLAdams@adamsinfoserv.com>wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 12:49:28PM -0400, Marvin Doyley wrote:
> > > Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> > > teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research
> > notes.
> > > The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to microsoft word,
> > and
> > > thus my only work around is to  export my notes and draft from Org to
> > plain
> > > text and then reformat everything in word, which real time sync.,
> > especially
> > > when I have to retype equations in Mathtype.  I know there are bunch of
> > > commercial software that claim to be able to convert latex files to word,
> > > but most are far from perfect. Is there a more efficient way of tacking
> > > this  problem ?  Is there is any plans of developing a org-export-rtf or
> > > org-export-docx  function ?
> >
> > Are you using Latex due to the equation support?
> >
> > I have better luck importing HTML exports into Word, perhaps you can
> > look into Latex snippet support for just the math and leave the rest
> > in HTML.
> >
> > Good luck!
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Russell Adams                            RLAdams@AdamsInfoServ.com
> >
> > PGP Key ID:     0x1160DCB3           http://www.adamsinfoserv.com/
> >
> > Fingerprint:    1723 D8CA 4280 1EC9 557F  66E8 1154 E018 1160 DCB3
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> > Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> > Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> > http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
> >

> _______________________________________________
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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Richard Lawrence]

Hi Marvin,

> Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research notes.
> The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to microsoft word, and
> thus my only work around is to export my notes and draft from Org to plain
> text and then reformat everything in word, which real time sync., especially
> when I have to retype equations in Mathtype.

Hmm.  Given that at least one person in your team must adapt to the
others, might I ask why that person has to be you?  Is there a reason
that your collaborators can't use Org mode and/or LaTeX?  (Or at least
export their work to plain text, so you can incorporate it in your Org
files?)

I'm not trying to be antagonistic, or insensitive to your particular
situation.  But since no one else has said it, I just wanted to point
out that it might be easier or more efficient, in terms of overall
person-hours, to convert from Word to Org, rather than the other way
around.

(I don't know anything about MathType, but it would seem within the
realm of possibility to *automatically* convert a Word document
containing MathType that has been exported as plain text into something
Org and/or LaTeX can understand.  This site, for example, makes it look
like MathType can export to TeX and LaTeX, so maybe that gets you most
of the way there:

http://www.dessci.com/en/products/mathtype/features.htm)

Best,
Richard

Re: Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Jeff Horn]

> I'm not trying to be antagonistic, or insensitive to your particular
> situation.  But since no one else has said it, I just wanted to point
> out that it might be easier or more efficient, in terms of overall
> person-hours, to convert from Word to Org, rather than the other way
> around.

If they're stuck in word and the OP is using org, he may be the only
person on his team capable of changing his workflow. In that case,
person hours are saved if he switches and doesn't have to educate
everyone else (or they educate themselves), though *his* man hours are
not economized.

-- 
Jeffrey Horn
Graduate Lecturer and PhD Student in Economics
George Mason University

(704) 271-4797
jhorn@gmu.edu
jrhorn424@gmail.com

http://www.failuretorefrain.com/jeff/

Re: Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Richard Lawrence]

Jeff Horn <jrhorn424@gmail.com> writes:

>> I'm not trying to be antagonistic, or insensitive to your particular
>> situation.  But since no one else has said it, I just wanted to point
>> out that it might be easier or more efficient, in terms of overall
>> person-hours, to convert from Word to Org, rather than the other way
>> around.
>
> If they're stuck in word and the OP is using org, he may be the only
> person on his team capable of changing his workflow. In that case,
> person hours are saved if he switches and doesn't have to educate
> everyone else (or they educate themselves), though *his* man hours are
> not economized.

Well, doesn't that depend on how long it would take to educate everyone
else, vs. how many hours he will eventually spend doing manual
conversion to Word?

