Re: SGML to MS Word Conversion

[Sarah Lee Bihlmayer <sarahlee -at- CONTENTMANAGE -dot- COM>]

Bill Hartzer writes:

>I'm looking for a conversion utility that will convert SGML to MS Word.

>Does anyone know of one or know of a round-about way of getting SGML to
>Microsoft Word?

Well...the problem is, SGML is a programming language used to define markup
languages.  HTML is the best-known of those languages.  SGML is generally
used to define a customized set of tags that are specific only to a
particular user's documentation set.  There is no one standardized set of
tags that everyone uses--which makes it pretty difficult to create
conversion utilities!  Here's a possible approach:

1. Find out what the formatting specs are for each tag used in the document.

2. Create a Word stylesheet with styles that correspond to the SGML tags and
that conform to the formatting carried in those tags.

3. Use Word's search-and-replace feature to find each tag and apply the
appropriate Word style from your newly defined stylesheet.

4. Use Word's search-and-replace feature to remove all the tags after you've
applied the styles.

If there is indeed such an animal as a conversion utility that'll take SGML
into Word, I'd _love_ to hear about it.  However, I've been working with
SGML since shortly after its inception in 1988 and haven't encountered
anything like this.  YMMV.


Sarah




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