Re: Frame to LaTeX conversion

[chawtrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Charles Hawtrey)]

Many thanks to Aaron Mehl, Stuart Burnfield, Larry Kollar, Rosemary
Rooks, Solena Le Moigne, Kathy McCord, Graeme Forbes and all those who
contributed indirectly to my question about converting from Frame to
LaTeX.

I summarise the suggestions as follows:
-----------------
do a search for mif2tex on the net.
I no longer use frame, but I saw a good few scripts to do this.
-----------------
I checked the archives. Several queries about getting LaTeX into
Frame, and several like yours asking how to go the other way, but
no answers.

If your colleague is keen, maybe look at an intermediate format
supported by both LaTeX and Frame. For instance there's a LaTeX
to RTF (blecch) filter...

http://www.cirano.qc.ca/informatique/autres_guides/tex2rtf-1.62/t2rtf.htm

-----------------
You gotta love Google. Search on "mif latex" and the first link
has some Un*x software to do what you're needing:

<http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/framemaker/framemaker.html>

The author says his software expects the MIF to have certain
styles, though. Verify it before sending it off to the conference.

For 15 pages, I'd seriously consider just dumping it to text &
tagging it by hand.
-----------------
Hints:
(1) Look in CTAN (Comprehensive TeX Archive Network) on the Web
(2) Write to TUG (TeX User's Group)
(3) Convert it to plain text, open it in emacs, save it...
-------------------
First, this person might have found something since he last posted this.

"Paul Wilbraham
Adobe Certified Expert
FrameMaker
AZTEX

Fax:      +44 (0) 161 861 8447
Mobile: +44 (0) 7977 464 561
Email:    paulw@aztex.co.uk"

Else, tell your friend to go and look the following pages.
TeX User Group: http://www.tug.org
MikTeX: http://www.miktex.org
emTeX: ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/systems/msdos/emtex/
http://www.loria.fr/services/tex/english/general.html
-------------------
There is no converter as far as I know. I would do the
following (this may seem painful but it's really not all
that bad).

1) Get LaTeX. Assuming you have a PC, search the web
   for MikTeX and download that version. It comes with
   viewers and everything, runs fast.

2) Save the Frame file in plain text format.

3) Search for a suitable LaTeX template (the .sty files such
   as report, book, article, etcetera), and cut and paste
   the template into the text file. This is nothing
   more than a header and A trailer, and a bunch of
   separators like \section \subsection \thebibliography
   etcetera. It's really not that bad. Especially if
   references to sections and so on are done already.

4) Include the graphics. That can be tricky. LaTeX can
   handle ps and eps only as far as I know. Consult the
   web or the manual and use one of the style files like
   psfrag, for instance. Get an example from somebody,
   perhaps from a news group, don't try to do it all yourself.
------------------
I'm afraid my answer is a bit frustrating. I believe there definitely
is, or was, a company that made such a filter, located in either
Belgium or Holland. But I forget the details and can't find a link.
You could also check out Filtrix,
http://www.blueberry.com/htmtomif.htm, tho' I don't know if it does
what you want.

Another possibility for you is the FrameMaker MIF to LaTeX Translator
at http://www.cs.stir.ac.uk/~kjt/software/framemaker/, tho' using
this will require facility with Unix.

For tex to mif, there is also http://www.stsci.edu/software/Frame.html
-------------------

With all of these suggestions I am sure we good chance of finding what
we are looking for. Thanks again to all of you and your colleagues who
contributed such a variety of ideas. Fortunately we have UNIX here in
house.

I'll let you know which route we took in due course.

Charles Hawtrey


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