word documents

word documents

[Daniel Dalton]

Hi,

I get a lot of stuff in word format. How can I either
1. Read and edit the document on my linux box.
or 2. Convert it to plane text?

I am not using a gui.
All help is greatly appreciated.

Re: word documents

[Geoff Shang]

Hi,

For viewing word docs, you can either use catdoc (in the Debian catdoc 
package) or wvWare (in the wv package).

catdoc, like cat, will output to standard output.  This means you can view 
docs by typing something like:

catdoc filename.doc |less

and output to a file by typing:

catdoc filename.doc >filename.txt

wvWare installs a number of programs to deal with MS Word files.

I use the following to convert to text:

wvText filename.doc filename.txt

Note the capital T in the above example.

For converters like these, I highly recommend installing them both, as 
sometimes one will do better than the other on a specific file.

I am not aware of anything for the command line which outputs in word 
format, but I've not gone looking for such a thing either.

Geoff.

Re: word documents

[Daniel Dalton]

Hi Geoff,

On 25/11/2007 3:25 PM, Geoff Shang wrote:
> For viewing word docs, you can either use catdoc (in the Debian catdoc 
> package) or wvWare (in the wv package).

Thanks for all the information and the package names. Next time I get a 
word doc I will try this thanks. (I installed the packages before and it 
seemed to go well)
Thanks.

-- 
Daniel Dalton

http://members.iinet.net.au/~ddalton/
daniel.dalton47@gmail.com

Re: word documents

[Aldo]

FYI Daniel,
wv has the major advantage that it can interact with mutt : suppose you
already use mutt, and you just install wv, well under Debian when pressing v
(view) under mutt then selecting and pressing enter at the document.doc, it
simply converts on the fly and shows the document.
(tested uner Debian, I ignore how does this works for other distros)

Aldo.


On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 06:38:02PM +1100, Daniel Dalton wrote:
> Hi Geoff,
> 
> On 25/11/2007 3:25 PM, Geoff Shang wrote:
> >For viewing word docs, you can either use catdoc (in the Debian catdoc 
> >package) or wvWare (in the wv package).
> 
> Thanks for all the information and the package names. Next time I get a 
> word doc I will try this thanks. (I installed the packages before and it 
> seemed to go well)
> Thanks.
> 
> -- 
> Daniel Dalton
> 
> http://members.iinet.net.au/~ddalton/
> daniel.dalton47@gmail.com
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

--
VISTA : Virus - Intrusion - Spyware - Trojan - Adware
LINUX : LIBRE  In  a  New  UNlImited  X-window ! ! !

Blogging software

[Tony Baechler]

Hi all,

Am I better served with a commercial blog site like wordpress.com, 
blogger.com, etc or can I do what I want on my own Linux server?

I'm running Debian Etch with Apache 1.3 and php4.  It will eventually 
be upgraded to Apache 2.2 and php5.  If I go with a blogging site, I 
don't want intrusive ads.  If I go with something on the server, I 
want something fairly easy to set up and fairly basic but could be 
expanded later.  I don't plan to produce a podcast right now but 
might eventually.  What would be nice but not required would be a way 
that I can email blog entries to a special address and be able to 
login with ssh and just type out a blog entry quickly.  I don't want 
a complicated web interface.  The idea is to write my blog entry 
while I'm thinking about it, otherwise I forget.  I don't need 
comments, trackbacks, etc because I would turn them off anyway and I 
have too much spam already.  I want standards-compliant rss feeds 
that can be parsed by any reader.  I don't care what language it's 
written in but I have the stock Debian Apache package so I don't 
think I have perl as a module.  Probably php is best.  If it allows 
email blog entries, there would need to be a way to approve them as 
being from me, again because of spam.  The idea would be that if I 
must use a web interface, I want to quickly log in and be at an entry 
screen.  I would be using Firefox under Windows and possibly 
Lynx.  It would be nice to have something like a text editor for 
blogs so I can just do something like "blog this," type something, 
save and it rebuilds the rss feed etc.  I have minimal html skills 
and I don't want to learn a markup language just to write 
something.  It should be self-maintaining so I don't have to rebuild 
the database, web site, etc.  A search engine would be nice but not 
necessary.  I would like an "about the blog" section at the top of 
all entry pages.

