Re: NB filter question

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

"Richard A. Sherer" wrote (and a very good point it was!):

> I saved one of my XyWrite manuscripts in .rtf format using Word for Word.
> Then I opened it in Nota Bene using the Nota Bene for Windows option
> instead of Autodetect. Two quick CI commands got rid of the unrecognized
> coding at the end of paragraphs and the \tab at the beginnings of the next
> lines.

One minor issue: did you do a search for a hard return in the usual XyWrite
fashion? They probably were not the 3-bit XyWrite characters. This may be an
issue, but maybe not.


> I'm sure that those commands could be converted to a macro easily
> enough.

Why quite so.


> The other garbage coding at the top of the file was easily deleted
> as well. So, it took me an extra 30 seconds or so to open the file and
> would have taken less time if I had had the macros prepared.

Absolutely.


> Lots of people
> on this list routinely run macros in XyWrite anyway. So, why is it such a
> burden to have to do it in Nota Bene? Even with the relatively minor
> inconvenience, it's still a better program than Word. Would you rather use
> a clunky program like Word just because it recognizes one particular file
> format?
>

Ah but here's the catch: for simple documents this would be fine; but when you
have documents coded with levels of headings, italics, superscripts, footnotes,
and cool-looking typefaces tossed into the brew at the whim of the author
(merely because they look cool to him) the process becomes far more
complicated. There is no question in my mind that what you say can be done, but
if there are filters that will do the job more efficiently, the whole process
becomes wheel-reinventing.

Anyway, I find that the easiest thing to do is call the RTF document up in
Word. Save the file as a Word 6.0 file (for convenience's sake) and then call
it up in NB. Voila!

As for the issue of whether RTF is/is not known in the academic world, my
answer would be a resounding not known. At one point I made the attempt to ask
several of my authors to do a save/as to RTF, which struck me as the equivalent
of reminding them to turn a circuit-breaker switch to full off before turning
it on again to restore power, but no--but I was met with duhs. Fuhgedddaboudit!

--
Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx
212-666-1000 x7109 (phone) 212-316-3100 (fax)
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup