Re: Conversion tools

[mrossi@csc.com]

     That's generally tough stuff. you're best bet would probably be too
write a custom script/program based on your specific requirements using
Perl, Omnimark or some such. If you have a ton of this kind of thing to do,
you should probably seek out a professional conversion house (like Docucon
or Document Conversion Labs).

     The problem is that apps like Word, Excel, etc. use proprietary binary
file formats. So you need to use an export function to get stuff like RTF,
CSV, etc. But these generally don't provide enough structural hints to
enable automated conversion. If you're able to author/re-author using
something like I4I's S4/Text (a Word plugin) then can you can probably
manage to get something workable out. But these types of solutions are only
applicable at authoring time. Other conversion solutions generally require
very strict use of templates/styles, etc. during authoring in order to make
the later conversion possible.

     For plain text (CSV, etc.) you might want to look into a spec called
XFlat. I don't recall the company that sponsors it (and haven't used it
myself), but they have a utility for converting plain text using this
intermediate format. Best of luck!

Michael A. Rossi
Computer Sciences Corporation
mailto:mrossi@csc.com
856-983-4400 x4911



                                                                                                                   
                    Matt Came                                                                                      
                    <Matt.Came@ct        To:     "'xml-dev@lists.xml.org'" <xml-dev@lists.xml.org>                 
                    p.com>               cc:                                                                       
                                         Subject:     Conversion tools                                             
                    07/23/01                                                                                       
                    10:32 AM                                                                                       
                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                   


Hi,

Can anyone recommend any tools for converting standard format documents
into
XML. e.g Word, Excel, Text

Matt