troff2rtf - convert troff documents to Rich Text Format

troff2rtf [ -mxx ] [ -S charset ] [ file ... ]

troff2rtf processes documents written to be formatted with troff (or nroff, or any of the other *roff variants) and converts them to Rich Text Format. RTF is a reasonably portable interchange standard; files in RTF format can be read by a variety of applications, e.g., Microsoft Word, WordPerfect (Macintosh version 2.0 and up), WriteNow.

The main use for troff2rtf is to make it easier to transport troff documents for use with microcomputers. First, convert your document to RTF: CW% troff2rtf [CIoptions] file > file.rtf The available options are described below. The one you'll most likely use is -mxx to specify a macro package like -me or -ms. If the document contains tables, the conversion can be done like this instead: CW% tblcvt file | troff2rtf [CIoptions] > file.rtf Then move the RTF file to your target machine and read it into your document processor.

Optional flags may be given to modify the operation of troff2rtf, as follows:

-mxx

Specify macro package, usually -man, -me, -mm, or -ms.

-S charset

Specify the RTF character set. charset can be one of the following: ansi mac pc pca. The default is the Macintosh character set. For documents that you intend to use under Windows, -S ansi is a better choice.

tblcvt(1), troffcvt(1)

Paul DuBois, dubois@primate.wisc.educ .

Table output generated when troff2rtf is used in concert with tblcvt has been known to crash Word outright; caution may be in order. In addition, you may need to read the resulting RTF document into a word processor and tweak column widths manually.

Word97 adds support for vertically merging table cells (using the \clvmgf and \clvmrg control words). troff2rtf supports vertical spans using these controls, but earlier versions of Word don't yet understand them. Consequently, what you'll see for n-cell vertical spans is n individual cells, with all the text in the top cell and n-1 empty cells below it.