What do you suggest?  I've looked at the wordpress package but it 
looks like it has security issues.  Should I look at a commercial 
blog site or try a particular package on my own?
----------
Tony Baechler
Baechler Productions

Re: Blogging software

[Rob Harris]

Wow, now this is a request and a half and didn't get to the end.  The blog
engines you mentioned can usually be found under Fantastico of a hosting
provider.  P-Machine is what is called  CMS or Content Management System and
I think there's a free one you can down load called CMSMS though can't now
remember what the second  MS is for.  An old and now unsupported version of
P-machine works extremely well and does everything you said - it was the
prototype before the company went commercial and try to disuade or distract
people from using this version and try and stop hosting providers offering
it.  It is a PHP application and does more or less everything you said and
it is as easy as you require.  I don't post to mine a lot though you can
take a quick look here - http://www.apearl.net/his - which shows some of the
basic features listed.  The online file manager is one of the more useful so
I can modify files on the fly if I make a hiccup on one.  This is to say, I
can navigate my file tree (once logged in as admin!), select a file and it
will be loaded into a page in a text area where you can edit it,  then go to
the bottom and click save and whallah,   you've just fixed a bug!

I find PHP a useful language to learn and write some of this kind of thing
myself.  Someo f those efforts are here - http://randex.apearl.net which is
random selection from a large content collection and i'm now adding tools
like online calculator and dns lookup/reverse lookup amongst other things.
Mailing right off a page is quite straight forward in fact, without having
the risky mailto: link on the page.  This is all hidden in the PHP script
and this code can be locked and made invisible.  The client browser only
sees what the script sends to it.

But that's an aside,  I've given you suggestions to search for and the CMSMS
might be the most readily available to find and download.  They're at
something like www.cmsms.org or something like that.

Hth,  RobH.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@baechler.net>
To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list@redhat.com>
Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 4:45 PM
Subject: Blogging software


Hi all,

Am I better served with a commercial blog site like wordpress.com,
blogger.com, etc or can I do what I want on my own Linux server?

I'm running Debian Etch with Apache 1.3 and php4.  It will eventually
be upgraded to Apache 2.2 and php5.  If I go with a blogging site, I
don't want intrusive ads.  If I go with something on the server, I
want something fairly easy to set up and fairly basic but could be
expanded later.  I don't plan to produce a podcast right now but
might eventually.  What would be nice but not required would be a way
that I can email blog entries to a special address and be able to
login with ssh and just type out a blog entry quickly.  I don't want
a complicated web interface.  The idea is to write my blog entry
while I'm thinking about it, otherwise I forget.  I don't need
comments, trackbacks, etc because I would turn them off anyway and I
have too much spam already.  I want standards-compliant rss feeds
that can be parsed by any reader.  I don't care what language it's
written in but I have the stock Debian Apache package so I don't
think I have perl as a module.  Probably php is best.  If it allows
email blog entries, there would need to be a way to approve them as
being from me, again because of spam.  The idea would be that if I
must use a web interface, I want to quickly log in and be at an entry
screen.  I would be using Firefox under Windows and possibly
Lynx.  It would be nice to have something like a text editor for
blogs so I can just do something like "blog this," type something,
save and it rebuilds the rss feed etc.  I have minimal html skills
and I don't want to learn a markup language just to write
something.  It should be self-maintaining so I don't have to rebuild
the database, web site, etc.  A search engine would be nice but not
necessary.  I would like an "about the blog" section at the top of
all entry pages.

What do you suggest?  I've looked at the wordpress package but it
looks like it has security issues.  Should I look at a commercial
blog site or try a particular package on my own?
----------
Tony Baechler
Baechler Productions

_______________________________________________
Blinux-list mailing list
Blinux-list@redhat.com
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list

Re: Blogging software

[Tony Baechler]

Hi, am I asking for too much?  Your reply indicates that I am.  I'm new 
to creating a blog although I've been reading feeds since 2004-ish.  
I've looked at many CMSs before and I don't think that's what I want.  
I'm looking for something designed for blogging.  I'll still look at the 
CMS package you suggest though.  I'm also looking for an accessible CMS, 
but not for a blog.  The CMS would be a separate site.  If it has a good 
blog module that does mostly what I'm looking for and supports multiple 
sites, that would certainly be a good option.  Sorry if I'm asking for 
too much, like I said, I'm new to blog creation.  I never had an 
interest until now and I want something that requires no fuss to set up 
and use.  I don't really need advanced features, that would be a bonus.  
Podcast support would be nice but not necessary for now.

