[odt] User-visible improvements

[odt] User-visible improvements

[Jambunathan K]

I pushed few user-visible improvements to org-lparse/org-odt a few
minutes ago. With these changes an exported document could be
post-processed to another format (using an external converter) with just
a single command (i.e., you no longer have to launch OpenOffice and do
"Save As" etc)

(For the impatient: Start with item 3!)

1. A choice of command-line converters for org-lparse dependent backends
   like org-odt and org-xhtml.

   M-x customize-variable RET org-lparse-convert-processes RET

   - Currently two converters are supported. 
     1. BasicODConverter - Home-brewed converter. This is available as
        an OpenOffice extension in contrib/odt/BasicODConverter dir of
        org git repo.

     2. unoconv - Unable to install this locally on my machine. So use
        of this as a converter is largely untested. But should work
        without any glitches.

     3. If there are other popular converters that are in use, I would
        like to add them to this list.

2. M-x customize-variable RET org-lparse-convert-process RET
   - Choose one of the based on your preferences and availability

3. Make C-c C-e O export directly to your preferred output format
   (doc?). Use 

   M-x customize-variable RET org-export-odt-preferred-output-format RET

   (But review items 1 and 2 before doing this)

Side-note: You can use M-x org-lparse-convert to convert an odt file to
say pdf or even docbook or a csv file to xls or a odp file to ppt. This
will depend on your converter capabilities. So checkout 

M-x customize-variable RET org-lparse-convert-capabilities RET

You can use org-lparse to export to xhtml and post-process it to odt etc
etc without leaving the comforts of your Emacs session (Remember the
pre-odt days?)

Jambunathan K.

-- 

Help confirming odt->doc bug (Was Re: [odt] User-visible improvements)

[Jambunathan K]

> I pushed few user-visible improvements to org-lparse/org-odt a few
> minutes ago. With these changes an exported document could be
> post-processed to another format (using an external converter) with just
> a single command (i.e., you no longer have to launch OpenOffice and do
> "Save As" etc)

This addition seems to be bearing fruit immediately. I just reported a
problematic behaviour with org->odt->doc conversion in LibreOffice
mailing list. See

http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.libreoffice.devel/14739

I am using OpenOffice.org-3.2.1 (OOO20m18/Build:9502).

Does anyone else see the reported behaviour with recent LibreOffice
builds? I am surprised that no one has complained about this problematic
behaviour yet. Is it that people in this list (and their friends) have
actually shifted to OpenDocument formats and don't rely on Word
anymore. Or Is it that users simply "hand fix" the generated document.

Jambunathan K.

Re: Help confirming odt->doc bug (Was Re: [odt] User-visible improvements)

[Achim Gratz]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:
> Does anyone else see the reported behaviour with recent LibreOffice
> builds?

The behaviour seems to be the same in LibreOffice3.3.3.  


Regards,
Achim.
-- 
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SD adaptations for Waldorf Q V3.00R3 and Q+ V3.54R2:
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Re: Help confirming odt->doc bug (Was Re: [odt] User-visible improvements)

[Jambunathan K]

Achim Gratz <Stromeko@nexgo.de> writes:

> Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:
>> Does anyone else see the reported behaviour with recent LibreOffice
>> builds?
>
> The behaviour seems to be the same in LibreOffice3.3.3.  

Thanks for confirming this.

> Regards,
> Achim.

-- 

Re: Help confirming odt->doc bug (Was Re: [odt] User-visible improvements)

[Jambunathan K]

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

>> I pushed few user-visible improvements to org-lparse/org-odt a few
>> minutes ago. With these changes an exported document could be
>> post-processed to another format (using an external converter) with just
>> a single command (i.e., you no longer have to launch OpenOffice and do
>> "Save As" etc)
>
> This addition seems to be bearing fruit immediately. I just reported a
> problematic behaviour with org->odt->doc conversion in LibreOffice
> mailing list. See
>
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.libreoffice.devel/14739
>
> I am using OpenOffice.org-3.2.1 (OOO20m18/Build:9502).

