How to convert ODT to DOC/RTF without openoffice.org - openoffice.org

Is there any way to convert odt documents to doc or rtf on linux without openoffice or any library that relies on having openoffice installed ?

OpenOffice.org and its derivatives (LibreOffice, Symphony, etc) currently have one of the best converters between ODF and the Microsoft formats (besides the ODF support built into MS Office).
If those converters are not an option for you, you can choose between some alternatives: Foremost you might want to check out the KOffice project which also offers command line tools for file conversion:
KOffice - File Filters
Then there is another open source project with a free BSD license available on SourceForge:
OpenXML/ODF Translator
This project offers not only add-ins for Microsoft Office, but also a stand-alone command line version which also runs on Linux.
Then there would also be a different approach: You can automate Google Docs using command line tools:
googlecl: Command line tools for the Google Data APIs
Google Docs file conversion have internally been based on the OpenOffice.org file filters, but as far as I know they have been replaced by Aspose, a library for document formats.
Aspose is available in several versions, and as you have a Linux dependency you might want to check out their Java version.
Aspose.Words for Java
The library has its price, but you won't find another library that is not a full office suite with that quality.

If you don't want to use OpenOffice, Google Docs is your best bet. Cross-platform, web-based, and free, it takes about 2 minutes. You would upload the file, and check convert, then redownload as a doc or pdf (depends on what you want).
http://docs.google.com/

You could try this freeware (Docx2Rtf) and run it under WINE.

Checkout unoconv. It relies on OpenOffice.org its core, but it doesn't rely on any GUI packages. I assume this is what you want?

Use http://zamzar.com/ It has great support for all those formats. And is not reliant on any other installed program.
And of course, being a web page, it will work on any OS.

Related

Tools to help me learning Apple Quick time file format?

When I was learning Portable Executable (PE) file format for windows, tools like PE-Explorer and PEView helped me in learning things quickly and nicely. Now, I need to learn and understand the apple quick time file format. Are there any
Tools with which I can browse the quick time format?
Export sections of the file?
Any additional resources other than the specifications?
PS: I'm on windows and I don't have mac/macOS
Tools with which I can browse the quick time format?
On Windows you can use MP4 Explorer, and since it is open source you can also learn from it. Since MP4 uses a similar structure to QuickTime you can use it for both.
There is also the old Dumpster tool from Apple. There is an old version of this tool for Windows, but I could not find it in the Apple developer site. This forum post has a copy that you can try. This is very old though, I'm not sure if it'll work with recent QT files.
If you can obtain access to a Mac running OS X, then you can use Dumpster or Atom Explorer.
Export sections of the file?
I don't know of any public tool for this. Your best bet is to extend MP4 Explorer to do this, or write your own parser. Parsing the atoms is actually pretty simple, things start to get complicated when you need to interpret the content of the atoms and cross-reference them to, for example, locate where the frame data is.
Any additional resources other than the specifications?
The QuickTime file format specification is the best resource for Apple generated QuickTime files, but you may need to do some reverse engineering, as the spec is not very complete in some areas, like the handling of MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video. If you have access to ISO specs, then ISO/IEC 14496-12 is a standardized version of the QuickTime format (or better said, of a subset of it). The ISO/IEC 14496-15 specification builds on top of 14496-12 and defines a specific implementation of this format for the H.264 format. This is the so called MP4 format.
With the above three documents you should be pretty good in terms of documentation.
The MPEG4 (.MP4) file format is based on the QuickTime file format. You should be able to use the MPEG4IP tools to examine .MOV files. You can find windows binaries here.
Media Box Viewer does exactly this and much more. In addition to Quicktime, it can also open mp4, 3gp, etc. It runs on all platforms, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc.
It can be downloaded from www.jdxsoftware.org.