Rob Harris wrote:
> Wow, now this is a request and a half and didn't get to the end.  The blog
> engines you mentioned can usually be found under Fantastico of a hosting
> provider.  P-Machine is what is called  CMS or Content Management System and
> I think there's a free one you can down load called CMSMS though can't now
> remember what the second  MS is for.  An old and now unsupported version of
> P-machine works extremely well and does everything you said - it was the
> prototype before the company went commercial and try to disuade or distract
> people from using this version and try and stop hosting providers offering
> it.  It is a PHP application and does more or less everything you said and
> it is as easy as you require.  I don't post to mine a lot though you can
> take a quick look here - http://www.apearl.net/his - which shows some of the
> basic features listed.  The online file manager is one of the more useful so
> I can modify files on the fly if I make a hiccup on one.  This is to say, I
> can navigate my file tree (once logged in as admin!), select a file and it
> will be loaded into a page in a text area where you can edit it,  then go to
> the bottom and click save and whallah,   you've just fixed a bug!
>
> I find PHP a useful language to learn and write some of this kind of thing
> myself.  Someo f those efforts are here - http://randex.apearl.net which is
> random selection from a large content collection and i'm now adding tools
> like online calculator and dns lookup/reverse lookup amongst other things.
> Mailing right off a page is quite straight forward in fact, without having
> the risky mailto: link on the page.  This is all hidden in the PHP script
> and this code can be locked and made invisible.  The client browser only
> sees what the script sends to it.
>
> But that's an aside,  I've given you suggestions to search for and the CMSMS
> might be the most readily available to find and download.  They're at
> something like www.cmsms.org or something like that.
>
> Hth,  RobH.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@baechler.net>
> To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 4:45 PM
> Subject: Blogging software
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> Am I better served with a commercial blog site like wordpress.com,
> blogger.com, etc or can I do what I want on my own Linux server?
>
> I'm running Debian Etch with Apache 1.3 and php4.  It will eventually
> be upgraded to Apache 2.2 and php5.  If I go with a blogging site, I
> don't want intrusive ads.  If I go with something on the server, I
> want something fairly easy to set up and fairly basic but could be
> expanded later.  I don't plan to produce a podcast right now but
> might eventually.  What would be nice but not required would be a way
> that I can email blog entries to a special address and be able to
> login with ssh and just type out a blog entry quickly.  I don't want
> a complicated web interface.  The idea is to write my blog entry
> while I'm thinking about it, otherwise I forget.  I don't need
> comments, trackbacks, etc because I would turn them off anyway and I
> have too much spam already.  I want standards-compliant rss feeds
> that can be parsed by any reader.  I don't care what language it's
> written in but I have the stock Debian Apache package so I don't
> think I have perl as a module.  Probably php is best.  If it allows
> email blog entries, there would need to be a way to approve them as
> being from me, again because of spam.  The idea would be that if I
> must use a web interface, I want to quickly log in and be at an entry
> screen.  I would be using Firefox under Windows and possibly
> Lynx.  It would be nice to have something like a text editor for
> blogs so I can just do something like "blog this," type something,
> save and it rebuilds the rss feed etc.  I have minimal html skills
> and I don't want to learn a markup language just to write
> something.  It should be self-maintaining so I don't have to rebuild
> the database, web site, etc.  A search engine would be nice but not
> necessary.  I would like an "about the blog" section at the top of
> all entry pages.
>
> What do you suggest?  I've looked at the wordpress package but it
> looks like it has security issues.  Should I look at a commercial
> blog site or try a particular package on my own?
> ----------
> Tony Baechler
> Baechler Productions
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>
>   

Re: Blogging software

[marbux]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 8901 bytes --]

On Feb 3, 2008 1:02 AM, Tony Baechler <tony@baechler.net> wrote:

> Hi, am I asking for too much?  Your reply indicates that I am.  I'm new
> to creating a blog although I've been reading feeds since 2004-ish.
> I've looked at many CMSs before and I don't think that's what I want.
> I'm looking for something designed for blogging.  I'll still look at the
> CMS package you suggest though.  I'm also looking for an accessible CMS,
> but not for a blog.  The CMS would be a separate site.  If it has a good
> blog module that does mostly what I'm looking for and supports multiple
> sites, that would certainly be a good option.  Sorry if I'm asking for
> too much, like I said, I'm new to blog creation.  I never had an
> interest until now and I want something that requires no fuss to set up
> and use.  I don't really need advanced features, that would be a bonus.
> Podcast support would be nice but not necessary for now.
>

<book>

There are a lot of CMS that have a blogging module or extension. There are
fewer CMS that support multiple sites running from the same instance. On the
other hand, I don't know of any CMS that is simple to install and configure
if you don't have experiencing in managing a web server.

