I would like to have a function to convert MS-Word documents (*.DOC) files into RTF and PDF format.
The background for my request is the following.
We use MS-Word to write our release and installation notes and store the files in the DOC format (to be able to easily use different MS-Word styles). Just for building the final release we manually convert the notes into RTF and PDF files (which we use in our installation). I know that FinalBuilder contains a RTF to PDF action, but I would like to automate the conversion from DOC to RTF and make it a step in my FinalBuilder script.
The conversion from MS-Word document to RTF file is actually very simple using a small (VBScript) script:
Set objWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
Set objDoc = objWord.Documents.Open("InputFileName.doc")
objDoc.SaveAs "OutputFileName.rtf", wdFormatRTF
objWord.Quit
I support your idea of a function to convert word to PDF. It would be very useful, because master documents are often stored in Word for easy editing, but when we distribute documents to our users, we often want to distribute in a PDF format.
As part of our build process, I use a product called Amber CHM converter to convert our HTML helpfile into a PDF format. This product can also convert Word and a whole bunch of other formats to just about anything. It has a command line interface, so it works really well with Final Builder.
Check it out here.
http://www.processtext.com/abcchm.html
The company behind this product make a lot of conversion tools and utilities.
Hope this helps someone.
Rod