Create a thumbnail of a dwg in in a linux environment

Creating a ruby on rails site that uses RMagick to create thumbnails for many types of images. RMagick cannot read dwg files however.
I've tried a few things, looked into the Java library JDWGLib, which would probably allow me to write a converter, but it would be a total from the ground up solution, where I just need a thumbnail.
Also considered using a viewer program to open the file in a remote X session and do a screen capture, however I'm not sure how I could ever guarantee that the viewer had completed opening when I took the screenshot.
I'm not concerned with being able to manipulate the file other than to create the thumbnail. It is going to be used for commercial purposes, so any libraries used need to be compatible.
cad2svg is a simple Linux command-line utility that automatically converts AutoCAD files (both dwg and dxf) to SVG.
the link
I could not find any command-line-able tool for making thumbnails, on either windows or linux.
I guess you could download the DWGdirect lib (C++) wich allows the exportation of a DWG to a bitmap... but this requires purchasing a membership license on the """Open""" Design Aliance.
I would recommend adding an additional file input on your form that says "thumbnail". And let the users provide the screenshots.

Register applications via Registry table rather than TLBs

We register the capabilities of Delphi applications using TLB files. However, from reading MSDN documentation, "Installation package authors are strongly advised against using the TypeLib table. Instead, they should register type libraries by using the Registry table". Does anyone have any advice on how to do this in a 'Delphi' way for Windows 7?
It means you would need to figure out what registry entries to add to register the tlb. This explains what needs to be done. You could also use a tool like REGCAP.EXE which comes with Visual and generates a .reg file. If you use WiX to build your msi you could use tools like tallow and heat to let them generate the wix files for you.
I'm going to answer my own question! This is a duplicate of this question, which seems to have the answer I needed (just in a different language that I would normally use).

Cross-platform editing for LaTeX documents?

