extracting 7_bit_ascii from ms_word files

[spellberg_robert]

greetings ---

i finally ran into a situation where
   my existing approaces are no longer satisfactory.

i never bought "office".
i have a twelve_year_old version of "wordperfect"
   from [ at that time ] novell that still works just fine
   [ i first used wordperfect in the early 1980's; why change ?
   ].
it doesn't recognize new ms formats.

sometimes, i can use "wordpad" on
   my "win_98_se" box that still works;
   but not always.

my lawyer insists on hard_copy and snail_mail,
   so my principal application is, actually, obviated.

if files only had a few dozen lines,
   i could edit them by hand in "vi".

i simply did not have enough situations
   to demand a more sophisticated approach;
   now, i do.



i started here [ over 1000 entries ]

         http://www.freebsd.org/ports/textproc.html

   where i found nothing relevant under "doc" and
   where i found "word2x", which looks --really-- old and
   where i found "wv", which seemed more promising.

searching the questions and newbies mail archives,
   i found antiword and catdoc, but this is from 2002_feb.

while reading up on "wv", i found this

         http://www.abisource.com/

   which caused me to search.

i found this

         http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=abiword&stype=all

both of these seem to jog my memory, but my memory ....



my application is to exchange text files, by e_mail,
   with someone who thinks ms products are the be_all and end_all
   [ after all,
       if "everyone" is spending thousands of dollars on software,
       just like he is,
       what makes me so special ?
   ].
i anticipate acquiring other people like this in the near future,
   so my time on this just may be well_spent.
in general,
   these are not the kind of folks who find
   manipulating files intuitively obvious.
yet, i may find that i have to give them special instruction.

i am not looking for something wonderful,
   just reasonably competent and reasonably current.
if, in addition to my desired direction,
   i can convert a 7_bit_ascii to a ".doc" file for his benefit,
   that's some further whining that i can avoid.



i strongly suspect that,
   as soon as this becomes a solved problem,
   ms changes something critical,
   so this may be a fool's errand.
none_the_less, i'll give it a try.

which one or several things are generally accepted
   for this format_conversion task ?

is this "abiword" one of them or do i seek something else ?

if something else, can someone point me in a useful direction
   [ whether or not it is something i have named ] ?



while 6.2 and, soon, 7.x are de rigeur,
   if it works on 4.11 [ very long story ], that's a plus.



thanks whole bunches in advance.

[ please cc me,
     as my attempt to re_subscribe to the list as a courtesy
     doesn't seem to be taking.
]

rob