Ubuntu Manpage: catdoc - reads MS-Word file and puts its content as plain text on standard output

NAME

       catdoc - reads MS-Word file and puts its content as plain text on standard output

SYNOPSIS

       catdoc [-vlu8btawxV] [-m number] [ -s charset] [ -d charset] [ -f output-format] file

DESCRIPTION

catdoc behaves much like cat(1) but it reads MS-Word file and produces human-readable text
on standard output. Optionally it can use latex(1) escape sequences for characters which
have special meaning for LaTeX. It also makes some effort to recognize MS-Word tables,
although it never tries to write correct headers for LaTeX tabular environment. Additional
output formats, such is HTML can be easily defined.

catdoc doesn't attempt to extract formatting information other than tables from MS-Word
document, so different output modes means mainly that different characters should be
escaped and different ways used to represent characters, missing from output charset. See
CHARACTER SUBSTITUTION below

catdoc uses internal unicode(4) representation of text, so it is able to convert texts
when charset in source document doesn't match charset on target system. See CHARACTER
SETS below.

If no file names supplied, catdoc processes its standard input unless it is terminal. It
is unlikely that somebody could type Word document from keyboard, so if catdoc invoked
without arguments and stdin is not redirected, it prints brief usage message and exits.
Processing of standard input (even among other files) can be forced using dash '-' as file
name.

By default, catdoc wraps lines which are more than 72 chars long and separates paragraphs
by blank lines. This behavior can be turned of by -w switch. In wide mode catdoc prints
each paragraph as one long line, suitable for import into word processors that perform
word wrapping.

OPTIONS

-a - shortcut for -f ascii. Produces ASCII text as output. Separates table columns
with TAB

-b - process broken MS-Word file. Normally, catdoc checks if first 8 bytes of file is
Microsoft OLE signature. If so, it processes file, otherwise it just copies it to
stdin. It is intended to use catdoc as filter for viewing all files with .doc
extension.

-dcharset
- specifies destination charset name. Charset file has format described in
CHARACTER SETS below and should have .txt extension and reside in catdoc library
directory ( ${prefix}/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/catdoc). By default, current locale
charset is used if langinfo support compiled in.

-fformat
- specifies output format as described in CHARACTER SUBSTITUTION below. catdoc
comes with two output formats - ascii and tex. You can add your own if you wish.

-l Causes catdoc to list names of available charsets to the stdout and exit
successfully.

-mnumber
Specifies right margin for text (default 72). -m 0 is equivalent to -w

-scharset
Specifies source charset. (one used in Word document), if Word document doesn't
contain UTF-16 text. When reading rtf documents, it is typically not necessary,
because rtf documents contain ansicpg specification. But it can be set wrong by
Word (I've seen RTF documents on Russian, where cp1252 was specified). In this
case this option would take precedence over charset, specified in the document.
But source_charset statement in the configuration file have less priority than
charset in the document.

-t - shortcut for -f tex
converts all printable chars, which have special meaning for LaTeX(1) into
appropriate control sequences. Separates table columns by &.

-u - declares that Word document contain UNICODE (UTF-16) representation of text
(as some Word-97 documents). If catdoc fails to correct Word document with
default charset, try this option.

-8 - declares is Word document is 8 bit. Just in case that catdoc
recognizes file format incorrectly.

-w disables word wrapping. By default catdoc output is split into lines not longer
than 72 (or number, specified by -m option) characters and paragraphs are
separated by blank line. With this option each paragraph is one long line.

-x causes catdoc to output unknown UNICODE character as \xNNNN, instead of question
marks.

-v causes catdoc to print some useless information about word document structure to
stdout before actual start of text.

-V outputs catdoc version

CHARACTER SETS

       When  processing  MS-Word file catdoc uses information about two character sets, typically
       different
        -  input and output. They are stored in plain text files  in  catdoc  library  directory.
       Character  set  files  should contain two whitespace-separated hexadecimal numbers - 8-bit
       code in character set and 16-bit Unicode code.  Anything from hash mark to end of line  is
       ignored, as well as blank lines.

       catdoc  distribution  includes  some  of  these  character  sets. Additional character set
       definitions, directly usable by catdoc can be obtained from ftp.unicode.org. Charset files
       have .txt suffix, which shouldn't be specified in command-line or configuration files.

