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List:       lyx-users
Subject:    Re: Google Docs to LaTeX
From:       Michael Thompson <practical.wisdom () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-04-20 23:12:04
Message-ID: loom.20080420T221946-768 () post ! gmane ! org
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 <cmiramon@...> writes:

> I would try to export to ODF and then use writer2latex to convert it to
> LaTeX. You clean the LaTeX with a script to take away all the Wysiwyg cruft
> and then convert it to LyX.

I can't tell from the note whether you are a skillful composer of scripts, as
Charles is kindly thinking you must be.  If you are not, but have NeoOffice
installed, notice that writer2latex is already installed under File --> Export
--> FileFormat. I take it this is true of all versions of OpenOffice.  
The default preferences may not be ideal; they are in writer2latex.xml, which is
easy to find and fairly humanly readable - even if it is a script - and can be
adjusted according to the principles in the user's manual 
http://www.hj-gym.dk/~hj/writer2latex/index7.html
Since you are writing in google docs, you will have control over how much of a
hash the result is.  I use NeoOffice to open Word documents, and if I have to
print a long student term paper, the temptation to export is overwhelming, of
course, if only to save paper and ink. If you delete all of the garbage that
appears in the preamble under Document --> Settings, the results are not too
bad. (Once someone figures out how to have a handsome "Powered by LyX" figure
printed at the bottom of the last page, or maybe every page, which might be
mentioned in the preamble, I'd be bold enough to return the text to the student
that way.)  It is surprising how rapid the steps are; it was much more
complicated when I was first using LyX and LaTeX a year or so ago, and thus
converting lots of stuff. 
If you have to study and alter a document, and thus stare at paragraphs in the
LyX user interface, there may be some ugly ERT, especially if the preferences
are too kind to what Charles calls the 'wysiwyg cruft'.  If you find a solution
to the problem with em-dashes that doesn't involve a find-and-replace in the
.tex file, tell me.  





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