Using Vim to edit Microsoft Word files

Question

I have found a vi emulator for microsoft word here:

ViEmu

but I wanted to use vim to edit DOC or even rtf files. My question is , is this possible ?

Are they any other formats that preserve page/paragraph layout combatible with both Microsft Word and Vim ? I am also open to OpenOffice formats .

Answer 1

That’s not possible. Vim is by its very nature a plain text editor and doesn’t offer Microsoft Word style WYSIWYG. You cannot edit formatted documents.

To be sure, you can edit the source code of an RTF file (RTF is a fairly simple formatting language so editing it manually is theoretically possible) but I don’t think this is what you’re after.

If you want to edit using Vim but still produce documents with formatting, your best shot is LaTeX. This allows you to create professional documents via a macro programming language.

Answer 2

If you are willing to install a plugin you can do this. The is a plug-in located here. The caveat is that when you open the program in vi/vim it coverts the rtf or doc file to plain text and then converted back when you save it back.

As with all conversions you are libel to lose something in it, but at least it allows you to edit something in a pinch.