trewitt@Portia.Stanford.EDU (Glenn Trewitt) (11/18/88)
I'm looking for recommendations for two pieces of software. Freeware or Shareware preferred, but Storeware is OK. I've looked around in the stores, but none of the solutions seem appropriate to my problems. The first need is for a program that converts documents between IBM PC word processing formats and Mac formats. The specific need is for converting WordPerfect to MacWrite, but there might be other needs in the future. I've already got a mechanism for transferring the PC files to the Mac. I've seen the MacLink Plus (DataViz) programs, but the translators only seem to come with other stuff that I don't need (file transfer / file sharing). In fact, they charge quite a bit for the stuff that I don't need. I am currently using "text only" for getting the words across, but would like to be able to retain formatting and font information. I might be happy with add-ons to Apple File Exchange, but would probably prefer a stand-alone program so that it is easier for a naive user to use. As it is, the people doing the translation via ASCII are about at their limit. The second need is for what should be a simple program, if I had a development environment. I want to connect a "dumb" printer to one of the ports (modem or printer) and use it to print text-only documents of the type MockWrite edits. It is almost possible to just use a terminal package and dump the file into it. The only problem with this is that I have to add linefeeds to the existing carriage-returns in the file. I can cobble together a solution using McSink (which can add linefeeds) and FreeTerm or MockTerminal (which can output to the port). This is all grossly inconvenient, and I sort of expect that someone has run into, and solved, this problem before. I talked to one of the companies that sells drivers for other printers, but they couldn't understand why I wouldn't care about getting graphics on the printer. I also have a printer of questionable pedigree, from their point of view -- a DEC LA50 dot-matrix printer. Thanks in advance, Glenn Trewitt Stanford University trewitt@amadeus.stanford.edu