Must use MS-word. Help!.

[Susan G. Kleinmann]

> I just took a new job at a company which uses Microsoft Word as the 
> standard text tool.   I would love to put Linux on
> my machine there but it is imperative that I can manipulate documents in
> whatever format MSword uses.  

There are several answers to your question.  On the WWW at
    http://lenti.med.umn.edu/rtftohtml/rtftohtml_overview.html
you will find a discussion of Rich Text Format, which says: 
"RTF was designed by Microsoft as an open format for interchanging documents 
between Microsoft Word and other word processing packages. It is supported 
by WordPerfect, FrameMaker, Interleaf and many other packages on UNIX, 
Apple, Macintosh, Next, and PC platforms. The specification for RTF and a 
set of filters for translating RTF to plain-text, troff and Tex and LaTex 
are available at: ftp://ftp.primate.wisc.edu/pub/RTF."

(There also exist programs to translate latex to RTF.)

Next, you might want to review the products listed in the Linux Applications
and Utilities Page on the WWW at

    http://www.xnet.com/~blatura/linapps.shtml

In particular, a program called Executor provides Mac emulation and
purports to run Word.  I've attached its description below.

Good luck,
Susan Kleinmann
sgk at sgk.tiac.net

============================================
Executor 
Description:
Commercial Macintosh Emulator. Fast CPU Emulation (75 MHz 486DX4 approximates 
25 MHz 68040). Allows many Macintosh applications, including Word 5 and 
Excel 4 to run without requiring anything from Apple. Reads, Writes and 
Formats 1.4 MB Macintosh formatted floppies. Reads and Writes SCSI Macintosh 
disks. Reads Macintosh formatted CD-ROMs. Color support, Prints to PostScript 
printers. Has demo applications so you can run it with no Macintosh 
experience.

Distribution Media:
electronic now, CD-ROM when 2.0 ships

Licensing Policy:
Executor for Linux can be found in ftp://ftp.ardi.com/pub/ExecutorLinux/ . 
It has a ten minute time limit that can be removed via a serial number and 
authorization key. There are enough incompatibilities that potential 
customers are strongly encouraged to examine the Executor in its
time limited demo form before ordering. However, we offer a 30 day 
unconditional money back guarantee.

OS Provisions:
Is known to work with kernel 1.2.0. Standard distribution takes about 
7 MB. Needs 8 MB of its own RAM to run quickly. The demo version is 
dynamically linked with the XFree86 3.1 libraries and with libc/libm-4.5.26. 

Documentation:
English FAQ .

Product Support:
Free upgrades to licensees of 1.99<x>, up to and including the first 
official release of Executor for Linux: Executor/Linux 2.0.

Linux Support:
questions at ardi.com 

Available Since:
Has been in pre-beta since March of 1995. Is expected to be officially released in November of 1995.

Countries with Distribution:
Current pre-beta releases are available only directly from us. Within 
six months of 2.0's release we will probably have distribution worldwide.

Price Range:
Pre-beta copies are available for USD49 for students, faculty and staff 
of educational institutions, USD99 for everyone else. These prices are good 
at least until September 15. Somtime soon thereafter the suggested retail 
price for the non-educational license will be USD249. The educational price 
will rise significantly, also.

Installed Base:
129 Linux users as of August 12, 1995. Many more DOS and NEXTSTEP users.

Vendor:
    ARDI
    Suite 4-101
    1650 University Blvd., NE
    Albuquerque, NM 87102, USA
    Phone:  +1 505 766 9115
    Fax:    +1 505 247 1899
    Contact:
    E-mail: questions at ardi.com, orders at ardi.com, bugs at ardi.com

Entered:
August 15,1995