Which is the best import / export LaTeX tool?

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+2 Q:

Which is the best import / export LaTeX tool?

Working in academia publishing CS/math, you sooner or later find yourself trying to publish in a journal that will only accept .doc/.rtf. This means tedious, boring hours of translating line after line, especially equations, from LaTeX to an inferior format. Over the years I have tried a number of export tools for LaTeX, but none, at least of the free ones, that I have been very satisfied with. I'd like this page to collect and monitor the best import/export tools for LaTeX, to .doc/.rtf, or to other useful (e.g. HTML, MATHML) formats.

Thus, what is your one favorite import or export LaTeX tool?

+2 A:

AFAIK there isn't really a convenient and effective way to achieve what you're trying to do. What I usually do in those rare occasions is that I export to pdf, then select all the text, and paste into word. It's horrible and messes things up and of course doesn't adjust your citations.

To this day I don't understand how people writing in scientific fields can write and publish in Word. It is common in some human-computer interaction literature but I have not seen it in other conferences and journals. May I ask which one it is?

Also, some places, once you've already been accepted, will be willing to accept a PDF if you push it with them. You may have to make little adjustment yourself. Negotiations sometimes work on this.

Uri 2008-12-22 19:51:07

I used to do computational neurobiology, and then you often submit to journals where most authors are psychologists, physiologists or biologists, who all use MS Word, for some weird reason.

Fredriku73 2008-12-22 21:15:11

I am familiar with that from my current advisor whose background is in law and psychology. However, luckily the places I submit to are ACM/IEEE affiliated and use LaTeX.I do not understand how a person can write a dissertation in word, btw.

Uri 2008-12-22 22:46:45

The idea of requiring Word just boggles my mind. My field (physics), generally prefers LaTeX. Some journals require it if you want to be on the fast track. You just use the revtex style and you're home and dry...

dmckee 2009-02-17 00:50:08

I just had to do a two-page workshop summary, with word, and ended up losing track of where columns were. Couldn't stand it. I ended up writing my content single-column and asking my peers to sort it out. I submitted my own 10-page paper with LaTeX with no problems.

Uri 2009-02-17 03:46:57

@dmckee: Most journals don't want the hassle of dealing with more than one authoring system, so they just go with what most of their authors go with. Plus with latex, it is harder to find copy-editors.

Charles Stewart 2009-12-11 20:00:21

+2 A:

The UK TeX FAQ has been collecting answers on this for quite some time now. :)

See Conversion from (La)TeX to HTML and Other conversions to and from (La)TeX. There is another FAQ specifically about Converters between LaTeX and PC Textprocessors maintained by Wilfried Hennings.

For LaTeX to HTML there are LaTeX2HTML, TtH, Tex4ht, TeXpider and Hevea; in my experience TeX4ht is the best. For LaTeX to Word, you can go through RTF with TeX2RTF (not so good), or through Adobe Acrobat which can produce PDF that Word can read (not good either), or go through HTML as above, but best is to use tex4ht which can generate OpenOffice ODT format, from which conversion to Word is easy.

The UK TeX FAQ also has many other useful things; you should take a look.

ShreevatsaR 2008-12-22 20:01:21

nice links, thanks.

Fredriku73 2008-12-22 21:17:39

ansaurus

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Which is the best import / export LaTeX tool?

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