From: lubkin@cs.rochester.edu (Saul Lubkin)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,comp.text,comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: MicrosoftWord -> rtf, and WriteNow -> rtf, problems
Date: 17 Nov 92 04:26:19 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department University of Rochester

I have a large technical book, with a lot of equations, that was written
in Mac WriteNow.  I'm trying to convert it to TeX.  My method is to
first save the files as .rtf files, and then convert the .rtf files
to TeX, using Richard Lupton's "rtf2TeX" program.

I've found that the converted .rtf files have a lot of non-ascii
characters in it -- characters with the high bit set.  I fixed
this, using a PD "fixrtf" program, and a filter that I designed.

Still there are some major problems -- e.g., WriteNow apparently doesn't
properly save "{" and "}" characters in the .rtf file.

So, I decided on another approach.  Namely, first convert the files
to Microsoft Word, then save as .rtf files, and then use "rtf2TeX".

The files converted alright to Microsoft Word.  But, when the MSW
files were saved as .rtf files -- SURPRISE!  The resulting .rtf files
were even worse than when made with WriteNow.

Here's a sample from a note that I sent to a friend:

>(1) The rtf file made via Microsoft Word (wn -> Microsoft Word -> rtf)
>appears to be almost useless.  It contains MUCH more non-ascii
>characters than the "wn ->rtf" version -- about ten times as many
>characters with the high bit set.
>
>In fact, even the preamble to the rtf file -- which is supposed to
>define fonts, etc. -- consists almost entirely of non-ascii characters
>with the high bit set.  (Not so for the "wn -> rtf" file -- it has a
>legal ascii preamble.)
>
>Converting this file to TeX, using rtf2TeX, produces a pretty useless
>file.  E.g., to mention one thing, all subscript and superscript
>information is lost -- and Greek letters come out as ordinary Roman
>ones.  And math mode is totally lost, too.  Conversion to plain ascii --
>losing all formatting codes -- would be preferable to using this
>"wn -> Microsoft Word -> rtf" file.
>
>But the fact that it is so bad is VERY strange -- maybe even suspicious.
>"rtf" is a format invented by Microsoft, supposedly to be a pure ascii
>foramt, that is supposedly platform, OS and application independent.
>Granted that it fails miserably in this (it is OS dependent, platform
>dependent and application dependent -- and does not seem to be pure
>ascii for anything that we've tried yet :) -- still, since Microsoft
>Word is Microsoft's own application, and rtf is Microsoft's own 
>standard, it is VERY suspicious that an rtf file prepared from
>Microsoft Word should not even have an ascii preamble.
>
>I'm further perplexed, by the several postings that I've read to
>the Internet newsgroup, "comp.text.tex", in which users indicate
>success converting Microsoft Word documents to TeX, by first exporting
>as rtf documents, and then using rtf2TeX.  This definitely would not
>be possible, if the PREAMBLE -- with e.g. the font information --
>was not in the appropriate rtf ascii format.
>
>So, I'm wondering:  Is there more than one way to save a Microsoft
>Word document in rtf format?  I suspect that some other way MUST
>exist, that at least generates a legal rtf preamble.
>
>I'd like your comments on this.
>
>If possible, I'd like to know your comments about (1).

It all seems very strange.  Could it be that some versions of Word make
good .rtf files, and others not?  I'd much appreciate anyone's 
comments on this, or suggestions on how to get a decent .rtf file
by this or any other method.

As I don't read this newsgroup regularly, I'd be most grateful for an
email note.  When I understand what's going on, I'll summarize -- and
I will also publicly thank those who have helped in the Introduction
of the final published work (a large technical research book in pure
mathenmatics).

Thanks in advance,

		Sincerely yours,

		Saul Lubkin
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex