latex2rtf(1)

NAME
latex2rtf - Converts LaTeX file to RTF text-format

SYNTAX
latex2rtf [-V] [-l] [ -o outputfile ] [ -a auxfile ] [ -b bblfile ] [ inputfile ]

WARNING
This man page is not supported by me (the maintainer of the programm). For complete, current documentation, refer to the Info file latex2rtf.info, the PDF file latex2rtf.pdf or the HTML file l2r.html which are made from the Texinfo source file latex2rtf.texi.

DESCRIPTION
The latex2rtf command converts a LaTeX file into RTF text format. The text and much of the formatting information is translated to RTF making the new file look very similar to the original.

The -V option prints version information on standard output and exits.

The -l option enables you to convert ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) special characters in the LaTeX source.

Unless an outputfile is specified with the -o option, the resulting RTF is produced on standard output.

You can specify an auxfile (for citations) with the -a option. If this is omitted, the inputfile with the suffix .aux will be taken.

You can specify an bblfile (for citations) with the -b option. If this is omitted, the inputfile with the suffix .bbl will be taken.

If inputfile is not specified, standard input is read.

User defined LaTeX commands are ignored. If you are familiar with the RTF format and the commands can be translated by simply inserting a format string into the RTF file you can add these commands to the direct.cfg configuration file. See format description below.

To correctly convert font names you must edit the fonts.cfg configuration file. You have to specify the font names you use and how the LaTeX default font names should be converted to RTF. See format description below.

LaTeX variables and user defined commands are not evaluated. They will be simply ignored. To let latex2rtf know the names of variables you can add them in the ignore.cfg file. See format description below.

The environment variable RTFPATH may contain a search path for the support files (all files ending in .cfg). If no file is found during the search in the search-path or if the environment variable is not set, the compiled-in default for the configuration-file directory is used. If the files are not found at all the program aborts.

\label, \ref, and \pageref commands from LaTeX are translated to hidden text in the RTF file. This makes it possible to correctly edit the resulting file in the target word processor.

CAUTION
Please make sure that the input file is a correct LaTeX file. Use LaTeX to find and correct errors before using latex2rtf. The conversion command does not properly handle all errors because of corrupt input files.

Make sure that the configuration files direct.cfg and fonts.cfg are in the correct directory. You may have to change fonts.cfg or direct.cfg to suit your needs.

CONFIGURATION FILES
The file direct.cfg is used for converting LaTeX commands by simple text replacement. The format consists of lines with a LaTeX command with backslash followed by comma. The rest of the line until a '.' character will be written to the RTF file when the command is recognized in the LaTeX file. Lines starting with a '#' character are ignored. After the '.' everything is ignored to end of line. To select a specific font use *fontname*. Make sure that the font name fontname is listed in the fonts configuration file at least as dummy. To write the '*' character use "**". example:

\alpha,{\f*Symbol* a}. #alpha under Windows Symbol Font

\copyright,{\ansi\'a9\pc}.

The file fonts.cfg contains the fonts conversion table. A line consists of a font name in LaTeX followed by comma and a font name in RTF. The end is marked by a '.'. No spaces are allowed. The LaTeX font will be converted to the RTF font if encountered in the LaTeX file. If multiple translations for a LateX font are specified, only the first is used. All fonts in a LaTeX file that are not in this file will be mapped to the default font. All RTF fonts listed in this file will be in every RTF file header whether used or not. Lines starting with a '#' character are ignored. After the '.' everything is ignored to end of line. To add a RTF font not used as substitute for a LaTeX font - for example a Symbol font used in direct.cfg - use a dummy LaTeX name like in the following example:

Dummy3,MathematicalSymbols.

Make sure you use the correct font name. Take care of spaces in font names. The default fonts are named Roman (command \rm), Slanted (command \sl), Sans Serif (command \sf), Typewriter (command \tt).

The file ignore.cfg is used for defining how to ignore certain commands. This file is used for recognition of LaTeX-variables, user defined variables, and some simple commands. All variables are ignored but the converter must know the names to correctly ignore assignments to variables. Lines in this file consist of a variable-name with backslash, followed by comma and the type of the variable followed by '.'. Possible Types are:

NUMBER
    simple numeric value

MEASURE
    numeric value with following unit of measure

OTHER
    ignores anything to the first character after '=' and from there to next space. eg. \setbox\bak=\hbox

COMMAND
    ignores anything to next '\' and from there to occurence of anything but a letter. eg. \newbox\bak

SINGLE
    ignore single command. eg. \noindent

The types are in upper case exactly as above. Do not use spaces. Lines starting with a '#' character are ignored. After the '.' everything is ignored to end of line. Example:

\pagelength,MEASURE.

BUGS
Some environments like figure are currently ignored. It would be nice to scan the included information and convert things if possible.

Because the seek-command is used on input there are only file-redirections possible when reading from stdin.

Some of the generated table can confuse Word, the problem may be corrected by editing the offending table within Word.

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to glehner@unanleon.edu.ni (Georg Lehner). Please give the following information and observe the following guidelines when reporting a bug in the program:

Tell me the version of the program. For the executable you get the version by specifying the -V option to latex2rtf. For the sources the version is the version number of the file version.h.

The Operating System and version number where you are running or trying to install latex2rtf. Be sure to check the file Makefile for settings that may be specific to your machine, especially for some versions of SunOS there may be settings which are needed to compile successfully. Do this before writing to me.

For problems with the DOS version, report installation problems to the mainainer of the DOS port, Vladimir Menkov, vmenkov@cs.indiana.edu

If the program produces wrong output or does not work for you, include a short latex file along with a description of the problem. Do not send me large latex or rtf files, I simply do not have the time to wade through large files to search for a bug! If necessary (i.e., the program produces wrong or invalid rtf), send the rtf file that is produced along with the latex input file.

Be patient with me. I am maintaining the program in my free time. I did not write most of the code. Often I do not have the time to answer to your question. I will, however, try to fix reported bugs in upcoming releases.

SEE ALSO
rtf2LaTeX(1), LaTeX User's Guide & Reference Manual by Leslie Lamport