Re: Word conversion of XyWrite files?

["Olson, Timothy" timothy_olson@xxxxxxxx]

>Timothy Olson:
>People convert files in order to preserve formatting information.
>All you want to do, apparently, is import *text*. And removing the
>formatting codes in XY is only a question of one quick search/replace
>macro -- which you can assign to one key. Why bother with Wurgh?

I agree--why use Word? But the rest of the world (or at least, the rest
of my company) is using it, so the issue is really how we Xy users have
to work around that.

By your question I see that I've been unclear. We want to import the text
*and* preserve the formatting. We have Word for Word. We have MacLink
Plus. But why should I bother with them when someone else is unwilling to
use XyWrite to read my files? I just give them the Xy files and say,
"Here, you have the macro, you can read these." It puts the onus on them.
End of my involvement.

This brings up another issue regarding translations. Any translator will
try to interpret what the formatting means in the original document and
try to apply formatting in the "new" document that mimics it. In my
experience, that interpretation is always problematic. It either means
lots of formatting *junk,* or, at best, a lot of unnecessary formatting.
In addition, many of the fonts are not preserved.

In terms of going from XyWrite to something else (in this case, Word),
what formatting is someone going to have going in XyWrite
anyway--XyWrite's formatting is always simple and straightforward and,
unlike other word processors, XyWrite doesn't reapply formatting
redundantly to each successive paragraph. Which minimizes the need for a
"third-party" translation. It seems like a more robust solution to figure
out what your formatting elements are *yourself* and decide *yourself*
what they should mean in the new word processor. After all, how is a
translator going to figure out what font PT12 is supposed to be? And if
you have XyWrite defaults controlling other formatting, that information
isn't going to be in the file, so it isn't going to translate. So, to
address Rene's questions as to why I do it this way: The only *clean,*
*thorough,* and *complete* way I've found of translating Xy to Word is to
call up the Xy file directly in Word, then rerender the formatting, based
on the Xy codes, via a macro. (Use search and replace to just delete some
formatting elements, use wildcards to actually convert others, and then
apply other formatting and style characteristics that are native to
Word).

Timothy Olson
Editorial/Technical Assistant
Tyndale House Publishers
(630) 668-8310
(630) 668-8311(FAX)
Timothy_Olson@xxxxxxxx