15 replies to this topic

[BaptizedBeliever]

Have you tried saving from WordPerfect to pdf and then converting pdf to rtf with Omnipage?

[Josh Bond]

No, not using Omnipage. I have extracted the text from PDF format and although that is better than converting from WP format, it's also presents formatting challenges. I will try Omnipage to see what kind of formatting it does and then deal with the OCR issues later, possibly seeing if there's a way Omnipage can extract the text as opposed to OCRing the text.

[david psalms]

Hi Josh,

Please let me know if i can help you in this formatting.

thanks
david

[david psalms]

Hi Josh,

Dr. Utley is having some telugu commentaries too. do we need to take separate permission to format these commentaries to e-Sword or the permission you have received will suffice. please let me know. if you feel separate permission is required i will format one sample page in telugu.

[Josh Bond]

This project is "on hold" indefinitely. I was able to get the WordPerfect source files from the publisher. But converting from WordPerfect to RTF format is not an exact science. The WordPerfect to RTF conversion is horrible. The MS Word import of WordPerfect is better but lacking. WordPerfect makes it so difficult to leave their format, companies specialize in freeing law and medical offices (and others who must preserve exact formatting) from the clutches of WordPerfect format. WP makes it difficult to leave if you have complex formatting because the formatting does not convert. (And people wonder what happened to Wordperfect...rolls eyes).

This resource will have to be re-typeset in a true RTF environment such as Microsoft Word. Every line of every outline must have its tab stops verified, to ensure that if the text laps over to the next line, it will be properly indented. I just can't complete that type of workload. I would estimate 20 hours for the book of Matthew alone. I also can't afford one of the professional conversion firms who could extricate the data from WP format. Without attention to the outlines, the text will not look like the publisher desires (nice, clean, neat outline format). Thus, this project is dead for now. I may figure out a way to preserve the outline formatting without hours of work down the road (it;s possible--I routinely stumble into solutions when I'm not looking for them!). But I'm out of ideas for now.

 

We're back in business on Dr. Utley's commentary.

 

Costas (of theWord) and I have been in contact with Dr. Utley's technical staff. They have reformatted Dr. Utley's material into an XML format, and conversion to e-Sword (and theWord) should very straightforward. With Costas' technical and aesthetic suggestions, I've written a python script to tag and divide the commentary for importing into Tooltip 4. It will require some manual proof work as well (similar to Dr. Constable's Notes). The commentary will be passage by passage, usually 3-5 verses discussed at a time according to how Dr. Utley divides his comments.

 

So far, Dr. Utley's staff has sent us the XML data for the NT. They are working on the OT XML but we'll go ahead and create the NT and release it here and on my other website. Costas is also going to release it as an official theWord module.

 

This will be another great, modern, non-technical commentary for e-Sword, with an emphasis on Bible study, including it's outlines, study questions, etc.

[Ebed Doulos]

I'm excited.  I'd tell you to hurry but I know that speed is not a factor in superior quality.  Still ...