in reply to Converting doc to txt without WIN32::OLE

If you don't want to use Win32::OLE, I would look at OpenOffice / LibreOffice for converting the doc file to something else. Searching for MSWord also shows some modules, but there is nothing like Spreadsheet::ParseExcel for Word.

Simply scanning the file for strings will likely not work well if the strings are stored as UTF-16 or wide characters.

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Re^2: Converting doc to txt without WIN32::OLE
by mrguy123 (Hermit) on Jun 20, 2012 at 08:05 UTC
    Hi Corion, thanks for the tip
    I will try some of the modules you suggested, maybe I will get lucky :)
    Open Office is also a good solution, but I need to see if there is a batch option for conversion before I go there
[reply]
      You don't really need a "batch option" with OO/LO; just write your script, allowing it to accept (@ARGV or a list in a file) multiple docs which names/fullpaths it then feeds to OO.

      UPDATE: PS. You can write offsite links here as "[http://www.foo/bar.htm]" and, for PM nodes, as "[id://977242]." In the latter case, that's especially preferred, so you don't inadvertently logout a reader following your node on say, PM.org by a link to PM.com.

      See also Markup in the Monastery for less expensive (keystroke-wise) ways a marking paras. </update>

[reply]

        It would be nice if OpenOffice then also knew what to do with the documents, and did so automatically.

        I seem to remember a command line version of OpenOffice that did just these format conversions, but I can't find it because it either doesn't exist or I'm missing the appropriate search terms.

        Update: Ah hah - you can launch (some versions of) OpenOffice in "headless" mode and then talk to it via Win32::OLE or TCP, at least according to this random Google result. This would be the approach I would pursue.

[reply]

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