What solutions are there for working on a LaTeX document on both Windows and Linux?
It's a large document, and I will be working daily on both platforms so compatibility is essential if it's two different pieces of software.
Bonus points for a solution that includes easy previewing.
Writing text is not very different from writing software. Similar management techniques apply when scaling up.
Modularity: Split the document to smaller pieces e.g. a separate .tex file for each chapter. I also like to keep the preamble and other LaTeX set-up separate from the body text. My chapter files themselves just have the body text with some markup but do not define any new commands.
Source control: Keep all the source files in a version control tool such as subversion. Transfer files between systems using the tool.
Builds: Have a Makefile or similar to control the build process: it should be consistent and repeatable. Build regularly and fix build problems as soon as possible. If you want easy previews, you can set up a Makefile rule to launch e.g. a PDF viewer after the target PDF has been compiled.
Editing: Use whatever you're compatible with. It does not matter that much, though some good advice has been given by other answerers.
Communication: If there's more than one person working on the same stuff, no tool is a substitute for interpersonal communication.
TeXworks is a new cross-platform TeX editor with a built-in PDF preview that has source-output synchronisation. Click in the source to go to the matching part in the output, and vice versa. It's not the most feature-rich editor, by design, but the simplicity/power trade-off is just right, in my opinion.
I've used Emacs and its AucTeX mode, which is great for editing, as it has a set of very consistent shortcuts to insert many common commands and environments. There are also preview modes that display maths graphically in the Emacs window but I haven't used them.
As with VIM, there's a learning curve of course.
Unlike Legoolas, I'd advise for direct-to-PDF compilation using pdfTeX, but maybe Windows/Linux doesn't have a PDF viewer that automatically reloads the file? I'd be surprised if so (I use Skim on Mac). Check if your viewer supports synctex, as it's quite handy to navigate from PDF to source and back, without the cons of pdfsync.
To compile, my tool of choice is latexmk which is included in TeXlive. It completely automates the build, and can watch the .tex source to rebuild automatically.
Try LyX – The Document Processor, a "What You See Is What You Mean" editor for LaTeX.
Eclipse with its TeXlipse plugin should solve the IDE problem. More important are, however, issues like using only fonts that are available or installable on both platforms.
For previewing I am using Emacs with its Preview Latex feature in the AucTeX package.
For windows, you can use the TeXnicCenter, that is one of the best IDE for windows.
For Linux, you can use simply use Kile (it is possible to use kile with KDE on CygWin, but it is not the perfect solution).
There is no problem to switch from one IDE to another one (since you just save the .tex file and nothing else)
It also exists some cross-platform IDE, but I do not know them:
TeXmaker
TeXmakerX: a fork from TeXmaker
Since you'll probably not want to change text editor from whatever you usually use just for editing LaTeX docs (unless you use an editor which can't do syntax highlighting for LaTeX as well as whatever else you code/write in it), I'd recommend the simple following set of tools:
Whatever text editor you are used to, as long as it can highlight LaTeX markup. If it can't, then find a better editor for using with everything you do!.
Install MikTeX or TeXLive and just use the DVI viewer which comes with them by double-clicking on your DVI file. This will automatically update whenever the dvi file is changed by your editing of the latex file and re-creating the output.
I use Emacs as my text editor of choice, on both Linux and Windows. Setting up some scripts or makefiles to build the latex document when I hit a key is pretty easy, and fits in with everything else I use Emacs for nicely.
Other cross-platform options (many of which have already been mentioned by others in this thread):
LyX
TeXlispse for Eclipse
I've used VIM, combined with the VIM-LaTeX plugin, with great success. It does have a bit of a learning curve though.
Gummi is the best LaTeX editor. It is a free, open source, program written in python, featuring a live preview pane.
http://gummi.midnightcoding.org/
e4 http://gummi.midnightcoding.org/wp-content/uploads/20091012-1large(1).png
Get your work in some kind of version control system, then when you move from computer to computer you just update from a central server and its just like you left it.
It doesn't matter about the IDE, as you are saving just the .tex file, as noted above. If you want to use the same editor though, for the sake of coherency, use texmaker.
I use version control, and just use MikTex/WinEDT on Windows and TexShop on the mac.
IF your document doesn't compile on both, you're probably forgetting to keep the two directories synchronized or use funky commands, I like the sanity checks of knowing that it "compiles" cleanly on two platforms.
I use some text editor, and then I have a cron job that does a compile hourly from my source control.
Tex files are just text. I would recommend using a version control system (you should be using that anyway) to keep the source in sync. You can then use any (or different) editors on each system, e.g. Kile for linux and winEdt for windows. Both com with nice viewrs.
For a simple solution for the source control that just works with minimum knowledge and hassle, consider dropbox.
Revisiting my own question after quite a few years, I thought I'd add
https://www.writelatex.com/
not strictly what I had in mind, but have used it for collaborative writing
An excellent multiplatform LaTeX IDE is Texmaker.
For Debian or Ubuntu, I made a tutorial easy to follow: Install LaTeX on Ubuntu or Debian. This tutorial explains how to install LaTeX on Debian or Ubuntu and how to create your first PDF.

Is it possible to create a custom distribution of OpenOffice, or a way to package it into my java application?

I've got simple java-based ppt->swf sub-project that basically works. The open source software out there, OpenOffice.org and JODConverter do the job great.
The thing is, to do this I need to install OO.o and run it in server mode. And to do that I have to install OO.o, which is allot of software (~160MB) just to convert the source PPT files to an intermediate format. Also, the public OO.o distributions are platform specific and I'd really like a single, cross platform set of files. And, I'd like to not interfer with a system's current settings, like file extension associations.
As things are now, my project is not particularly 'software distribution friendly'.
So, the questions are:
Is it possible to create a custom distribution of OpenOffice? How would one about this?
How lightweight and unobtrusive can I make the installation?
Would it be possible to have a truly cross platform distribution since there would be no OO.o UI?
Are there any licensing issues I need to be aware of? (On my list of things to check out, but if you them already then TIA!)
I have no idea to accomplish such task, but Microsoft has its PPT viewer that is for free and very small, maybe in .NET (C#) you can use some kinda function to save into a intermediate file that you need...
and by the way, how are you handling slide transictions?
I found a software that does that but you need MS PPT installed.
this was just an idea, now regarding your actually question:
you can create your own installation of OO, just jump to the Installation project and follow the lines.
I did not read 'til the end, but from the 1st paragraph it seams what you are searching for.
No, not unless you are neck deep coding in the OpenOffice project.

Resources