wv: From Word to whatever

I’ve seen plenty of Word-to-text converters over the past year and a half. I think wv might be the first to offer conversion to text and whatever else you might want.

The list is long, but distinguished: wv comes in an array of utilities that will convert from Word format to:

• HTML,
• Latex,
• “Clean” Latex,
• DVI,
• Postscript,
• PDF,
• Simple text,
• Abiword,
• WML,
• RTF, and
• MIME.

There’s also a utility to show the embedded data in a Word document. Not shabby, eh?

There’s a downside, of course. There always has to be a downside. And this time the downside is … wv’s last timestamp was in 2006. A successor project, wv2, has an impress of 2009. 😕

That’s not too promising for anyone who wants to convert out of Microsoft Commercial Office Professional Gold Pack Business Edition 2016. Or whatever they’re calling it these days.

I know that hamstrings an otherwise useful array of conversion programs, but unless you’re willing to pick up wv’s banner and bring it abreast of changes in its counterpart program, it might not ever change.

And that’s the way of all flesh when it comes to open source software: Things take hold, win a measure of popularity, wane and decline, then become dusty back-alley projects that are fodder for junk-journalism app-a-day blogs that pick over the remains of asphyxiating software and blather on endlessly about irrelevant points of usability. …

Hey … ! 😡