The program is just a Word macro. It takes an outline created in microstuff
word and puts it into XML format which can be read by Shadow desktop.
Word has an outline view that allows you to use it
as an outliner that shows heading levels as outline levels and allows you to do
outliner stuff like expand/collapse levels, drag trees around, indent/outdent
etc. If you already have data in a word
outline (or can import it into word from another outliner) then this macro
allows easy transfer into Shadow.
(If you want to get your data from shadow back
into a word doc just use Shadows save function to save as .html. Word can import this directly.)
·
Open up Word
·
In Word2000 press Alt+F11 or Select Tools –>
Macro --> Visual Basic Editor
·
In the Visual basic window there should be a
sidebar titled “Project – something” If
not press Ctrl+R to call it up
·
Expand the entry “Normal” by clicking on it or the
+
·
Click on the “Modules” subfolder. This allows the macro to be added to the
Normal.dot template
·
select File --> Import and select the file
Export-to-XML.bas
You should now have a
new entry under Modules, probabIy called NewMacros12
Select the Normal template (Ctrl+S or File-->Save) and close the Visual basic window.
Thats it. The macro is now in and can be run. If you like you now can give it a shortcut key combo and/or add a macro button.
·
In an open Word doc, Right click on blank area
next to the toolbar buttons
·
Select customise.
·
On the Customise dialogue, select the
"Commands" tab
·
In the left pane called Categories, select
"Macros", then in the right window pane (commands) scroll down to the
macro named “Normal.NewMacros12.ExporttoXML"
·
Left click on the macro name and hold and drag it
over to the buttons area - the cursor will change to an insertion bar - release
the left mouse button and the button will be inserted at that point.
·
(To remove the button reverse the process i.e.
drag the button off the toolbar into the customise dialogue.)
·
To Add/Change the ICON, keep the Customise menu
open and right click on the toolbar button you just added. Select "Image and text", select
"Change button image" and pick one you like. I use the Floppy disk with an up arrow. (You can even paste/edit your own image from
the clipboard). Change the Name to
"ExporttoXML" or whatever is meaningfull to you.
Otherwise Select Tools --> Macro --> Macros. Scroll to Macro named “ExporttoXML” the click RUN.
The routine may take a while if you have a large outline is large. I timed an approx 2500line (8000word) outline as taking about 20minutes on a 600MHz PC so be prepared to take a break - allow, say, 1min per 100 lines.
There’s no progress bar, you just have to wait for things to finish.
I might add a started and finished message box but that would be two extra clicks (I don’t know how to get Word to display a message without a ‘click’ button)
Mac users: The path seperators are system independent so it should work on a Mac running a recent version of Word – please let me know if it doesn’t.
The XML output is just raw text.
The main macro ExporttoXML calls two other included macros – writeout and replaceXMLreserved so don’t be suprised to see them.
It is assumed that the input is basically a text file. The routine can handle embedded tables but if you have graphics or other objects all bets are off.
Tables are converted to tabbed text – Each row becomes a new title (shadow item) with each column separated by a tab. If you have a carriage return in the middle of a table that will start a new title.
Word allows 9 outline levels plus ‘normal’ text. Text is treated as another level.
Special XML characters such as & <> will not cause a problem (famous last words!).
Items marked as strikethrough are flagged as
“completed".
routine should be able to handle extended ASCII characters such as the degree symbol.
Bold text is shown as bold in Shadow.
You may you some characters which are not recognised by Shadow. Tip - If Shadow barfs, look at the xml file with Internet explorer - it can be more forgiving, sometimes reading upto the error thus giving an indication of where the problem lies. If theres only a few of these you can then edit out the offending characters either in the source .doc or in the .xml (its just a text file).
I suspect that ‘foreign language’ characters will cause a problem also. I’d like to sort this out as I suspect if may be a problem for some, so please let me know if you come across this - any help would be most welcome.
No check for excessive length titles.
Please let me know if you find any issues at vjornes at yahoo.com – or just post a message to the Shadow Desktop list. If you have a problem with the resulting xml try to see where it messed up as noted in ‘limitations’.
Yeah, right!