file type question

[dow]

When converting a document from a formatted file like MS word or open office, which is better to use as an intermediate file format, HTM, or RTF? And why?

Thanks,
Dow

[kovidgoyal]

htm as it has more features and is generally better supported by most converters.

[RWood]

However, if you are using a product like BookDesigner it is generally better to stay as close as possible to the original source rather than convert to one thing and then another.

[dow]

Thanks. I'm not using book designer yet, as I don't have MS word on my home computer. Do you have any idea if there's a way to get it to use OpenOffice?

Thanks,
Dow

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by dow

Thanks. I'm not using book designer yet, as I don't have MS word on my home computer. Do you have any idea if there's a way to get it to use OpenOffice?

Open Office can save to Word format. I don't think BD requires Word to be present. Word docs are simply one electronic format it understands.
______
Dennis

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Open Office can save to Word format. I don't think BD requires Word to be present. Word docs are simply one electronic format it understands.
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Dennis

BD gives errors opening most file types (RTF, HTML, LIT) if you don't have Word installed. I just found this out when I installed BD on the XP Partition of my new computer. I had to dig out my Office 2007 Home disc & install Word to get things to work properly. Otherwise I the only file type I tried that would open was plain txt.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

BD gives errors opening most file types (RTF, HTML, LIT) if you don't have Word installed. I just found this out when I installed BD on the XP Partition of my new computer. I had to dig out my Office 2007 Home disc & install Word to get things to work properly. Otherwise I the only file type I tried that would open was plain txt.

Weird. OK, I sit corrected.

BD is apparently calling components of Word to do various things. I have Office 2000 installed here. I may try removing Word 2000 and installing Word 97 to see what results I get. The OP's problem may be Word 97.

I don't mind BD doing that, but it would be nice if requiring at least Word 2000 as a prerequisite was documented somewhere.
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Dennis

[HarryT]

BD uses one of the COM components of Word to do file conversion.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by HarryT

BD uses one of the COM components of Word to do file conversion.

Do you happen to know which?
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Dennis

[igorsk]

Word.Application, most probably.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Do you happen to know which?
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Dennis

I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't.

[dow]

Thanks for the responses. I was hoping ot avoid installing MS word on my home laptop, as I really like OpenOffice, and I was hoping ot avoid having to pay MS's licensing fees, but I guess if I want to use BD, I don't have much of a choice.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by dow

Thanks for the responses. I was hoping ot avoid installing MS word on my home laptop, as I really like OpenOffice, and I was hoping ot avoid having to pay MS's licensing fees, but I guess if I want to use BD, I don't have much of a choice.

Microsoft offers freeware viewers for various Office files, including Word. Try downloading and installing a Word viewer and see if it does the trick. The Word 2007 viewer is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

I don't know if it will add the functionality BD requires, but it can't hurt to try.
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Dennis

[dcalder]

Word is definitely required and an older version such as Word 97 probably won't work (it didn't for me). I downloaded the 60-day trial version of Office 2007 Home & Student, which worked quite nicely with BD. I'm a WordPerfect user myself, so I hate having to install Word too. I know expecting WordPerfect to be an acceptable substitute is absurd - the two programs have a very different philosophy/approach to word processing - but I really think programmers could at least design to use OpenOffice instead of Word. After all, Word is not part of a default Windows OS install. Besides, if they used OpenOffice as a resource, I would think that it would be a lot easier to port across to other operating systems, like Mac OS X & Linux.

[dcalder]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Microsoft offers freeware viewers for various Office files, including Word. Try downloading and installing a Word viewer and see if it does the trick. The Word 2007 viewer is here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...DisplayLang=en

I don't know if it will add the functionality BD requires, but it can't hurt to try.
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Dennis

I have the 2003 Word viewer installed, along with the updates that supposedly are equivalent to uninstalling it and installing the 2007 viewer. It didn't do the trick. Neither did Word 97. It looks like it has to be a full-fledged install of Word 2000 or newer.