[plug] LaTeX -> Word converter?

[Leon Brooks]

Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
>> Word (and not vice-versa), I'm submitting a paper for a conference and
>> they require Word format (ridiculous I know!).

> I was really annoyed when I discovered the Ministry of Justice had settled
> on a standard format for the exchange of documents electronically amongst
> participants in the judicial system (eg. for preparation of electronic trial
> and appeal books, etc).  I was hoping for an XML-based format, or at the
> worst RTF, but do you know what they chose? - Microsoft Word 6.  As if that
> wasn't bad enough, they added insult to injury by saying in their propaganda
> document that Word 6 format was a universal standard that was
> interchangeable between versions 6 or higher of Microsoft Word on all
> platforms, "Windows, Macintosh and Unix".  I kid you not, that's what they
> said.  As the owner/manager of the first legal office in Perth based around
> Linux at both back and front ends, this annoys me.

Write back and tell them that you are extermely reluctant to ship information
around in a format that is:

* Well known for leaking legally sensitive and priviledged information such as
past or tentative revisions, passwords, and other information not visible on a
printout;

* Well known for harbouring ``macro viruses'' and other risks to precious legal
and priviledged information;

* Well known for fragility, that is, documents can be easily corrupted, and
significant information omitted without clear visible indication;

* Well known for bulkiness, making it more difficult to deliver legal
information in a timely and atomic (indivisible, is there a lawyerspeak for
this?) manner;

* Tied to and subject to the copyright and licencing restrictions of a business
which has been shown to practice monopolism and unfair control;

* Not formally defined _anywhere_ (there is some documentation of the file
framework, but it is incomplee, and there is very little documentation of
content within that framework) - let alone legally defined.

Send this to them in Word 6 format as a series of embedded images (print to
postscript file, render to bitmaps with ghostscript, crop bitmaps, embed
bitmaps) in a file seved as Word 6 from StarOffice.

Ask them who gets sued by whom if you export a document in Word 6 format from
StarOffice for Solaris and a Word Perfect for Macintosh user is unable to read
it before a legal deadline.

-- 
The mailserver is on strike. It wants better working conditions,
paid days off and a female connector. -- paul at nlpagan.net