On the other hand, if you start with a CMS "farm" that uses the CMS you
would eventually like to host on your own server, then you will be able to
fairly easily transfer the data from the "farm" to your own server later.
And you only have to deal with configuration; the installation is handled
for you.

Most industrial strength open source CMS have developers involved in the
project that operate CMS farms. Usually, you'll find a link on the project
home page to a page that lists and links CMS farms that run that CMS.

The reason for choosing what CMS you want to use eventually at the beginning
of the process is that interoperability among different CMS is a really dicy
proposition. So switching CMS down the line can be a real pain.

The downside of going with one of the farms initially is that usually all
you can get is a standard version with just the selection of extensions that
are available to everyone using the farm. In other words, there are some
definite limits on how far you can go with customization when working with a
farm.

Some farms are free as in beer. E.g., <http://www.wordpress.com> or Google's
Blogger. Others are very inexpensive. If you go with a farm, it is important
to do some research and check out what users have to say about the quality
of service. Some are pretty fair; others are out to skin you alive.

If you want a real domain name rather than something like
tonys-blog.whiz-bang-cms.com, it's good practice to register the domain name
yourself rather than allowing the hosting service to do it for you. There
are hosting services out there that advertise a free domain name if you sign
up, but then you discover a year or two later that they've registered it in
their own name and will charge you big bucks to buy the domain name from
them.

An organization I work with recently went through this, and had to change
their domain name in lieu of paying the extortion money. That caused an
awful lot of broken links to the site and and a real hit on the amount of
site traffic and search engine ranking.

If you want to go the route of running your own server from the beginning, a
good practice is to maintain one or more test installations on your local
machine to experiment with for customization purposes before you make
changes on your web site. It's all too easy to mess up a site by just
hacking your way through customization on the server. Get it right on your
local machine and then implement the changes on the server.

</book>

Best regards,

Marbux









> Rob Harris wrote:
> > Wow, now this is a request and a half and didn't get to the end.  The
> blog
> > engines you mentioned can usually be found under Fantastico of a hosting
> > provider.  P-Machine is what is called  CMS or Content Management System
> and
> > I think there's a free one you can down load called CMSMS though can't
> now
> > remember what the second  MS is for.  An old and now unsupported version
> of
> > P-machine works extremely well and does everything you said - it was the
> > prototype before the company went commercial and try to disuade or
> distract
> > people from using this version and try and stop hosting providers
> offering
> > it.  It is a PHP application and does more or less everything you said
> and
> > it is as easy as you require.  I don't post to mine a lot though you can
> > take a quick look here - http://www.apearl.net/his - which shows some of
> the
> > basic features listed.  The online file manager is one of the more
> useful so
> > I can modify files on the fly if I make a hiccup on one.  This is to
> say, I
> > can navigate my file tree (once logged in as admin!), select a file and
> it
> > will be loaded into a page in a text area where you can edit it,  then
> go to
> > the bottom and click save and whallah,   you've just fixed a bug!
> >
> > I find PHP a useful language to learn and write some of this kind of
> thing
> > myself.  Someo f those efforts are here - http://randex.apearl.net which
> is
> > random selection from a large content collection and i'm now adding
> tools
> > like online calculator and dns lookup/reverse lookup amongst other
> things.
> > Mailing right off a page is quite straight forward in fact, without
> having
> > the risky mailto: link on the page.  This is all hidden in the PHP
> script
> > and this code can be locked and made invisible.  The client browser only
> > sees what the script sends to it.
> >
> > But that's an aside,  I've given you suggestions to search for and the
> CMSMS
> > might be the most readily available to find and download.  They're at
> > something like www.cmsms.org or something like that.
> >
> > Hth,  RobH.
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Tony Baechler" <tony@baechler.net>
> > To: "Linux for blind general discussion" <blinux-list@redhat.com>
> > Sent: Saturday, February 02, 2008 4:45 PM
> > Subject: Blogging software
> >
> >
> > Hi all,
> >
> > Am I better served with a commercial blog site like wordpress.com,
> > blogger.com, etc or can I do what I want on my own Linux server?
> >
> > I'm running Debian Etch with Apache 1.3 and php4.  It will eventually
> > be upgraded to Apache 2.2 and php5.  If I go with a blogging site, I
> > don't want intrusive ads.  If I go with something on the server, I
> > want something fairly easy to set up and fairly basic but could be
> > expanded later.  I don't plan to produce a podcast right now but
> > might eventually.  What would be nice but not required would be a way
> > that I can email blog entries to a special address and be able to
> > login with ssh and just type out a blog entry quickly.  I don't want
> > a complicated web interface.  The idea is to write my blog entry
> > while I'm thinking about it, otherwise I forget.  I don't need
> > comments, trackbacks, etc because I would turn them off anyway and I
> > have too much spam already.  I want standards-compliant rss feeds
> > that can be parsed by any reader.  I don't care what language it's
> > written in but I have the stock Debian Apache package so I don't
> > think I have perl as a module.  Probably php is best.  If it allows
> > email blog entries, there would need to be a way to approve them as
> > being from me, again because of spam.  The idea would be that if I
> > must use a web interface, I want to quickly log in and be at an entry
> > screen.  I would be using Firefox under Windows and possibly
> > Lynx.  It would be nice to have something like a text editor for
> > blogs so I can just do something like "blog this," type something,
> > save and it rebuilds the rss feed etc.  I have minimal html skills
> > and I don't want to learn a markup language just to write
> > something.  It should be self-maintaining so I don't have to rebuild
> > the database, web site, etc.  A search engine would be nice but not
> > necessary.  I would like an "about the blog" section at the top of
> > all entry pages.
> >
> > What do you suggest?  I've looked at the wordpress package but it
> > looks like it has security issues.  Should I look at a commercial
> > blog site or try a particular package on my own?
> > ----------
> > Tony Baechler
> > Baechler Productions
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list@redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Blinux-list mailing list
> > Blinux-list@redhat.com
> > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
> >
> >
>
> _______________________________________________
> Blinux-list mailing list
> Blinux-list@redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
>

