how to view a doc from command line?

Question

As I mentioned there , how can I view documents( ex: .doc,.docx and all other formats ) from the command line ? Is there any way ?

Thank you.

It is a terminal, not a word processor! So basically, it's not possible. — simbadub23, Oct 24 '13 at 06:49
Do you want to see the doc formatted with different fonts and so on, or just have the text content dumped to the screen? — FreudianSlip, Oct 24 '13 at 06:49
@FreudianSlip any , just want to view it with out any much modifications to the content. — Raja G, Oct 24 '13 at 06:56

don.joey · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-24T08:47:55.417

11

I have been using the following setup in several scripts (especially with version control):

sudo apt-get install unoconv odt2txt     # installs both tools
doc2odt test.doc                         # creates test.odt
odt2txt test.odt                         # displays the contents in the terminal

or for a docx file:

docx2txt test.docx                       # converts docx file
less test.txt                            # read the contents

Works like a charm and you can read your doc files in the terminal. This method is more complex than catdoc but it has the advantage that entries from a bibliographic management system are not displayed in their raw form.

For a LaTex file you can just your favorite terminal text editor to open and read it.

edited Oct 24 '13 at 08:47

answered Oct 24 '13 at 07:20

don.joey

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Hey , thanks for looking my post. could you explain this little bit " the advantage that entries from a bibliographic management system are not displayed in their raw form" – Raja G Oct 24 '13 at 08:38
For academic writing people might use things like Mendeley, Endnote, JabRef to manage their citation references . With catdoc these appear as `[ADDIN: {author: Don Joey} { title: ...} ...]`. When you have many of them that is hard to read. This is where odt2txt conversion comes in handy because you will just see `Don Joey, Some Supposedly Interesting Book,...` rather than the raw info. – don.joey Oct 24 '13 at 08:42
Ok Now I understood but I think the support of LaTex is missing here right ? catdoc can do that. – Raja G Oct 24 '13 at 08:43
1

For LaTex you can just use vim. After all that's the goal of LaTex, to type text as is and convert it to publishable text afterwards. – don.joey Oct 24 '13 at 08:44
No I mean to say that , If DOC consists of some symbolic things then Latex support we need to view them best . so is this can provide ? becasue Catdoc can provide that – Raja G Oct 24 '13 at 08:46
Symbols you mean? I'd have to check how symbols are transposed in the conversion to a txt file. I think there must be quite some consistency. If you have a document, please try and let us know. The unoconv toolbelt is very advanced. – don.joey Oct 24 '13 at 08:49
Yeah I will do that , thanks again for stopping by. – Raja G Oct 24 '13 at 08:52

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 24 '13 at 06:55

5

To View word documents from the command line I found one named as catdoc.

to install it sudo apt-get install catdoc

then

catdoc -t filename.doc

You can specify the output format using the -a (text) or -t (LaTeX) option

answered Oct 24 '13 at 06:55

Raja G

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how to view a doc from command line?

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