I have pushed an alternative implementation + workaround that doesn't
trigger this bug. Please update your local copies.

> Does anyone else see the reported behaviour with recent LibreOffice
> builds? I am surprised that no one has complained about this problematic
> behaviour yet. Is it that people in this list (and their friends) have
> actually shifted to OpenDocument formats and don't rely on Word
> anymore. Or Is it that users simply "hand fix" the generated document.
>
> Jambunathan K.
>
>

-- 

Re: Help confirming odt->doc bug (Was Re: [odt] User-visible improvements)

[Jambunathan K]

> This addition seems to be bearing fruit immediately. I just reported a
> problematic behaviour with org->odt->doc conversion in LibreOffice
> mailing list. See
>
> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.documentfoundation.libreoffice.devel/14739
>
> I am using OpenOffice.org-3.2.1 (OOO20m18/Build:9502).
>

Filed as https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40272 (CCing the
list mostly for my own later reference)

-- 

Re: [odt] User-visible improvements

[Bastien]

Hi Jambunathan,

these are great improvements -- I'm surprised people didn't thank 
you more for this!  So, thanks.

Jambunathan K <kjambunathan@gmail.com> writes:

> 1. A choice of command-line converters for org-lparse dependent backends
>    like org-odt and org-xhtml.
>
>    M-x customize-variable RET org-lparse-convert-processes RET
>
>    - Currently two converters are supported. 
>      1. BasicODConverter - Home-brewed converter. This is available as
>         an OpenOffice extension in contrib/odt/BasicODConverter dir of
>         org git repo.
>
>      2. unoconv - Unable to install this locally on my machine. So use
>         of this as a converter is largely untested. But should work
>         without any glitches.
>
>      3. If there are other popular converters that are in use, I would
>         like to add them to this list.
>
> 2. M-x customize-variable RET org-lparse-convert-process RET
>    - Choose one of the based on your preferences and availability

I am not sure I understand why we need `org-lparse-convert-process' and
`org-lparse-convert-processes' -- isn't it possible to just have the
first one, while listing the choices within this option?  

> 3. Make C-c C-e O export directly to your preferred output format
>    (doc?). Use 
>
>    M-x customize-variable RET org-export-odt-preferred-output-format RET
>
>    (But review items 1 and 2 before doing this)

I use unoconv.  

Can you give me an example configuration if I want C-c C-e O to output
files directly in, say, .doc (MS Word) format?

Thanks again, looking forward to test this more heavily!

-- 
 Bastien

Re: [odt] User-visible improvements

[suvayu ali]

Hi Jambu and Bastien,

On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 9:31 AM, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
> Hi Jambunathan,
>
> these are great improvements -- I'm surprised people didn't thank
> you more for this!  So, thanks.
>

Does this feature mean we can export to other common word processor
formats like .doc using the odt exporter and command line utilities
for the final conversion? Although this is not of direct interest to
me (I stay away from anything not Linux :-p), it might be interesting
to my Mac/Windows friends. :)

I also see Jambu mentions odp to pdf. I wasn't aware the odt exporter
could export to odp. This would be something I would love to test
more. Is there any special configuration I need to do? I tried looking
for variables, but nothing jumped out as an obvious customisation in a
cursory glance.

And of course a huge thanks to Jambu. :)

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: [odt] User-visible improvements

[Jambunathan K]

suvayu ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi Jambu and Bastien,
>
> On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 9:31 AM, Bastien <bzg@altern.org> wrote:
>> Hi Jambunathan,
>>
>> these are great improvements -- I'm surprised people didn't thank
>> you more for this!  So, thanks.
>>
>
> Does this feature mean we can export to other common word processor
> formats like .doc using the odt exporter and command line utilities
> for the final conversion? Although this is not of direct interest to
> me (I stay away from anything not Linux :-p), it might be interesting
> to my Mac/Windows friends. :)

Yes.

org->odt-><whatever including doc and pdf>

First link in the chain is through an org backend and the second link in
the chain is through a converter.

