Re: how do you import grandview outlines into microsoft word

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 2879

Posted by 100341.2151
2005-03-01 08:23:54

Paul -

As I recall, you have to use an intermediary, such as Inspiration’s outlining software. Briefly, you import your GV file into Inspiration, then export into Word via *.rtf file file format. This enables you to use the Word outling facilities.

Steve Cohen is the expert on this. He says:

1. In GV: change the outline labeling to “Indentation w/no Labels.” Export the file using the “Paragraph” export option. Add the ” .txt” extension to the exported file name.

2. In Inspiration: Open the exported file. The Inspiration outline should have virtually the same structure as the GV outline, with perhaps only a little touch-up necessary.

It’s a while since I did this. I do recall that it was easier if one prepared the GV and/or Inspiration files a little:

Consider “joining” some of the shorter points to make better paragraphs;

Get rid of fancy fonts and bold, etc. in Grandview;

“De-fancify” fonts etc in Inspiration itself;

Try changing all the line gaps to one standard format (not sure now what I had in mind here);

Note the default settings in Grandview for all the above if you make any changes, in case you lose them.

Inspiration seems to be the way to go, but I remember using an inversion of Steve’s technique with some success using NoteMap. First I prepared a GV export file according to Steve’s recipe, then exported it directly into Word (of course, this is NOT treated by Word as an outline, although it does preserve GV’s “no labels, indented” outline format; it’s just an intermediate step). Then I cut-and-pasted the text into NoteMap. Amazingly, this was treated by NoteMap as an outline file, which could be exported back into Word as an outline file.

There were some gliches, but for those who have NoteMap it may be worth experimenting.

There may also be a route via Brainstorm.

I hope that helps a little. Over to you, Steve :-).

Derek

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