Re: Emacs as a word processor (ways to convert Word/RTF proprietary files)

[Tomas Hlavaty]

> This is why it would be useful to have this kind of capabilities in
> Emacs: to enable users to visit MS Office documents with "C-x C-f",
> edit them in some specialized WYSIWYG Emacs mode, and finally save
> them with "C-x C-s".  If under the hood this runs some converters, it
> doesn't matter.

Note that this will never be perfect so we need some nuance here and
perhaps address useful use-cases.

> And there's no real Free Software alternative, certainly not based on
> Emacs.

There are and there could be.

Here a rough list of use-cases with increasing complexity:

1) Reading abw, docx and odt documents as text is very simple in Emacs
   without any extra dependencies:
   https://logand.com/sw/emacs-unoffice/file/emacs-unoffice.el.html

2) Reading them as graphics documents is also pretty simple with some
   extra dependencies:
   https://logand.com/sw/emacs-framebuffer/file/emacs-framebuffer.el.html

3) Another use-case is to save a buffer to office document.  This should
   be pretty simple to implement too.

4) Another use-case is to open, edit and save existing office document
   and preserve as much original stuff as possible.  This should be
   possible but lots of work.

5) Another use-case is WYSIWYG 3).

6) Another use-case is WYSIWYG 4).

Dealing with office formats is not a pleasant experience so I am
skeptical that volunteers will devote so much time to the use-cases with
the highest complexity.  It would therefore be good to make Emacs useful
at least for the low complexity use-cases.