Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!briand@tekig4.TEK.COM
From: briand@tekig4.TEK.COM (Brian Diehm)
Newsgroups: comp.text.desktop
Subject: Re: Rich Text Format
Message-ID: <50745@sun.uucp>
Date: 25 Apr 88 17:58:23 GMT
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Distribution: comp
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR.
Lines: 44
Approved: desktop-request%plaid@sun.com

>>Me:
>>Actually, MS-Word and RTF are two completely different formats.  Word allows
>>you to save your file in RTF format, but we have found that doing so will lose
>>some of the formatting information, at least in the Mac version.  Should you
>>then convert that RTF file to DCA, you will be lucky to retain just the text.

>Chip Salzenberg:
>What, exactly, is lost when a Word document is saved in RTF?  Please give
>details, and workarounds too (if any).

>If a Word --> RTF --> Word transformation results in a severe loss of
>information, then RTF is not suitable for the tasks I have in mind. 

Most specifically, we have found that multi-column formatting gets
either lost or scrambled in the above set of conversions.  The
remainder of the formatting remains pretty much intact, though there is
the occasional random screw-up.  It is usable if you proofread.  The
random screw-ups can occur anywhere at any time.  The loss of
information cannot be considered severe, except in multi- column
formatting, where the multi-column info is lost but the remainder of
the formatting is pretty much intact.

The real lost cause is the Word --> RTF --> DCA --> RTF --> Word
transformation.  This one loses just about all but the raw text.  I
believe it is because DCA is not rich enough, and there are bugs in
MicroSoft's converter.

My comments are about 6 months old; we don't do any of this after our
initial experimentation told us it wouldn't do for us at all.
MicroSoft may have cleaned it all up by now.  Even under MultiFinder.
On the Mac II.  And pigs may fly. . .
-- 
-Brian Diehm     (SDA - Standard Disclaimers Apply)
Tektronix, Inc.
briand@tekig4.TEK.COM   or  {decvax,cae780,uw-beaver}!tektronix!tekig4!briand  

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