Richard

Re: Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Jeff Horn]

On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Richard Lawrence
<richard.lawrence@berkeley.edu> wrote:
> Jeff Horn <jrhorn424@gmail.com> writes:
>
>>> I'm not trying to be antagonistic, or insensitive to your particular
>>> situation.  But since no one else has said it, I just wanted to point
>>> out that it might be easier or more efficient, in terms of overall
>>> person-hours, to convert from Word to Org, rather than the other way
>>> around.
>>
>> If they're stuck in word and the OP is using org, he may be the only
>> person on his team capable of changing his workflow. In that case,
>> person hours are saved if he switches and doesn't have to educate
>> everyone else (or they educate themselves), though *his* man hours are
>> not economized.
>
> Well, doesn't that depend on how long it would take to educate everyone
> else, vs. how many hours he will eventually spend doing manual
> conversion to Word?

Of course it does. My implied belief is that the former takes longer
than the latter. I would be surprised if this is not true, unless his
team only consists of two or three people.

The decision is clearly dependent not just on each person's effort,
but on how many people are in the equation.

-- 
Jeffrey Horn
Graduate Lecturer and PhD Student in Economics
George Mason University

(704) 271-4797
jhorn@gmu.edu
jrhorn424@gmail.com

http://www.failuretorefrain.com/jeff/

Re: Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Marvin Doyley]

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This is indeed a unique way of looking at the problem. I am not sure
converting from word to Org is the way to go, because vast majority of my
research notes are already in Org. But having said that a good work around
could be to create a crude version in word (ditch the equations, but export
as plain text), get everyone comments, and incorporate the changes in Org
before exporting to latex This will try this in the initial stage of my next
grant proposal.

cheers
M



On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 11:02 AM, Jeff Horn <jrhorn424@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 27, 2010 at 10:57 AM, Richard Lawrence
> <richard.lawrence@berkeley.edu> wrote:
> > Jeff Horn <jrhorn424@gmail.com> writes:
> >
> >>> I'm not trying to be antagonistic, or insensitive to your particular
> >>> situation.  But since no one else has said it, I just wanted to point
> >>> out that it might be easier or more efficient, in terms of overall
> >>> person-hours, to convert from Word to Org, rather than the other way
> >>> around.
> >>
> >> If they're stuck in word and the OP is using org, he may be the only
> >> person on his team capable of changing his workflow. In that case,
> >> person hours are saved if he switches and doesn't have to educate
> >> everyone else (or they educate themselves), though *his* man hours are
> >> not economized.
> >
> > Well, doesn't that depend on how long it would take to educate everyone
> > else, vs. how many hours he will eventually spend doing manual
> > conversion to Word?
>
> Of course it does. My implied belief is that the former takes longer
> than the latter. I would be surprised if this is not true, unless his
> team only consists of two or three people.
>
> The decision is clearly dependent not just on each person's effort,
> but on how many people are in the equation.
>
> --
> Jeffrey Horn
> Graduate Lecturer and PhD Student in Economics
> George Mason University
>
> (704) 271-4797
> jhorn@gmu.edu
> jrhorn424@gmail.com
>
> http://www.failuretorefrain.com/jeff/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacs-orgmode
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Re: Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Eric S Fraga]

Marvin Doyley <marvinpas@gmail.com> writes:

> This is indeed a unique way of looking at the problem. I am not sure
> converting from word to Org is
> the way to go, because vast majority of my research notes are already
> in Org. But having said that a
> good work around could be to create a crude version in word (ditch the
> equations, but export as
> plain text), get everyone comments, and incorporate the changes in Org
> before exporting to latex
> This will try this in the initial stage of my next grant proposal.

My workflow, when required to collaborate with Word (or OOo) users is to
export org to HTML, use OOo to convert to Word and send that out.  I ask
my collaborators to /track changes/ in the Word document and I then
manually incorporate these changes into my original org document.  Not
ideal but it does the job.

However, what would be ideal would be if there were a tool which would
take a Word document with /track changes/ and generate a patch file for
a text version of that document...  that could then provide some
mechanism for getting changes back into an org document (modulo problems
with line re-arrangements unfortunately).  Just a pipe dream...

-- 
Eric S Fraga
GnuPG: 8F5C 279D 3907 E14A 5C29  570D C891 93D8 FFFC F67D

[WISH] Org Importers

[Jambunathan K]

Eric

> However, what would be ideal would be if there were a tool which would
> take a Word document with /track changes/ and generate a patch file for
> a text version of that document...  that could then provide some
> mechanism for getting changes back into an org document (modulo problems
> with line re-arrangements unfortunately).  Just a pipe dream...

