Ugly hack for multiple MSWord docs.

["John R. Culleton" <john@wexfordpress.com>]

Frequently I find myself in the position of needing to combine
several MSWord and/or rtf documents into a single file for either
pdftex or Context. I have settled on this strategy. 

1. If necessary I convert the documents to rtf with Open Ofice
Writer. 
2. I convert the resulting  rtf documents to LaTeX using rtf2latex2e.
3. I need to rename some of the LaTeX commands to their plain 
TeX or Context equivalents, and simply ignore others. Instead of
editing each and every occurrence, I add the following to my
"macros.tex" file which heads up the document:
----------------------------------------------------
\def\documentclass{}
\def\newcommand{}
\def\usepackage{}
\def\tab{}
\def\hspace{}
\def\begin{}
\def\end{}
\def\textbf#1{\bf #1}
\def\nobreakspace{~}
\def\underline{}
\def\newpage{}
\def\textmd#1{\rm #1}
\def\textit#1{\it #1}
\def\large{\tfb}
\def\reg{\rm\char174\ }
\def\textregistered{\reg}
------------------------------------------------------

I create a master file that calls in each of the .tex files
and compile the whole goulash. If I missed a latex tag then I add
it to my \defs shown above and recompile until I get a
clean run. Now I have a readable pdf file and can start correcting
the format. 

The scattered Latex tags give me hints where centering etc. might
be needed even though the tags are inoperative in Context, thanks
to my nullifying \def statements shown above.  

Someday there will be an elegant solution to the MSWord to
Context problem. For now there is my ugly hack as described here.

-- 
John Culleton