[Leaplist] can anyone help convert a .pub file to

[Mr. Brunkow]

Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> On Sun, 2008-10-19 at 11:57 -0400, ray wrote:
>> something else i can read?  I have several .pub (could be MS Office 
>> 2007) that a business associate gave me last night.  I have no means of 
>> opening it as i do not own any MS office newer then 2k.  If someone 
>> could help with this, that would be great.  Just need it converted to 
>> something I can read under Linux or OSx.
> 
> Here's a question ...
> 
> Can you convert it to anything Microsoft Word can read?
> HINT:  You cannot.  ;)
> 
> Understand Microsoft maintains no less than three (3), separate,
> commercially sold (not including the RTF and other non-sense "standards/
> non-standards", or the new DOCX OOXML format) document formats that are
> utterly _incompatible_:  
> 
> - DOC = Microsoft Word
> - PUB = Microsoft Publisher
> - WPS = Microsoft Works
> 
> WPS is a joke.  So bad that companies outlaw it and home consumers are
> not only screwed when it comes pre-installed, but are screwed again when
> home consumers upgrade to Word (an $100 option coming from Works) and
> find out they can't read their WPS files in Word.  For one version,
> Microsoft actually started bundling Word with Works, but they ended that
> very quickly when it started affecting their OEM and retail sales.  They
> went back to the "oh, upgrade to full Word for $100" (as well as "oh,
> upgrade to full Office for only $300, or $400 for this option, or $500
> for 'Premium'" -- easily 3-5x the OEM price in each case).
> 
> PUB is interesting.  Unlike DOC, WPS and other formats that are not even
> "proprietary standards" (because Microsoft changes them), PUB is
> actually a "lightweight" desktop publishing (DTP) approach with _strong_
> formatting.  I.e., Microsoft actually makes PUB a decent, "proprietary"
> format in PUB.  E.g., my wife can read her PUB 97 documents in PUB 2007
> without issues (unlike anyone who attempts Word 97 in Word 2007, and
> used actual Word 97 or 2000 to generate them, not
> "modified/incompatible" Word XP or 2003 ;).
> 
> Unfortunately, _nothing_ else reads/uses them.
> This will _not_ change anytime soon either.
> 
> About.COM confirms this:  
>   http://desktoppub.about.com/cs/publisher/f/share_pubfiles.htm  
> 
> There isn't even an option to save in Microsoft Publisher to MS Word.
> Why?  MS Word does _not_ have the layout capable of dealing with MS
> Publisher's strict layout, let alone MS Word changes way too much.
> Right now the "work around" is for the MS Publisher user to:  
> 
> - Open Publisher
> - Load PUB Document
> - Highlight Entire Document
> - Edit -> Copy
> - Open Word
> - Edit -> Paste
> 
> Various attributes and meta-data will be warped, but it will get at
> least the "text" and anything else that may break down into similar
> graphics or other raster as well as vector formats.  But it will be
> _junk_.
> 
> The majority of Desktop Publishing (DTP) applications are heavily
> _proprietary_.  I.e., you must invest in them or not, and that's a
> lifelong-choice when you do.
> 
> Fortunately, there is an open source program.  It's not only good, it's
> on _steroids_.  I.e., it's comparable to Adobe InDesign.  It's been also
> faster to support several of Adobe's own standards-based formats, like
> PDF/A, than Adobe's own products.
> 
> The program is Scribus:  
>   http://www.scribus.net/  
> 
> Scribus is a fully feature DTP. I can bring in text from OpenOffice.org
> and other programs, directly.  That's what it does best, "press ready."
> It does graphics and many other things far better than MS Publisher
> could ever dream of.  And unlike MS Publisher, which is designed for
> home desktop printers (and not very reproducible over time at athat),
> Scribus produces _industry_standard_ output formats.  Again, "press
> ready."
> 
> If anyone prefers and uses DTP approaches, myself included, make them
> aware of Scribus, period.  Get them to move over for all new documents.
> Doesn't help them with past documents.  But it solves the problem for
> the future.
> 
> 
> 
thanks for the heads up.  looks like ill have to find someone with MS
Office 2k7 so i can rebuild the document in something i can use.

-- 
Raymond L. Brunkow
5th Degree Black Belt
Chief Instructor and Owner
Sun State Martial Arts LLC.
(407) 786-2525
ssma at ssma.us
http://www.ssma.us

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