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John started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

sraymond replied on May 30, 2008 18:35 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

Tim: I find that the formatting is horribly preserved when you try to import HTML (which gets to be some very messy markup in PBWiki) into Word. Sure, it works well for a simple collaborative text page, but when you start adding tables and styles the wheels start to come off. Also, there's no easy way to link pages.

Still, your point is well taken - if the html works for you, life is good.

Tim replied on May 30, 2008 17:23 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

You know.. Word can open html pages and save them as .doc files...

for 1.0 wikis, you can save out the http://wikiname.pbwiki.com/pagename?r... version of the page...
in 2.0 wikis, use this page: http://wikiname.pbwiki.com/pagename?m...

If there are images, you can save the page as "html complete" in internet explorer to make sure that they get preserved as well..

I've had great luck with this method, hope it works for you as well.

sraymond replied on May 30, 2008 04:31 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

David: I agree with your point about "collaborative authoring" falling short if you can only author wiki pages.

Gabriel: Yup... Google can do collaborative document authoring, but not even their "sites" allow for consuming the wiki as anything other than html.

tomers started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

David Vaile replied on May 17, 2008 15:10 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

One of the key issues is footnotes. If footnotes from a serious wiki doc can be reintegrated into a form that can be converted to Word or even better, RTF, then these are useful for all sorts of other publishing purposes. Without this, the fantastic open collaborative authoring capability is crippled, because not all projects can use Wiki online format as their only output format.

David Vaile started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

ChumleyD started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

John started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

ssm replied on April 20, 2008 15:02 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

I concur. I am considering using PBwiki for a major project, but am hesitating because it will be very difficult to export the results to Word.

Gabriel started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

Gabriel replied on April 17, 2008 00:04 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

A agree. Wiki document portability and bi-directional formatting is the #1 issue I hear about when I invite new folks into a wiki. Google has figured it out with GoogleDocs, so I know y'all can make it happen!

wynz replied on April 09, 2008 18:31 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

I second the request for export to a more standard document format such as Word or DocBook. At the university where I work, I know a bunch of researchers who would jump on PBWiki if they knew they could easily get their data back OUT down the road.

You guys have some great features and an exceptional UI (probably the most approachable out there IMO), so now it's time to unlock the data.

Casey Greene replied on March 10, 2008 17:25 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

I have seen your feedback on converting to DocBook, and I know there's a lot of people who want PBwiki to be compatible with MS Word and Excel - both ways. It's something we're definitely looking into, but I don't have any information on when it will be implemented.

sraymond replied on March 10, 2008 14:10 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

I have the same problems and have given up... there seems to be no easy way to "consume" the wiki content in anything other than html. I haven't had any luck with getting Word to render (present) the data (wiki markup) accurately. I wanted to use the wiki to draft weekly reports but the end-product has to be Word because it gets used by outside organizations.

I think this is major seam in the wiki construct - and I've written about it here more than a handful of times. The wiki is a great collaboration tool, but it is not a great presentation engine.

I've suggested that wikis should be able to convert the wiki markup to DocBook (a fairly robust standard) but havn't gotten anyone to nibble or bite. There is a DocBookWiki engine, but I haven't found a host and don't have the time/equipment/resources to build my own server.

PBWiki: If you're listening and are intrigued to learn more about DocBook, I am always ready to share my thoughts.

sraymond started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

sraymond started following the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki.

Casey Greene replied on March 09, 2008 23:35 to the question "Wiki to Word document?" in PBwiki:

Try converting the content of your wiki page to HTML - using the source button can help you get access to the actual code. From there, you should be able to use MS Word's capabilities to parse HTML and then create a regular Word document from there.

I don't think right now there's an easier, one-button way to do this, however, check and see also if the "Save as PDF" option works for you as well.

I'll add this to our list of feature requests as well, I have a feeling it's going to come up again. Thanks for pointing this out :)

KSM asked a question in PBwiki on March 08, 2008 15:28:

Wiki to Word document?

How do I convert wiki text to a Word document for a formal report? A committee of seven have be using the wiki to draft a report, using a template. I now need to create a word document with that text, and keep the template intact. Simple cut and paste of text loses formatting. Help