Re: [docbook-apps] XSLT based DocBook to RTF conversion?

["Bruce D'Arcus" <bdarcus.lists@gmail.com>]

On 3/18/06, Steve Ball <Steve.Ball@explain.com.au> wrote:

> Whenever someone has asked me about DocBook->RTF (or any other XML-
>  >RTF) conversion, the purpose has always been to create a version of
> the document that is editable by Word.  Since converting to WordML
> achieves that aim, and is far easier than creating RTF, the need to
> convert to RTF has pretty much gone by-the-by.
>
> There is the issue of supporting older versions of Word, but it turns
> out to be a simple matter to use a small VB script to open the WordML
> in Office 2003 and then use the "Save As" function to produce a .doc
> file.

That assumes, of course, you have access to Word 2003.

A simpler solution (which I've mentioned here before) is to just use
XHTML. Since at least as far back as Office 2000 Word will map classes
to its inernal style system, which goes a long way. I've provided a
book manuscript to a publisher who had otherwise insisted on .doc
files, and they were happy with it.

Of course, longer term, WordML and the next version of Office XML
would be a better way to go.

Bruce