If you allow me some liberty, the suggestion is in two parts

1. Word/Pdf/Latex->Org converter
2. Change tracking within Org 

For most of us who write or work with copious amount of text, (1) could
really be useful. If it gains sufficient escape velocity it can land us
in a far off galaxy. (2) could be useful but a bit far-fetched at the
moment.

I have suggested or hinted elsewhere (in a babel thread) the need for
importing in to Org from other formats.

Jambunathan K.

Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Scot Becker]

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Jambunathan,

 (2) could be useful but a bit far-fetched at the
> moment.
>

Really?  Lots of us track changes with git, sometimes by means of one of the
Emacs interfaces for it like Magit.  You may be thinking of some
interface-level features which aren't available by this method, like the
ability to annotate changes in the same place you make them, I suppose.  But
working this way has a lot of 'features' that "track changes" doesn't.


Scot

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Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Peter Frings]

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On 28 Oct 2010, at 11:15, Scot Becker wrote:

> Jambunathan,
> 
> (2) could be useful but a bit far-fetched at the
> moment.
>  
> Really?  Lots of us track changes with git, sometimes by means of one of the Emacs interfaces for it like Magit.  You may be thinking of some interface-level features which aren't available by this method, like the ability to annotate changes in the same place you make them, I suppose.  But working this way has a lot of 'features' that "track changes" doesn't.

We once thought of having some markup in our LaTeX files to track changes, offering annotations. If I recall correctly, we had a command \changed{old}{new}{comment}.
You could leave out the new or old text part: newly added  text would be \changed{}{bla bla}{this is new text!}, deleted text would be \changed{completely wrong}{}{what an idiot}. The command would render the old/new text differently (gray, strikethrough, blue, whatever) and add the comment as a margin note.

Maybe something like this would be useful/feasible in Org? (not that I have a need for this -- we never implemented that command, either).

Cheers,
Peter.

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Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Eric S Fraga]

Peter Frings <peter.frings@agfa.com> writes:
> We once thought of having some markup in our LaTeX files to track changes,
> offering annotations. If
> I recall correctly, we had a command \changed{old}{new}{comment}.
> You could leave out the new or old text part: newly added text would be
> \changed{}{bla bla}{this is
> new text!}, deleted text would be \changed{completely wrong}{}{what an
> idiot}. The command would
> render the old/new text differently (gray, strikethrough, blue, whatever) and
> add the comment as a
> margin note.

There is actually a latex implementation of something like this in the
=changes= package that comes with texlive (at least)!  This package has
commands like \added and \deleted as well.

There is also the =changebar= package which draws change bars in the
margin.

I've used both in the past but found them too cumbersome.  I prefer
simply relying on version control systems (git etc.).

-- 
Eric S Fraga
GnuPG: 8F5C 279D 3907 E14A 5C29  570D C891 93D8 FFFC F67D

Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Eric S Fraga]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

> Eric
>
>> However, what would be ideal would be if there were a tool which would
>> take a Word document with /track changes/ and generate a patch file for
>> a text version of that document...  that could then provide some
>> mechanism for getting changes back into an org document (modulo problems
>> with line re-arrangements unfortunately).  Just a pipe dream...
>
> If you allow me some liberty, the suggestion is in two parts
>
> 1. Word/Pdf/Latex->Org converter
> 2. Change tracking within Org
>
> For most of us who write or work with copious amount of text, (1) could
> really be useful. If it gains sufficient escape velocity it can land us
> in a far off galaxy. (2) could be useful but a bit far-fetched at the
> moment.

