NAME
troff2rtf - convert troff documents to Rich Text Format
SYNTAX
troff2rtf [ -mxx ] [ -S charset ] [ file ... ]
DESCRIPTION
troff2rtf processes documents written to be formatted with troff (or
nroff, or any of the other *roff variants) and converts them to Rich
Text Format. RTF is a reasonably portable interchange standard; files
in RTF format can be read by a variety of applications, e.g., Microsoft
Word, WordPerfect (Macintosh version 2.0 and up), WriteNow.
The main use for troff2rtf is to make it easier to transport troff
documents for use with microcomputers. First, convert your document to
RTF:
% troff2rtf [options] file > file.rtf
The available options are described below. The one you’ll most likely
use is -mxx to specify a macro package like -me or -ms. If the
document contains tables, the conversion can be done like this instead:
% tblcvt file | troff2rtf [options] > file.rtf
Then move the RTF file to your target machine and read it into your
document processor.
Optional flags may be given to modify the operation of troff2rtf, as
follows:
-mxx Specify macro package, usually -man, -me, -mm, or -ms.
-S charset
Specify the RTF character set. charset can be one of the
following: ansi mac pc pca. The default is the Macintosh
character set. For documents that you intend to use under
Windows, -S ansi is a better choice.
SEE ALSO
tblcvt(1), troffcvt(1)
WHO-TO-BLAME
Paul DuBois, dubois@primate.wisc.edu.
BUGS
Table output generated when troff2rtf is used in concert with tblcvt
has been known to crash Word outright; caution may be in order. In
addition, you may need to read the resulting RTF document into a word
processor and tweak column widths manually.
Word97 adds support for vertically merging table cells (using the
\clvmgf and \clvmrg control words). troff2rtf supports vertical spans
using these controls, but earlier versions of Word don’t yet understand
them. Consequently, what you’ll see for n-cell vertical spans is n
individual cells, with all the text in the top cell and n-1 empty cells
below it.