1catdoc(1) General Commands Manual catdoc(1)
2
6 catdoc - reads MS-Word file and puts its content as plain text on stan‐
7 dard output
8
10 catdoc [-vlu8btawxV] [-m number] [ -s charset] [ -d charset] [ -f out‐
11 put-format] file
12
15 catdoc behaves much like cat(1) but it reads MS-Word file and produces
16 human-readable text on standard output. Optionally it can use latex(1)
17 escape sequences for characters which have special meaning for LaTeX.
18 It also makes some effort to recognize MS-Word tables, although it
19 never tries to write correct headers for LaTeX tabular environment.
20 Additional output formats, such is HTML can be easily defined.
21 catdoc doesn't attempt to extract formatting information other than
23 tables from MS-Word document, so different output modes means mainly
24 that different characters should be escaped and different ways used to
25 represent characters, missing from output charset. See CHARACTER SUB‐
26 STITUTION below
27 catdoc uses internal unicode(4) representation of text, so it is able
30 to convert texts when charset in source document doesn't match charset
31 on target system. See CHARACTER SETS below.
32 If no file names supplied, catdoc processes its standard input unless
34 it is terminal. It is unlikely that somebody could type Word document
35 from keyboard, so if catdoc invoked without arguments and stdin is not
36 redirected, it prints brief usage message and exits. Processing of
37 standard input (even among other files) can be forced using dash '-' as
38 file name.
39 By default, catdoc wraps lines which are more than 72 chars long and
41 separates paragraphs by blank lines. This behavior can be turned of by
42 -w switch. In wide mode catdoc prints each paragraph as one long line,
43 suitable for import into word processors that perform word wrapping.
44
48 -a - shortcut for -f ascii. Produces ASCII text as output. Sepa‐
49 rates table columns with TAB
50 -b - process broken MS-Word file. Normally, catdoc checks if first
52 8 bytes of file is Microsoft OLE signature. If so, it processes
53 file, otherwise it just copies it to stdin. It is intended to
54 use catdoc as filter for viewing all files with .doc extension.
55 -dcharset
57 - specifies destination charset name. Charset file has format
58 described in CHARACTER SETS below and should have .txt exten‐
59 sion and reside in catdoc library directory ( /usr/lib64/cat‐
60 doc). By default, current locale charset is used if langinfo
61 support compiled in.
62 -fformat
64 - specifies output format as described in CHARACTER SUBSTITU‐
65 TION below. catdoc comes with two output formats - ascii and
66 tex. You can add your own if you wish.
67 -l Causes catdoc to list names of available charsets to the stdout
69 and exit successfully.
70 -mnumber
72 Specifies right margin for text (default 72). -m 0 is equiva‐
73 lent to -w
74 -scharset
76 Specifies source charset. (one used in Word document), if Word
77 document doesn't contain UTF-16 text. When reading rtf docu‐
78 ments, it is typically not necessary, because rtf documents
79 contain ansicpg specification. But it can be set wrong by Word
80 (I've seen RTF documents on Russian, where cp1252 was speci‐
81 fied). In this case this option would take precedence over
82 charset, specified in the document. But source_charset state‐
83 ment in the configuration file have less priority than charset
84 in the document.
85 -t - shortcut for -f tex
87 converts all printable chars, which have special meaning for
88 LaTeX(1) into appropriate control sequences. Separates table
89 columns by &.
90 -u - declares that Word document contain UNICODE (UTF-16)
92 representation of text (as some Word-97 documents). If catdoc
93 fails to correct Word document with default charset, try
94 this option.
95 -8 - declares is Word document is 8 bit. Just in case that catdoc
97 recognizes file format incorrectly.
98 -w disables word wrapping. By default catdoc output is split into
100 lines not longer than 72 (or number, specified by -m option)
101 characters and paragraphs are separated by blank line. With
102 this option each paragraph is one long line.
103 -x causes catdoc to output unknown UNICODE character as \xNNNN,
105 instead of question marks.
106 -v causes catdoc to print some useless information about word doc‐
108 ument structure to stdout before actual start of text.
109 -V outputs catdoc version
111
114 When processing MS-Word file catdoc uses information about two charac‐
115 ter sets, typically different
116 - input and output. They are stored in plain text files in catdoc
117 library directory. Character set files should contain two whitespace-
118 separated hexadecimal numbers - 8-bit code in character set and 16-bit
119 Unicode code. Anything from hash mark to end of line is ignored, as
120 well as blank lines.
