SYNOPSIS
rtf2latex2e [options ...] file.tex
DESCRIPTION
rtf2latex2e converts a text file in rich text format (RTF) to a text
file in LaTeX format. Text styles, symbols, equations, tables, and
footnotes are handled. rtf2latex2e also extracts and saves any image
files found inside the RTF file. The resulting LaTeX file and included
images can be typeset using LaTeX but, of course, image formats unsup-
ported by LaTeX will need to be converted to an image with a supported
format. As of version 2.1 a bash script unoconv is used to convert
Apple PICT and Microsoft WMF and EMF files to PDF format using OpenOf-
fice/LibreOffice. JPEG and PNG image formats are not converted, but
just emitted as files and included in the LaTeX document. The general
idea is to allow the converted document to be processed with pdflatex.
pict2pdf is used to convert Apple PICT to PDF files if it is present.
OPTIONS
-b Single option that chooses options that for the best match
between LaTeX and RTF formatting. (This fidelity is at the
expense of readability and often the RTF makes poor choices for
indentation and line spacing that are automatically provided by
LaTeX.) This option is equivalent to '-e 1 -p 63 -t 7 -T 3'
-D Create a new directory named 'file-latex' and save the converted
LaTeX and extracted images inside.
-e # Manage equation conversion. Multiple options (see below) can be
combined by adding individual options together. For example, if
you would like both the equations that have been translated into
TeX as well as the images of the equations (because you don't
trust rtf2latex2e ) then you might use '-e 3' so that you could
see both in the typeset LaTeX file.
-e 1 Convert MathType equations (which includes basic Word Equation
Editor equations) to LaTeX
-e 2 Include image of Math Type equations (which includes basic Word
Equation Editor equations) in the LaTeX file
-e 4 Retain the intermediate .eqn files extracted for each equation.
This is primarily useful as a debugging tool.
-e 8 Insert the name of the .eqn file into the text of the LaTeX
file. Obviously this is most useful when the previous option is
selected as well.
-e 16 delimit eqn in latex (-e 1) by brackets instead $
-f Create a fractional LaTeX document. The LaTeX preamble is omit-
ted and the resulting file can be processed using
\include{file.tex} in another document.
-h Help!
-n Option to produce a 'natural' LaTeX document that is easy to
edit. This option discards a lot of paragraph mark-up and futz-
ing with line spacing. Consequently the typeset results will
probably look less like the original RTF file, but isn't that
why you converted the file in the first place? This option is
equivalent to '-e 1 -p 33 -t 12 -T 0'
-p # Manage paragraph conversion. The number is additive so if you
want to preserve only indenting and line spacing then use -p 6
-p 1 Conversion of basic paragraph formatting to LaTeX structures.
For example, enable mapping of 'heading 1' style to '\section{}'
-p 2 Retain paragraph indention of RTF document.
-p 4 Retain spacing between paragraphs as in RTF document.
-p 8 Retain paragraph line spacing of RTF document.
-p 16 Retain margins used in RTF document.
-p 32 Retain paragraph alignment (e.g., justified, left, right) in RTF
document.
-P path
path to support files (See FILES below). The directory that the
files were originally installed is shown at the end of the help
text from @code{rtf2latex2e -h}
-t # Manage text conversion. Combine options by adding them
together. Why isn't there a way to retain the actual fonts
(e.g., Helvetica)? Because that is hard.
-t 1 Retain text size of RTF document.
-t 2 Retain text colors in RTF document.
-t 4 Retain text formatting (bold, italic) of RTF document.
-t 8 Replace tabs with spaces (because tabs are useless in LaTeX).
-T # Manage table conversion. Table conversion kind of works, but
the impedance mismatch between the way that RTF handles tables
and LaTeX does them is horrific. Often it is
-T 1 keep column widths
-T 2 keep column alignment
FILES
There are a bunch of other files used by rtf2latex2e These are usually
located in /usr/local/share/rtf2latex2e but may have been installed
elsewhere by your packaging system. The files most amenable to tweak-
ing by humans are
latex-encoding file used to map symbols to LaTeX commands
r2l-head LaTeX commands inserted in every LaTeX preamble
r2l-map mapping between RTF styles and LaTeX commands
r2l-pref default preferences for rtf2latex2e
The other files consist of tables to facilitate conversion of RTF com-
mands and symbols.
EXAMPLE
rtf2latex2e foo convert foo.rtf to foo.tex
rtf2latex2e -n foo minimal excess mark-up
rtf2latex2e -e 15 foo help identify failed equation conversion
rtf2latex2e foo-eqn003.eqn debug third equation (after above command)
rtf2latex2e -D foo put foo.tex and images in foo-latex
rtf2latex2e foo.rtfd convert and put result in foo-latex
BUGS
Some might consider RTF to be a bug. Markup for table conversion is
still convoluted. Good free utilities for converting PICT and EMF
files to EPS or PDF are not readily available for all platforms.
AVAILABILITY
rtf2latex2e is GPL licensed (version 2) and available from SourceForge
at http://rtf2latex2e.sourceforge.net
rtf2latex2e(June 28, 2012)