I'm not sure I understand.  change tracking in org is trivial (git,
mercurial, etc); it's extracting Word change tracking information in a
form usable by other tools that is not trivial...

eric

Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Jambunathan K]

Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> writes:

> Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> Eric
>>
>>> However, what would be ideal would be if there were a tool which would
>>> take a Word document with /track changes/ and generate a patch file for
>>> a text version of that document...  that could then provide some
>>> mechanism for getting changes back into an org document (modulo problems
>>> with line re-arrangements unfortunately).  Just a pipe dream...
>>
>> If you allow me some liberty, the suggestion is in two parts
>>
>> 1. Word/Pdf/Latex->Org converter
>> 2. Change tracking within Org
>>
>> For most of us who write or work with copious amount of text, (1) could
>> really be useful. If it gains sufficient escape velocity it can land us
>> in a far off galaxy. (2) could be useful but a bit far-fetched at the
>> moment.
>
> I'm not sure I understand.  change tracking in org is trivial (git,
> mercurial, etc); it's extracting Word change tracking information in a
> form usable by other tools that is not trivial...

My intention was really to bring attention to the need for importers and
how useful they could be. Looks like the thread is veering in another
direction ...

As for change tracking, I will have insightful things to say once I get
to look at the details of how OpenDocument manages the same.

Jambunathan K.

>
> eric
>
> _______________________________________________
> Emacs-orgmode mailing list
> Please use `Reply All' to send replies to the list.
> Emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
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Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Eric S Fraga]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:
> Eric S Fraga <ucecesf@ucl.ac.uk> writes:
>> I'm not sure I understand.  change tracking in org is trivial (git,
>> mercurial, etc); it's extracting Word change tracking information in a
>> form usable by other tools that is not trivial...
>
> My intention was really to bring attention to the need for importers

Ah, okay.  Point taken!

> how useful they could be. Looks like the thread is veering in another
> direction ...

as is often the case ;-)

> As for change tracking, I will have insightful things to say once I get
> to look at the details of how OpenDocument manages the same.

Excellent.  I look forward to it.  Thanks.

Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Matt Lundin]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

>> However, what would be ideal would be if there were a tool which would
>> take a Word document with /track changes/ and generate a patch file for
>> a text version of that document...  that could then provide some
>> mechanism for getting changes back into an org document (modulo problems
>> with line re-arrangements unfortunately).  Just a pipe dream...
>
> If you allow me some liberty, the suggestion is in two parts
>
> 1. Word/Pdf/Latex->Org converter
>
> I have suggested or hinted elsewhere (in a babel thread) the need for
> importing in to Org from other formats.

FWIW, I have a home-brewed perl script that converts latex documents to
org-mode files. Loosely based on latex2doc[1], it uses a latex style
file (generated by the perl script) to markup the pdf output (e.g.
asterisks for section headings, etc.). The org-formatted pdf is then
converted to plain text with pdftotext.

It's a crude and by no means comprehensive hack designed to meet my own
peculiar needs. But I'd be happy to share it on Worg (with ample
disclaimers) if anyone is interested.

Best,
Matt

Footnotes:
[1] http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.heslin/Software/Latex/latex2doc.php

Re: Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Jeff Horn]

> FWIW, I have a home-brewed perl script that converts latex documents to
> org-mode files. Loosely based on latex2doc[1], it uses a latex style
> file (generated by the perl script) to markup the pdf output (e.g.
> asterisks for section headings, etc.). The org-formatted pdf is then
> converted to plain text with pdftotext.
>
> It's a crude and by no means comprehensive hack designed to meet my own
> peculiar needs. But I'd be happy to share it on Worg (with ample
> disclaimers) if anyone is interested.

I for one, would be interested in this, though it is likely to be a
few months before I can get around to using it for an actual project.

Jeff

-- 
Jeffrey Horn
Graduate Lecturer and PhD Student in Economics
George Mason University

(704) 271-4797
jhorn@gmu.edu
jrhorn424@gmail.com

http://www.failuretorefrain.com/jeff/

Re: Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Matt Lundin]

Jeff Horn <jrhorn424@gmail.com> writes:

>> FWIW, I have a home-brewed perl script that converts latex documents to
>> org-mode files. Loosely based on latex2doc[1], it uses a latex style
>> file (generated by the perl script) to markup the pdf output (e.g.
>> asterisks for section headings, etc.). The org-formatted pdf is then
>> converted to plain text with pdftotext.
>>
>> It's a crude and by no means comprehensive hack designed to meet my own
>> peculiar needs. But I'd be happy to share it on Worg (with ample
>> disclaimers) if anyone is interested.
>
> I for one, would be interested in this, though it is likely to be a
> few months before I can get around to using it for an actual project.