       Note that catdoc is distributed with Cyrillic charsets as default. If you are not Russian,
       you probably don't want it, an should reconfigure catdoc at compile  time  or  in  runtime
       configuration file.

       When  dealing  with  documents  with  charsets other than default, remember that Microsoft
       never uses ISO charsets. While letters in, say cp1252 are  at  the  same  position  as  in
       ISO-8859-1,  some  punctuation  signs  would  be  lost, if you specify ISO-8859-1 as input
       charset. If you use cp1252, catdoc would deal with those signs as described  in  CHARACTER
       SUBSTITUTION below.

CHARACTER SUBSTITUTION

catdoc converts MS-Word file into following internal Unicode representation:

1. Paragraphs are separated by ASCII Line Feed symbol (0x000A)

2. Table cells within row are separated by ASCII Field Separator symbol
(0x001C)

3. Table rows are separated by ASCII Record Separator (0x001E)

4. All printable characters, including whitespace are represented with their
respective UNICODE codes.

This UNICODE representation is subsequently converted into 8-bit text in target character
set using following four-step algorithm:

1. List of special characters is searched for given Unicode character.
If found, then appropriate multi-character sequence is output instead of character.

2. If there is an equivalent in target character set, it is output.

3. Otherwise, replacement list is searched and, if there is multi-character
substitution for this UNICODE char, it is output.

4. If all above fails, "Unknown char" symbol (question mark) is output.

Lists of special characters and list of substitution are character set-independent,
because special chars should be escaped regardless of their existence in target character
set (usually, they are parts of US-ASCII, and therefore exist in any character set) and
replacement list is searched only for those characters, which are not found in target
character set.

These lists are stored in catdoc library directory in files with prefix of format name.
These files have following format:

Each line can be either comment (starting with hash mark) or contain hexadecimal UNICODE
value, separated by whitespace from string, which would be substituted instead of it. If
string contain no whitespace it can be used as is, otherwise it should be enclosed in
single or double quotes. Usual backslash sequences like '\n','\t' can be used in these
string.

RUNTIME CONFIGURATION

Upon startup catdoc reads its system-wide configuration file ( catdocrc in catdoc library
directory) and then user-specific configuration file ${HOME}/.catdocrc.

These files can contain following directives:

source_charset = charset-name
Sets default source charset, which would be used if no -s option specified.
Consult configuration of nearby windows workstation to find one you need.

target_charset = charset-name
Sets default output charset. You probably know, which one you use.

charset_path = directory-list
colon-separated list of directories, which are searched for charset files. This
allows you to install additional charsets in your home directory. If first
directory component of path is ~ it is replaced by contents of HOME environment
variable. On MS-DOS platform, if directory name starts with %s, it is replaced
with directory of executable file. Empty element in list (i.e. two consequitve
colons) is considered current directory.

map_path = directory-list
colon-separated list of directories, which are searched for special character map
and replacement map. Same substitution rules as in charset_path are applied.

format = format name
Output format which would be used by default. catdoc comes with two formats -
ascii and tex but nothing prevents you from writing your own format (set two map
files - special character map and replacement map).

unknown_char = character specification
sets character to output instead of unknown Unicode character (default '?')
Character specification can have one of two form - character enclosed in single
quotes or hexadecimal code.

use_locale =(yes|no)
Enables or disables automatic selection of output charset (default yes),
based on system locale settings (if enabled at compile time). If automatic
detection is enabled, than output charset settings in the configuration files (but
not in the command line) are ignored, and current system locale charset is used
instead. There are no automatic choice of input charset, based of locale language,
because most modern Word files (since Word 97) are Unicode anyway

BUGS

       Doesn't  handle fast-saves properly. Prints footnotes as separate paragraphs at the end of
       file, instead of producing correct LaTeX commands. Cannot distinguish between empty  table
       cell and end of table row.

AUTHOR

       V.B.Wagner <vitus@45.free.net>