(Think of exporting to latex natively and then using pdflated to
generate pdf. The principle is just the same)

> I also see Jambu mentions odp to pdf. 

Yes you can convert to already-existing_odp->pdf. More specifically you
can do all conversions that you typically do with "Save As" and "Export
to" options while working on Writer/Presentation/Spreadsheet/Web/Drawing
documents.

More specifically if you have latex, docbook or mediawiki extensions
installed you can export do a html->latex, odt->docbook, rtf->mediawiki
throught the converter.

The command to use is

M-x org-lparse-convert RET <give the document> RET <choose the final
format> RET 

and the external converter will do the job for you.

> I wasn't aware the odt exporter could export to odp. 

You do a org->odt->odp. This is an easter egg in BasicODConverter (and
this feature is not available in unoconv). You can add a odp entry in
org-lparse-convert-capabilities as below

,----
| (("Text"  <---- Under Text category
|   ("odt" "ott" "doc" "rtf")
|   (("pdf" "pdf")
|    ("odt" "odt")
|    ("xhtml" "html")
|    ("rtf" "rtf")
|    ("ott" "ott")
|    ("doc" "doc")
|    ("ooxml" "xml")
|    ("html" "html")
|    ("odp" "odp"))) <---- Add this entry
|   [snip])
`----

odt->odp currently uses File->Send->Outline To Presentation
(BasicODConverter is authored by me. So without much of haggling :-) I
can have it do File->Send->Autoabstract to Presentation)

This is an asynchronous call and it is NOT headless. So basically the
LibreOffice window will pop-up and wait for few second before declaring
that conversion is done.

If there is enough interest in this direction I would file a feature
request against LibreOffice to provide a synchronous API for outline to
presentation conversion. (From the OpenOffice mailing list I understand
that odt->html conversion was asynchronous but was later converter to
synchronous mechanism based on a bug report filed by the JODConverter)


,---- from Main.Bas in BasicODConverter dir
| 	' Export Outline to Presentation
| 	dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")
| 	dispatcher.executeDispatch(inDoc.CurrentController.Frame, ".uno:SendOutlineToStarImpress", "", 0, Array())
| 
| 	' Dispatch event above is aynchronous. Wait for a few seconds for the above event to finish
| 	Wait(WaitFor * 1000)
`----

> This would be something I would love to test more. Is there any
> special configuration I need to do? I tried looking for variables, but
> nothing jumped out as an obvious customisation in a cursory glance.

> And of course a huge thanks to Jambu. :)

-- 

Re: [odt] User-visible improvements

[Jambunathan K]

> I am not sure I understand why we need `org-lparse-convert-process'
> and `org-lparse-convert-processes' -- isn't it possible to just have
> the first one, while listing the choices within this option?

I need a radio-table of an (a)list with a simultaneous ability to modify
radio-table entries.

Do you know how to accomplish that with defcustom? 

>> 3. Make C-c C-e O export directly to your preferred output format
>>    (doc?). Use 
>>
>>    M-x customize-variable RET org-export-odt-preferred-output-format RET
>>
>>    (But review items 1 and 2 before doing this)
>
> I use unoconv.  
>
> Can you give me an example configuration if I want C-c C-e O to output
> files directly in, say, .doc (MS Word) format?

Set org-lparse-convert-process to unoconv (through the custom
interface).

Set org-export-odt-preferred-output-format to doc.

If I have got the commandline for unoconv wrong then you need to edit
it's entry in org-lparse-convert-processes.

I think unoconv requires that you start a converter process and have the
converter client connect to it. Please make sure that the conversion
happens just fine on the command line before using the
org-lparse(-convert)? commands.

BasicODConverter doesn't rely on a server process so it's plug and play.

--