Great! I'll clean it up as best I can and put it up on Worg.

Best,
Matt

Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Eric S Fraga]

Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> writes:
> FWIW, I have a home-brewed perl script that converts latex documents to
> org-mode files. Loosely based on latex2doc[1], it uses a latex style
> file (generated by the perl script) to markup the pdf output (e.g.
> asterisks for section headings, etc.). The org-formatted pdf is then
> converted to plain text with pdftotext.
>
> It's a crude and by no means comprehensive hack designed to meet my own
> peculiar needs. But I'd be happy to share it on Worg (with ample
> disclaimers) if anyone is interested.
>
> Best,
> Matt
>
> Footnotes:
> [1] http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.heslin/Software/Latex/latex2doc.php

Matt,

I do have a need to convert latex to org every now and again (luckily
not too often) so it would definitely be nice to have this on Worg.  My
own approach is to manually apply a number of regexp substitutions that
don't catch everything.  Your approach sounds quite appealing!

-- 
Eric S Fraga
GnuPG: 8F5C 279D 3907 E14A 5C29  570D C891 93D8 FFFC F67D

Re: Re: [WISH] Org Importers

[Bastien]

Hi Matt,

Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> writes:

> FWIW, I have a home-brewed perl script that converts latex documents to
> org-mode files. Loosely based on latex2doc[1], it uses a latex style
> file (generated by the perl script) to markup the pdf output (e.g.
> asterisks for section headings, etc.). The org-formatted pdf is then
> converted to plain text with pdftotext.
>
> It's a crude and by no means comprehensive hack designed to meet my own
> peculiar needs. But I'd be happy to share it on Worg (with ample
> disclaimers) if anyone is interested.

Don't hesitate to put this in Worg/org-tools/index.org (with code in
Worg/code/perl?) -- I guess the "ample disclaimers" is implicit in all
these pages :)

-- 
 Bastien

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Matt Lundin]

Marvin Doyley <marvinpas@gmail.com> writes:

> Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research
> notes. The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to
> microsoft word, and thus my only work around is to  export my notes and
> draft from Org to plain text and then reformat everything in word,
> which real time sync., especially when I have to retype equations in
> Mathtype.  I know there are bunch of commercial software that claim to
> be able to convert latex files to word, but most are far from perfect.
> Is there a more efficient way of tacking this  problem ?  Is there is
> any plans of developing a org-export-rtf or org-export-docx  function ?

There is now an FAQ on converting to odt/rtf/doc, since there have been
several threads on this question recently:

http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.php#convert-to-open-office

The FAQ is based largely on the helpful discussion of this issue late
last month:

http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/31168

Please feel free to suggest other methods you'd like to see in the FAQ.

Marvin: I'm not sure whether the methods in the FAQ address the problem
of math equations. I believe that some exporters (such as latex2rtf)
convert equations to images, while others (such as ttf) try to render
them in html, etc. Might I ask which converters[1] you have tried? I
might be helpful for the org community to know what does *not* work.
I've had great success with tex4ht and latex2rtf, but my documents don't
include math equations. :)

Best,
Matt

Footnotes:
[1] http://www.tug.org/applications/tex4ht/mn.html#QQ1-1-83

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Marvin Doyley]

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On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> wrote:

