From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Msuck: nntp://news.gmane.io/gmane.emacs.gnus.user/3910 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tim McNamara Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.gnus.user Subject: Re: Plain text ASCII. Boston City Hall. Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 15:12:51 -0500 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1138669939 20941 80.91.229.2 (31 Jan 2006 01:12:19 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 31 Jan 2006 01:12:19 +0000 (UTC) Original-X-From: nobody Tue Jan 17 17:32:56 2006 Original-Path: quimby.gnus.org!newsfeed1.e.nsc.no!nsc.no!nextra.com!news.tele.dk!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!news-out.visi.com!petbe.visi.com!news.octanews.net!gemini.bitstream.net.POSTED!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.gnus User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3.50 (darwin) Cancel-Lock: sha1:5VfgdQK4cNWVRBHlXaDbaKKl3ME= Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 7c6e2329.news.bitstream.net Original-X-Trace: 1087848771 gemini.bitstream.net 433 216.243.177.155 Original-X-Complaints-To: abuse@bitstream.net Original-Xref: bridgekeeper.physik.uni-ulm.de gnus-emacs-gnus:4051 Original-Lines: 37 X-Gnus-Article-Number: 4051 Tue Jan 17 17:32:56 2006 Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.gnus.user:3910 Archived-At: Don Saklad writes: > a. How might I set up a free public service with the public notices > of > Boston City Council Committees Public Hearings that the council > distributes merely by email in microsoft word format ?... > > Ironically, the council has been unwilling to see how to > distribute public notices in plain text ascii The simplest solutions- e.g., saving the documents as ASCII text files or .rft files- is often the most difficult to see. If they really want to preserve a specific formatting, they should publish them as PDF files. > b. Would there be something like a list server that would > automatically convert forwarded public notices in microsoft word > format and make them readable on the web?... > > I get the microsoft word formatted notices in rmail in emacs and > could forward them regularly, if necessary. It is the converting > to plain text ascii that is the difficulty. Easy if you're running a Unix compatible OS. There are several small, compact applications that will convert between formats (usually called something like "word2text" "word2rft" "word2pdf" etc. These are usually freeware and very robust. Mac OS X will run these, as well, from the command line (there are some drag-and-drop versions for OS X). If you're running Windows, I have *no* idea. I don't understand Windows, having been a Mac/Mac OS X/NetBSD user. > c. Or would there be another way for me to forward the microsoft > word formatted notices to a web link where anyone would be able to > check the current and archived notices?... You could certainly just archive the Word documents on a Web site and people could download them at will.