To convert a word doc to text all you need to do is use Word to do it (these subs are straight out of a Proforma document management sytem I worte a while back):

sub save_doc_as_text {
    my ( $infile, $outfile ) = @_;
    require Win32::OLE;
    my $word = Win32::OLE->new( 'Word.Application', sub {$_[0]->Quit;}
+ );
    error( "Can't create new instance or Word Reason:$Win32::OLE::Last
+Error" ) unless $word;
    $word->{visible} = 0;
    my $doc = $word->{Documents}->Open($infile);
    error( "Can't open $infile, Reason:$Win32::OLE::LastError" ) unles
+s $doc;
    # wdFormatDocument wdFormatText wdFormatHTML
    $doc->SaveAs( { FileName => $outfile, FileFormat => $wdFormatText 
+} );
    $doc->Close;
    undef $doc;
    undef $word;
}
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The conversion back to a word doc is simple enough for plain text - just reverse the procedure and use word to open the text doc and save it as a word doc.

If the object of the exercise is say to do a search and replace on the text you can do it Word native like this ($word is a word object):

sub word_find_and_replace {
    my ( $word, $rel_file_path, $tokens_ref ) = @_;
    # first make a temporary file to do the search and replace on
    my ( $fh, $temp_name ) = get_tempfile( "$DOC_DIR/system", 'doc' );
    close $fh;
    my $content_ref = read_file( "$DOC_DIR/$rel_file_path" ); 
    create_file( "$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name", $content_ref, 'overwrit
+e ok' );
    $word->{visible} = 0;
    my $doc = $word->{Documents}->Open("$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name");
    my $search_obj =  $doc->Content->Find;
    my $replace_obj = $search_obj->Replacement;
    for my $token ( keys %$tokens_ref ) {  
        my $find =  '<?' . $token . '?>'; 
        my $replace = $tokens_ref->{$token};
        # now i know this looks wierd but M$ word (at least 2000) want
+s \r
        # as the para marker not \r\n or even \n if you send \n you ge
+t little 
        # binary squares..... oh well that's M$ for you. 
        $replace =~ s/\r\n|\n/\r/g;  # this makes it work properly. GO
+K
        $search_obj->{Text}  = $find;
        $replace_obj->{Text} = $replace;
        $search_obj->Execute({Replace => $wdReplaceAll});
    }
    $doc->Save;
    $doc->Close;
    # now get the data out of the modified temp file
    $content_ref = read_file( "$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name" );
    # remove our unwanted temp files and objects
    unlink "$DOC_DIR/system/$temp_name";
    undef $search_obj;
    undef $replace_obj;
    undef $doc;
  return $content_ref;
}
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Note if you are doing long search and replaces there is a 255 char buffer overflow that will crash you system or cause wierdness if you are lucky. If you need to insert over 255 chars you need to do a ciper block chaining approach and insert 200 chars plus a token then replace the token with the next 200 chars etc, etc until you have inserted all the text you want to put in.

cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print

 

sub save_doc_as_text {  
my ( $infile, $outfile ) = @_;  

print "\n$infile";
print "\n$outfile";

require Win32::OLE;   
my $word = Win32::OLE->new( 'Word.Application', sub {$_[0]->Quit;});  
error( "Can't create new instance or Word Reason:$Win32::OLE::LastErro
+r" ) unless $word;    
$word->{visible} = 0; 
my $doc = $word->{Documents}->Open($infile); 
error( "Can't open $infile, Reason:$Win32::OLE::LastError" ) unless $d
+oc;    
# wdFormatDocument wdFormatText wdFormatHTML    
$doc->SaveAs( { FileName => $outfile, FileFormat => $wdFormatText});  
+  
$doc->Close;   
undef $doc;    
undef $word;}

$inf="ole-word-demo-3.doc";
$outf="ole-word-demo-3.txt";
save_doc_as_text($inf,$outf);
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The file ole-word-demo-3.doc is located in the folder in which I've stored the above perl script, and executed it.Well no ole-word-demo-3.txt file gets created in that folder at all.What could be the problem?

When I test this out, I get an error message indicating that the ole-word-demo-3.doc file cannot be found. If I hard code the location of the document as:

$inf="C:\\some_dir\\ole-word-demo-3.doc";
$outf="C:\\some_dir\\ole-word-demo-3.txt";
[download]

then the program works to open the specified .doc file and creates the text file. As for the rest of your task, I hope some other Monk will have some insight.

Yes! It works now and "ole-word-demo-3.txt" gets created.
The Word formatting characters also appear as unreadable
stuff in the .txt file though, I suppose they can be
stripped off.
For doing the reverse I guess we need to
replace "wdFormatText" by "wdFormatDocument" in this
statement:


$doc->SaveAs( { FileName => $outfile, FileFormat =>wdFormatText
[download]

However I'm not familiar with the Word constants, so I'm
not sure about the rest of the statements:(
What are the other changes we need to make to this code?
Thanks in advance.