> Marvin Doyley <marvinpas@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> > teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research
> > notes. The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to
> > microsoft word, and thus my only work around is to  export my notes and
> > draft from Org to plain text and then reformat everything in word,
> > which real time sync., especially when I have to retype equations in
> > Mathtype.  I know there are bunch of commercial software that claim to
> > be able to convert latex files to word, but most are far from perfect.
> > Is there a more efficient way of tacking this  problem ?  Is there is
> > any plans of developing a org-export-rtf or org-export-docx  function ?
>
> There is now an FAQ on converting to odt/rtf/doc, since there have been
> several threads on this question recently:
>
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.php#convert-to-open-office
>
> The FAQ is based largely on the helpful discussion of this issue late
> last month:
>
> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/31168
>
> Please feel free to suggest other methods you'd like to see in the FAQ.
>
> Marvin: I'm not sure whether the methods in the FAQ address the problem
> of math equations. I believe that some exporters (such as latex2rtf)
> convert equations to images, while others (such as ttf) try to render
> them in html, etc. Might I ask which converters[1] you have tried? I
> might be helpful for the org community to know what does *not* work.
> I've had great success with tex4ht and latex2rtf, but my documents don't
> include math equations. :)
>
> Best,
> Matt
>
> Footnotes:
> [1] http://www.tug.org/applications/tex4ht/mn.html#QQ1-1-83
>
Hi Matt,

This is fantastic. I have used latex2rtf, but not with the best results. The
best solution on the mac seem to be html to .doc via textutils

Best.
M

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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Jambunathan K]

Hello Marvin,

> There is now an FAQ on converting to odt/rtf/doc, since there have
> been several threads on this question recently:
>
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.php#convert-to-open-office
>
> The FAQ is based largely on the helpful discussion of this issue late
> last month:
>
> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/31168
>
> Please feel free to suggest other methods you'd like to see in the FAQ.
> [1] http://www.tug.org/applications/tex4ht/mn.html#QQ1-1-83

> Hi Matt,This is fantastic. I have used latex2rtf, but not with the
> best results. The best solution on the mac seem to be html to .doc via
> textutils

Could you be more specific? What aspects of latex2rtf did you find
unsatisfactory - the equations aspect or something else ...

Thanks for the referring us to textutils. IIRC, this hasn't surfaced in
the list (atleast in recent times).

Jambunathan K.

Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Marvin Doyley]

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tex4ht is awesome, it even does a good job with equations.
My new workflow is org - > tex -> html (via tex4ht) - > doc or docx
(textutil)

thanks everybody
cheers
M
On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 8:23 PM, Matt Lundin <mdl@imapmail.org> wrote:

> Marvin Doyley <marvinpas@gmail.com> writes:
>
> > Org mode is now a part of my daily work-flow, not only do I use it for
> > teaching, scheduling my time, but I also use it to store my research
> > notes. The only snag is several of my collaborators is tied to
> > microsoft word, and thus my only work around is to  export my notes and
> > draft from Org to plain text and then reformat everything in word,
> > which real time sync., especially when I have to retype equations in
> > Mathtype.  I know there are bunch of commercial software that claim to
> > be able to convert latex files to word, but most are far from perfect.
> > Is there a more efficient way of tacking this  problem ?  Is there is
> > any plans of developing a org-export-rtf or org-export-docx  function ?
>
> There is now an FAQ on converting to odt/rtf/doc, since there have been
> several threads on this question recently:
>
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-faq.php#convert-to-open-office
>
> The FAQ is based largely on the helpful discussion of this issue late
> last month:
>
> http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.orgmode/31168
>
> Please feel free to suggest other methods you'd like to see in the FAQ.
>
> Marvin: I'm not sure whether the methods in the FAQ address the problem
> of math equations. I believe that some exporters (such as latex2rtf)
> convert equations to images, while others (such as ttf) try to render
> them in html, etc. Might I ask which converters[1] you have tried? I
> might be helpful for the org community to know what does *not* work.
> I've had great success with tex4ht and latex2rtf, but my documents don't
> include math equations. :)
>
> Best,
> Matt
>
> Footnotes:
> [1] http://www.tug.org/applications/tex4ht/mn.html#QQ1-1-83
>

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Re: General question on dealing with Latex to word conversion

[Matt Lundin]

Marvin,

Marvin Doyley <marvinpas@gmail.com> writes:

> tex4ht is awesome, it even does a good job with equations.
> My new workflow is org - > tex -> html (via tex4ht) - > doc or docx
> (textutil)

Thanks for this update! I'm glad to hear that tex4ht proved useful.
Thanks also for mentioning textutil - I added it to the FAQ entry.

Best,
Matt