I wonder if anyone has handy a macro for MSW that would change text between underbars into italics? The reason I ask is that I prepare a lot of text in XyWrite using _the underbar_ technique to indicate italics. If the document then has to be printed in MSW, it can be time consuming to do the replacements manually. (I simply import into MSW as plain text; then apply a font.) If I were preparing a longer document that I knew was going to be typeset, I would use Quark or Indesign markup codes, like orbut this is just for everyday short pieces that need to be printed in Word. This is the only day-to-day problem I have.
Another way of doing it would be to use XyWrite's italic attribute and then use one of the available word converters to doc, but it seems to me that is a potentially messier approach. I like the idea of keeping my text files so plain, all lower-ASCII.I could ask the same question about *bold, except that I never use bold. Many thanks to anyone who can help.