[-- Attachment #2: Type: text/html, Size: 11162 bytes --]

Re: Blogging software

[Tony Baechler]

Hi all,

Apparently I was unclear on a few things.  I have access to a Debian 
server already.  I've set up Apache and php4.  I've installed many CMSs 
before but had problems with them, either because of lack of 
accessibility or they were too complicated to figure out.  I have domain 
names coming out my ears.  I have no interest in paying a web host 
because I already have the server.  I don't have a local Linux machine 
or local web server.  I guess it sounds like I'm looking for a lot but 
really I'm not.  I just want a basic blog engine that lets me easily 
write posts without a bunch of maintenance and configuration.  I didn't 
mind WordPress but it looked hard to configure and seems to have 
security issues.

If there is no accessible vlog engine that runs under Linux which does 
what I want, I would like to know what third party site to use.  My 
preference would be to use the server that's already available.  I'm not 
going to pay anything because I don't see any point.  I don't really 
want to deal with tons of plugins and themes.  I just want to either 
login with ssh, write my entry and have it do the work or login to the 
web interface and be put directly on an edit page.  I don't need lots of 
other things for now.

I'm well aware of how hard it is to move from one CMS to another which 
is why I'm not settled on one.  I don't really want to find out later 
that I'm limited in what I can do, but if that's the price of 
simplicity, I guess I can live with it.  Again, podcasts are something 
way down the road but not a major requirement.  My main reason for 
wanting standards-compliant feeds is to avoid parse errors with feed 
readers.  A built-in search engine and "about the blog" boilerplate 
would be nice bonuses but aren't necessary.  I like the idea of an 
offline blog editor or being able to email an entry.  Since I can login 
with ssh, limiting email to localhost only would be fine.

Again, is this too much to ask?  Am I missing something obvious?  I've 
spent several years thinking about what my blog is and isn't so maybe 
that's why I seem picky, but like I said, I don't need much.  I really 
don't want to babysit my blog software, I just want to write when I feel 
like writing.  I hope this gives a better idea of what I'm after and 
sorry for the apparent confusion.

Re: word documents

[Aldo]

On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 02:59:51PM +1100, Daniel Dalton wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I get a lot of stuff in word format. How can I either
> 1. Read and edit the document on my linux box.

Reading can be done with wv or catdoc or antiword;
for editing you need OpenOffice.

> or 2. Convert it to plane text?
Catdoc is your friend.
 
> I am not using a gui.
Then you'll not be able to edit the Word document.

> All help is greatly appreciated.

Grtnx,

Aldo.