Rtf to plain text, advice needed

[Brad Dykzeul]

Hello all,

I unfortunately have a project for a client which requires that a rtf to plain text.  I am using http://www.rtf-to-xml.com/ to convert the rtf to xml and then using Apache fop(.94) to convert xml to plain text.  I'm using all the recommended font attributes.  It doesn't look too bad. In fact better than I thought.  However my client is being very picky and the plain text tables just don't look good enough for them.  I am wondering if anyone has had any experience dealing with rtf to plain text that involves improving the look of the tables. Any help/tips or warnings would be helpful.  Thanks

-Brad

[Vincent Hennebert-2]

Hi Brad,

Have you explored the OpenOffice route? You might get better results and
that would save you one conversion step.
I’ve never tried myself, but I know it’s possible to run OpenOffice as
a batch process, without launching the user interface.

HTH,
Vincent


Brad Dykzeul wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I unfortunately have a project for a client which requires that a rtf to
> plain text.  I am using http://www.rtf-to-xml.com/ to convert the rtf to xml
> and then using Apache fop(*.94*) to convert xml to plain text.  I'm using
> all the recommended font attributes.  It doesn't look too bad. In fact
> better than I thought.  However my client is being very picky and the plain
> text tables just don't look good enough for them.  I am wondering if anyone
> has had any experience dealing with rtf to plain text that involves
> improving the look of the tables. Any help/tips or warnings would be
> helpful.  Thanks
>
> -Brad
>

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[Brad Dykzeul]

By OpenOffice route do you mean opening a rtf in OO and then hitting "save as" and then selecting plain text?  I have tried this with both OO and Word and they both remove all formatting.  The clients I am working with are being very picky and the converter I'm working with in combination with Apache FOP offers better formatting. 

-Brad

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 2:42 AM, Vincent Hennebert <vhennebert@...> wrote:

Hi Brad,

Have you explored the OpenOffice route? You might get better results and
that would save you one conversion step.
I’ve never tried myself, but I know it’s possible to run OpenOffice as
a batch process, without launching the user interface.

HTH,
Vincent

Brad Dykzeul wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I unfortunately have a project for a client which requires that a rtf to
> plain text.  I am using http://www.rtf-to-xml.com/ to convert the rtf to xml
> and then using Apache fop(*.94*) to convert xml to plain text.  I'm using
> all the recommended font attributes.  It doesn't look too bad. In fact
> better than I thought.  However my client is being very picky and the plain
> text tables just don't look good enough for them.  I am wondering if anyone
> has had any experience dealing with rtf to plain text that involves
> improving the look of the tables. Any help/tips or warnings would be
> helpful.  Thanks
>
> -Brad
>

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--
Brad Dykzeul
Mirth Corporation
[phone]

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[Vincent Hennebert-2]

Brad Dykzeul wrote:
> By OpenOffice route do you mean opening a rtf in OO and then hitting "save
> as" and then selecting plain text?  I have tried this with both OO and Word
> and they both remove all formatting.  The clients I am working with are
> being very picky and the converter I'm working with in combination with
> Apache FOP offers better formatting.

Hmmm. Then you have to first figure out whether it’s rtf-to-xml that
doesn’t produce the right FO document, or FOP that doesn’t produce
a good enough text output out of this FO document. In the latter case,
you’re probably better off converting the FO to PDF, then the PDF to
text using a third-party tool. Have a look at the following thread:
http://markmail.org/thread/y7k2awwwxuihyw2y

HTH,
Vincent

> -Brad
>
> On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 2:42 AM, Vincent Hennebert <vhennebert@...>wrote:
>
>> Hi Brad,
>>
>> Have you explored the OpenOffice route? You might get better results and
>> that would save you one conversion step.
>> I’ve never tried myself, but I know it’s possible to run OpenOffice as
>> a batch process, without launching the user interface.
>>
>> HTH,
>> Vincent
>>
>>
>> Brad Dykzeul wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I unfortunately have a project for a client which requires that a rtf to
>>> plain text.  I am using http://www.rtf-to-xml.com/ to convert the
>>> rtf to
>> xml
>>> and then using Apache fop(*.94*) to convert xml to plain text.  I'm using
>>> all the recommended font attributes.  It doesn't look too bad. In fact
>>> better than I thought.  However my client is being very picky and the
>> plain
>>> text tables just don't look good enough for them.  I am wondering if
>> anyone
>>> has had any experience dealing with rtf to plain text that involves
>>> improving the look of the tables. Any help/tips or warnings would be
>>> helpful.  Thanks
>>>
>>> -Brad

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