[scribus] ms publisher, let's solve it once and forever

[Philip Ward]

On 22 December 2010 00:07, Alexandre Prokoudine <
alexandre.prokoudine at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Few months ago when we, re-lab [1], considered what to do next, we
> were asked if we could reverse engineer .pub, we said "okay. if it
> works in wine". Well, it didn't. And Microsoft never replied my mail,
> despite of how willing they seemed to be around 2008 to share specs
> (those having attended LGM2008 know what I mean).
>
> Since we cannot run Publisher, and you still want it supported, we
> think that the best way would be for someone to temporarily join the
> project and start producing .pub files per request. What we need is
> someone with several hours a week of spare time, deep knowledge of MS
> Publisher and a licensed copy of the app to produce lots of files with
> slight changes so that we could figure out which bits contains what.
>
> We already have experience of reverse-engineering VSD (MS Visio), so
> .pubs don't hold too many fears for us, at least just yet. The
> question is whether the community is willing to help itself.
>
> [1] http://gitorious.org/re-lab
>
> Alexandre Prokoudine
> http://libregraphicsworld.org
>
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> scribus at lists.scribus.net
> http://lists.scribus.net/mailman/listinfo/scribus
>
Hi,

I did make the suggestion of creating a virtual PC, within your chosen OS,
as i also have problems with regards to opening PUB Files on an OSX system
etc. In the past i have managed to download evaluation copies of the
software mentioned, namely Microsoft windows and office, but it was
dismissed as being a waste of hdd space i think the person mentioned?

i have since had the need to open a pub file, and granted i do have a
windows operating system to hand, i still had to download the trial version
of office to open and view the file in question

i know its slow opening up files with regards to using a virtual PC, but is
one solution to being able to solve problems with regards to file
conversion? and i know that windows operating system could at one point be
downloaded as a trial version (90 days i think)..

also do you need the full licenced copy of publisher to reverse engineer the
system? open source is after all about being free?

and with regards to file conversion, what version of publisher are you
wanting to make compatible if it was done? because im sure, like scribus,
earlier revisions ie 98/2000/2003 wont read a 2007/2010 version of the file
format, like on word, where you have to download a converter etc?

also quickly, i just wanted to mention, that running wine is difficult for
me, as im on a PowerPC mac, and last i looked it was for intel based only
units.

hope this helps as a once time user of publisher,

phil
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