121 catdoc distribution includes some of these character sets. Additional
123 character set definitions, directly usable by catdoc can be obtained
124 from ftp.unicode.org. Charset files have .txt suffix, which shouldn't
125 be specified in command-line or configuration files.
126 Note that catdoc is distributed with Cyrillic charsets as default. If
128 you are not Russian, you probably don't want it, an should reconfigure
129 catdoc at compile time or in runtime configuration file.
130 When dealing with documents with charsets other than default, remember
132 that Microsoft never uses ISO charsets. While letters in, say cp1252
133 are at the same position as in ISO-8859-1, some punctuation signs would
134 be lost, if you specify ISO-8859-1 as input charset. If you use cp1252,
135 catdoc would deal with those signs as described in CHARACTER SUBSTITU‐
136 TION below.
137
140 catdoc converts MS-Word file into following internal Unicode represen‐
141 tation:
142 1. Paragraphs are separated by ASCII Line Feed symbol (0x000A)
144 2. Table cells within row are separated by ASCII Field Separator symbol
146 (0x001C)
147 3. Table rows are separated by ASCII Record Separator (0x001E)
149 4. All printable characters, including whitespace are represented with
151 their
152 respective UNICODE codes.
153 This UNICODE representation is subsequently converted into 8-bit text
155 in target character set using following four-step algorithm:
156 1. List of special characters is searched for given Unicode character.
158 If found, then appropriate multi-character sequence is output
159 instead of character.
160 2. If there is an equivalent in target character set, it is output.
162 3. Otherwise, replacement list is searched and, if there is multi-char‐
164 acter
165 substitution for this UNICODE char, it is output.
166 4. If all above fails, "Unknown char" symbol (question mark) is output.
168 Lists of special characters and list of substitution are character set-
170 independent, because special chars should be escaped regardless of
171 their existence in target character set (usually, they are parts of
172 US-ASCII, and therefore exist in any character set) and replacement
173 list is searched only for those characters, which are not found in tar‐
174 get character set.
175 These lists are stored in catdoc library directory in files with prefix
177 of format name. These files have following format:
178 Each line can be either comment (starting with hash mark) or contain
180 hexadecimal UNICODE value, separated by whitespace from string, which
181 would be substituted instead of it. If string contain no whitespace it
182 can be used as is, otherwise it should be enclosed in single or double
183 quotes. Usual backslash sequences like '\n','\t' can be used in these
184 string.
185
189 Upon startup catdoc reads its system-wide configuration file ( catdocrc
190 in catdoc library directory) and then user-specific configuration file
191 ${HOME}/.catdocrc.
192 These files can contain following directives:
194 source_charset = charset-name
196 Sets default source charset, which would be used if no -s
197 option specified. Consult configuration of nearby windows work‐
198 station to find one you need.
199 target_charset = charset-name
201 Sets default output charset. You probably know, which one you
202 use.
203 charset_path = directory-list
205 colon-separated list of directories, which are searched for
206 charset files. This allows you to install additional charsets
207 in your home directory. If first directory component of path
208 is ~ it is replaced by contents of HOME environment variable.
209 On MS-DOS platform, if directory name starts with %s, it is
210 replaced with directory of executable file. Empty element in
211 list (i.e. two consequitve colons) is considered current direc‐
212 tory.
213 map_path = directory-list
215 colon-separated list of directories, which are searched for
216 special character map and replacement map. Same substitution
217 rules as in charset_path are applied.
218 format = format name
220 Output format which would be used by default. catdoc comes
221 with two formats - ascii and tex but nothing prevents you from
222 writing your own format (set two map files - special character
223 map and replacement map).
224 unknown_char = character specification
226 sets character to output instead of unknown Unicode character
227 (default '?') Character specification can have one of two form
228 - character enclosed in single quotes or hexadecimal code.
229 use_locale =(yes|no)
231 Enables or disables automatic selection of output charset
232 (default yes),
233 based on system locale settings (if enabled at compile time).
234 If automatic detection is enabled, than output charset settings
235 in the configuration files (but not in the command line) are
236 ignored, and current system locale charset is used instead.
237 There are no automatic choice of input charset, based of locale
238 language, because most modern Word files (since Word 97) are
239 Unicode anyway
240
243 Doesn't handle fast-saves properly. Prints footnotes as separate para‐
244 graphs at the end of file, instead of producing correct LaTeX commands.
245 Cannot distinguish between empty table cell and end of table row.
246
251 xls2csv(1), catppt(1), cat(1), strings(1), utf(4), unicode(4)
252
255 V.B.Wagner <vitus@45.free.net>
256MS-Word reader Version @catdoc_version@ catdoc(1)