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Textprocessors to LaTeX - Overview
last update: Feb 7, 2009
The converters on this page are way outdated, the information is provided for those who are interested in the history.
First, Paul Dubois <dubois "at"
primate.wisc.edu> wrote an RTF reader and
converter to plain text or troff. The version is dated April 1991.
See RTF
utilities homepage (external link).
a) Based on this reader, Robert Lupton <rhl "at" astro.princeton.edu> wrote the rtf2TeX converter. Last revision date: May 1992
He comments on this as follows (README-file):
citation begin>>
This is a first attempt at an RTF to TeX converter. The parts that
handle fonts and such like seem to work pretty well, although they
could be improved, but the table handling is a problem. I had a
good deal of trouble trying to figure out what particular rtf
control codes were supposed to do; this makes it hard
to convert them into TeX. I have tried to produce good TeX, but this
is not easy due to the sloppy way that many RTF writers generate
redundant font and other changes.
Many things are not handled at all, more due to my lacking motivation
than to their intrinsic difficulty. For example, I don't support
double columns, but it would be easy enough to do (I'd generate a
control sequence to do it, and add the TeX code required to the
TeX_defs file. I even have the TeX somewhere...).
<<citation end
So far the beginning of the README file. Later he commented:
citation begin>>
Most (all?) RTF is hopelessly unstructured
(the equivalent of \bf \it Hello \rm World \bf He \it \rm said. )
and the code that I wrote tries valiantly to convert this to something
sensible, in this case
{\it Hello\/} World {\bf He} said.
It is this attempt to make the output TeX usable that makes the code
complicated...
I did not try to convert equations or tables as I could find no
adaquate description of either; I don't think that it would be
very hard.
<<citation end
My comment is: Tables yes, but formulas will be difficult.
Can be found on all CTAN sites, dir .../support/rtf2tex
b) Based on these two, Erwin Wechtl wrote the rtf2LaTeX
converter.
Last revision date: Aug. 1993
He comments on this as follows (README-file):
citation begin>>
rtf2LaTeX is a filter built on Paul
DuBois' RTF reader that converts RTF (Microsoft's
Rich Text Format) into LaTeX. rtf2LaTeX expends a good deal of effort in an attempt to make the resulting
LaTeX maintainable and modifiable.
<<citation end
At the moment converts text elements, but no formulas and no
graphics.
C-source and an executable for MSDOS can be found on all CTAN sites,
dir .../support/rtf2latex
(The ... stands for a host specific base directory, which often is
either "/pub/tex" or "/tex-archive")
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009 Wilfried Hennings
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