Translating XyWin to Word or WordStar

["Michael P. Kube-McDowell" K-Mac@xxxxxxxx]

Help!

I've just finished another manuscript (a whopper--680 pages) using
XyWin 4.11, and am now facing the same old same old, two
years further into obsolescence oblivion--namely, problems with
exporting the files to a word processor used by someone other than
the stalwart members of this list. 

In particular, it's highly desirable that I be able to export to
MS Word format for my agent and/or WordStar for my
collaborator. (My publisher's typesetting bureau can still cope with
XyWrite files, which is a blessing.)

The native XyWin W4W44T.DLL output filter for WinWord (09-02-93,
89840 bytes) only goes up to Version 2.0. I exported one of my
chapters using it, then peeked at the chapter with Lotus Magellan and
WordPad (I don't have Word available on any system here). Both showed
the same thing--a badly corrupted text with extra spaces inserted at
seemingly random intervals (from every tenth character or so to every
25th character or so).

There's a newer W4W44T.DLL file that came with Ami Pro 3.1 (07-28-94,
136080 bytes). It covers Version 6.0 as well. I'd like to try it in
place of the XyWin version. I've read some posts here about adding
filters to XyWin by hand-editing the TEXTOUT.FLT file, but there's a
missing piece of information--which flag needs to be added to end of
the line. My first guess found be /V2, but I'd be glad to hear from
someone who knows for sure before I start fiddling.

The Adobe File Utilities CD (those files available in Hungary, or
wherever) includes W4W49T.DLL, a MS Word filter dated 05-60-96. This
is my fallback position if the above fails. Poking around inside the
DLL, I find that it's for WinWord 6.0 and 7.0, and MacWord 6.0. Once
again, though, there's the question of which flags to set at the end
of each line in TEXTOUT.FLT--does anyone know?

The WordStar export looks even uglier in Lotus Magellan (again, I
don't have WS itself available, but Magellan has always been able
to let me look at version 2.1 through 5.5 files) than the Word export
does--one character per line, every other line. I haven't found any
newer WordStar filter--not in Corel 4.0, in WinFax 4.0, in AmiPro
3.1, or among the Adobe files.

If anyone has any tried-and-true prescription for getting from XyWin
to either WinWord or WordStar, I'd be grateful for your assistance.

Best,

   K-Mac



  ---] Michael Paul McDowell, writing as Michael P. Kube-McDowell
  ---] Author of THE QUIET POOLS and STAR WARS: THE BLACK FLEET CRISIS
  ---] Web Site: http://www.sff.net/people/K-Mac
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