Re: WordPort conversion filters

[leslie bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Robert Hemenway wrote:

> At 10:32 AM 11/5/99 -0500, leslie bialler wrote:
> >
> >
>
> Re: WordPort conversion
>
> >Robert,
> >
> >Thanks for the info. A question: my biggest beefs with WFW filters are:
> >
> >1. There is no way to configure it so that it will _ignore_ formatting you
> have
> >no use for anyway. Therefore, as I suspect you have noticed, one often gets
> >conversions filled with meaningless font specifications and color modes.
> >
> >2. In converting _from_ XyWrite back to Word, the SS/US commands don't filter
> >through properly. This applies in Word Perfect as well.
> >
> >How does WordPort deal with the above?
>
> >Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
>
> Leslie--
>
> I haven't done enough with WordPort to be altogether certain of the answers
> to your questions. You might try asking on their website, www.acii.com.
>
> 1. So far as I can see, the WordPort customization file lets you defeat
> most formatting in the original file and lets you set your own, with
> commands like "Keep_Font_Name N"--where default is Y and N is No--and then
> give your own font spec. You can direct the program to convert italic to
> underline, etc. Handy--to take a simple example--if you're converting an
> author's disk files from an attempt at pretty formatting to the Courier
> with underlining you want for hard copy. There are 20 single-spaced pages
> in my printout of the WordPort manual that deal solely with the
> customization commands.
>

Ah. This is excellent news. I will look into this WordPort. Of course, the NB
filters apparently _are_ WordPort filters.
Perhaps Ken Frank is using them as well. Hopefully Anne Putnam and Ken will both
comment.

>
> 2. Can WordPort deal with style counters? I dunno. Can any conversion
> program now? From what I recall seeing here, Xy>Word conversions bungle the
> SS/US counters.

They _certainly_ do!

>
> The WordPort manual has a full page of notes on the way it handles Xy's
> files. Reminds you that in the absence of a counter in the file it must use
> Xy's standard default formatting value, since it can't see changes you may
> have made in the .DFL file. (This saved me a lot of trouble, since I've
> changed some of those commands in the my DFL. I use a different DFL file
> when I'm working on stuff that will be converted to Word.)

Ah. Very clever. I will keep this in mind.


> And WordPort
> notes that Xy's counters for automatic numbering and its markers for
> indexing and table-of-contents lists are more extensive than those of other
> word processors--that WordPort must make "certain assumptions" in
> converting them and may guess wrong.
>

Well, in my conversions all that stuff has to come out anyway. In order to have a
Quarkable file, you have to get rid of all the word processing automation and
replace it all with staight text.

>
> Nota Bene's styles are more elaborate than Xy's. There are predefined
> academic styles for the Chicago Manual, the APA, the MLA, Turabian, and I
> think others You can create and save up to nine customized styles. The NB
> manual for NB4/DOS (there's no manual for NBWin but it's still available
> the last I heard with NB4/DOS) has fifty pages on styles. The XyWin manual
> has fifteen.
>

Tech Group has no idea how sophisticated their styles are. I swear.

>
> That's about all I can tell you. Wish that I could give you more definite
> answers.
>

Thanks for all your help. I'm posting back to the list instead of you privately,
because this might interest others.

>
> Robert Hemenway

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