Can't open a .pub (Publisher??) document in Word

[TEG]

I can see the formatted document in the preview pane of thee 'Open'
dialogue box, but when I click 'OK' I'm asked what doc format I want to
open it in, and .pub or 'Publisher" isn't in the list. When I try any
of the listed formats (text only, rtf, html etc.) except 'Retrieve
Text from any document' I get pages of programming gibberish only.

Any thoughts how to resolve this?

Thanks

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello-

As Publisher is only available for Windows, not Mac, I'm betting you slipped
in here by accident, huh?

However, I work on both platforms & can tell you truthfully that neither PC
Word nor Mac Word can open a Publisher file. The programs (Word & Publisher)
use totally different file structures. You can place Word doc content into a
pub file & you can copy & paste between the two.

Regards |:>)

 

[mmmmark]

PC versions of Pagemaker 7 can open "most" publisher files. Not sure if the
Mac version also includes a converter. Just throwing this out in case it
might.

 

[Michel Bintener]

And another suggestion: Publisher should be able to save a file as a Word
document. I don't know how reliable that method is, but still, it's one way
of getting the content of a Publisher document into a file that can be read
on a Mac.

 

[CyberTaz]

Good point, Michael. Unfortunately the only format is as a Word .rtf, so
although formatting should be retained no graphic content will be. It can
also play havoc with awkwardly positioned section breaks and pagination in
general, depending on how complex the .pub layout is.

Of course, as the expression goes, where there's a will, there's a way

Regards |:>)

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Cyber:

Graphic content should be preserved in RTF RTF is very close to Word's
native binary format. Word can read and save almost everything to and from
RTF

Publisher should do that too, particularly the later versions of it.

But you are quite right: Publisher and Word have a completely different way
of expressing a document, so you will get some layout problems.

Cheers

Good point, Michael. Unfortunately the only format is as a Word .rtf, so
although formatting should be retained no graphic content will be. It can
also play havoc with awkwardly positioned section breaks and pagination in
general, depending on how complex the .pub layout is.

Of course, as the expression goes, where there's a will, there's a way

Regards |:>)

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Anybody]

Graphic content should be preserved in RTF RTF is very close to Word's
native binary format. Word can read and save almost everything to and from
RTF

RTF should *NOT* contain any graphic content at all - it's a TEXT only
format, which is what the "T" stands for.

The two lowest formats are basically:

ASCII / Plain text = the text itself without styling or
font information

RTF (Rich Text Format) = the text plus styling and sometimes
font information

This is one of the main problems with Word's export files. Word (as
usual) decides to re-write the standard and include rubbish such as
graphics and tables in it's RTF files, which completely stuffs up in
ther applications that don't expect such things in a text format file.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

I so love it when trolls get it wrong

The RTF "standard" is a Microsoft format that Microsoft publishes to enable
interchange with its products.

In other words, the RTF 'standard' is "whatever Microsoft says it is." If
you happen to be an application developer, you would normally qualify the
term 'RTF' by mentioning the VERSION you are talking about.

The latest published version I know about is RTF 1.6. You can read about it
here:
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnrtfspec/
html/rtfspec.asp>

The first sentence may be instructive:

"The Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification is a method of encoding formatted
text _and graphics_ for easy transfer between applications." (my
emphasis...)

The entire point of the word "Rich" in Rich Text Format was to allow for the
presence of things OTHER than characters in the file. RTF really means "A
way of describing a file rich with different content types in a language
consisting mainly of text."

When you write your next RTF reader, don't forget to include support for
Binary Blobs: you will encounter a lot of them, in which you will find *any*
form of content, some of which will be graphical. Better make sure you know
how to handle them

If you need help, Microsoft offers a Sample RTF Reader Application at the
above URL

Graphic content should be preserved in RTF RTF is very close to Word's
native binary format. Word can read and save almost everything to and from
RTF

RTF should *NOT* contain any graphic content at all - it's a TEXT only
format, which is what the "T" stands for.

The two lowest formats are basically:

ASCII / Plain text = the text itself without styling or
font information

RTF (Rich Text Format) = the text plus styling and sometimes
font information

This is one of the main problems with Word's export files. Word (as
usual) decides to re-write the standard and include rubbish such as
graphics and tables in it's RTF files, which completely stuffs up in
ther applications that don't expect such things in a text format file.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello John-

Excellent reference... I can't begin to say how surprised I was when I first
found this to be the case. The misconception appears to lie in the fact that
many other programs will not (cannot) display the graphic content of a .rtf
& many programs that save in .rtf _don't_ preserve the graphics. In Access,
for example, you can output a Report as a Word .rtf, but only the text
content is included. The text retains its formatting, but any lines, images,
or graphic effects are disregarded. I must admit that I haven't had the
opportunity to play with the _latest_ versions of Publisher in this regard,
but I believe that 2000 & earlier worked much the same way. When I get back
into the office on Monday I intend to find out.

Regards |:>)

 

[Anybody]

Hello John-

Excellent reference... I can't begin to say how surprised I was when I first
found this to be the case. The misconception appears to lie in the fact that
many other programs will not (cannot) display the graphic content of a .rtf
& many programs that save in .rtf _don't_ preserve the graphics. In Access,
for example, you can output a Report as a Word .rtf, but only the text
content is included. The text retains its formatting, but any lines, images,
or graphic effects are disregarded. I must admit that I haven't had the
opportunity to play with the _latest_ versions of Publisher in this regard,
but I believe that 2000 & earlier worked much the same way. When I get back
into the office on Monday I intend to find out.

That's because the "Rich" part is MEANT to be the inclusion of styling
and sometimes font information, NOT graphics. Graphics are not text so
should not be in any "Text" format file, and that includes RTF. If you
want grpahics, tables, etc. then you use a different, not-text format
file.

The fact that Microsoft continually change the rules to suit themselves
is absolutely nothing new at all.

 

[Paul Berkowitz]

That's because the "Rich" part is MEANT to be the inclusion of styling
and sometimes font information, NOT graphics. Graphics are not text so
should not be in any "Text" format file, and that includes RTF. If you
want grpahics, tables, etc. then you use a different, not-text format
file.

The fact that Microsoft continually change the rules to suit themselves
is absolutely nothing new at all.

Since it's their own format, who exactly should they suit, do you think? The
fact that other vendors also use the format means that they are willing to
abide by Microsoft's definition. (Or they would propose a consortium to see
if Microsoft would agree to industry control, as has sometimes happened.
Microsoft wouldn't necessarily agree to give up control however.)

Apple use the extension .rtfd for "Rich Text with Graphics" (it's really
"RTF with Attachments") when saving RTF files that include graphics from
TextEdit. Does anyone know who defined that format?

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.

 

[CyberTaz]

Hello again-

I did follow up on the issue, & FWIW, Publisher 2003 _does not_ include
graphic content when you output as Word .rtf... In fact, a dialog box
appears advising of that limitation as soon as you attempt to save.

Regards |:>)

 

[mmmmark]

To be clear...it isn't a limitation of the format, however, just of the
application.