Project Detail

Description

Conversion of book in Microsoft Word 5 for DOS (about year 1986) into PDF, html, word for windows 2003


into some modern format. Word for windows, PDF, etc
HTML for the web, (In the case of html one could forfeit the column formatting, I guess.

Best would be all formats, once you have one format you can get them all as they are easily convertible

As I have lots of loose files, it would be good
if you could either automatically convert them all, or give me the tools to convert them if I find out I need another one.


Check the enclosed sample files, especially the unifiall.doc

Aggravations:

* I use portuguese and German languages, so I have special characters like a with ~ or " on top of it

* I used all kind of formatting tricks, like 2 columns. A few pictures are straddled between columns (don't even know how I managed to do this in such an old software)

* There are lots of pictures inserted. The insertion is not in-line, the pictures are NOT in the text file, but with some command like "insert d:\paintbr\file.tiff". So one needs to re-create the same folder and drive structure for it to work, or change the insertion directory in all insert commands

* I have an index with page numbers (automatic, I believe), according to winword 5 formatting.

* One main file for the book that has like 20 "includes" (?) to insert the other chapter files

* I just see there are stylesheets involved, I doubt i still have them, but most likely they are standard.


One probably could get word for windows 5 and do some test output to PDF printer (not sure if there is software for that)
word for windows 6 is just as good, and I once downloaded a free version off the web

But the true solution should be conversion to an easily editable file, or even the same file structure .....
You need to find how to do it, maybe with 2-3 steps (an old word for windows version, ..... you find out what to do ....)


Ideally I want to get the same identical output, because I prefer the pictures to be exactly in the same positions they are in, same page numbering, etc.
I believe that probably is impossible.

Ideally also it remains the same structure, with chapter files that get joined into one large file by some kind of "include" statement, so the chapters can be re-arranged at will or can be edited separately. Especially because I have lots of chapters in all 3 languages, but occasionally insert an English chapter into the German version, because there is no German version of that chapter.


If I did it myself, maybe I should try to print from an old DOS install version of winword 5. But then would have to see which printer drivers I can use. Probably some old Epson or HP printer driver that happens to be compatible with the new printers (I have an EPSON R80, for example). And I still would have trouble editing text, converting it to HTML, etc.


Total of 160 pages for one language book, plus some shorter booklets or versions in German, Portuguese, and English

Might be up to 3 books and a few booklets with partial content.
I would send you the directories of the chapter files, the complete book files, and the graphic picture files.
You would produce Word for Windows, PDF, html versions of it.
You may explain if it is easiest to use only one of these formats and give hints of how to convert things.
Especially I don't want the horrible winword html conversion but some decent html with not too much garbage in it.
Be aware that there are minimum requirements, like if you screw up the accented characters or the pictures are all in the wrong places, then obviously the task was not done. I don't want to be too strict, if a graphic is slightly misplaced due to a changed pagination, that might be acceptable.

I have a printed version of the book, unfortunately it would be hard for you to get a copy of it. I think ideally you do a "virtual" printout for yourself with winword5 first. So you can see the correct formatting.

I think the number of pages and the number of different output formats (doc, pdf, etc) are almost irrelevant, because if you have the right conversion skills and software, it is all automatic, once you get it set up right.


Additional files submitted:
unifiall.doc
xunifal0.doc
humanive.doc