CODEWITHSUNDEEP
emacsms-wordorg-mode
user3321294
user3321294

Reputation: 329

Import docx file with comments into emacs org (vision)

I collaborate with other researchers and frequently have the following work flow:

  1. I write a draft in Emacs org, then export it to docx.
  2. Other authors make edits using track changes and add comments.
  3. I revise the draft in emacs org.

For step 3, I import back the docx file manually, which typically involves: - Accepting all track changes. - C&P'ing text back into the org file, making sure that I do not delete markups (pandoc can help here). - Putting the comments in a list and making todos and further edits; often I write down a note about what I did to address the comment.

I've been looking for ways to make this process better. I found other discussions of this issue, and it boils down to: if you can, have your collaborators edit the manuscript as a text file (not realistic for me, at list not at this point); or do some manual import similar to the one I described above.

So this post is about your thoughts / ideas regarding a great solution to importing back edited docx files that might become reality in the future, and how it could be done.

I think there are two parts here:

  1. How to automatically import back text without destroying markups such as footnotes, references etc.?

  2. How to automatically extract all the notes and integrate them into the Emacs org file?

For the second question, my vision would be to have some sort of comment blocks above the paragraph of the comment, or a list of headlines, each of them representing a comment and a link to the paragraph. A properties drawer would be a great additional feature, it could have one entry for open/closed and one entry for response / notes.

P.S.: I think this is a real barrier to using text-based manuscript writing and it would be a huge step forward if there was a good way. Even more, with all the capabilities of Emacs org, I bet the end result would be much better then revising a paper within word, which is just painful.

Upvotes: 4

Views: 795

Answers (1)

Stefan
Stefan

Reputation: 28521

Here's how you might be able to do it

  • assume all changes are properly marked.
  • assume you know the "base version" of your org file.
  • assume every marked change comes with a "before" and an "after".

Then, analyze the .docx (same for .odt) looking for marked changes. Ignore everything else. Take the "before" version of each change, turn it into plain text, and try to find the matching element in the org file, then replace that text with the "after" version.

For comments, you could probably try a similar approach.

Caveat: I have no idea how easy/hard it is to find the marked changes, extract the "before/after" info and turn it into plain text.

Oh, and this will probably only work acceptably for small localized changes, e.g. the kind of thing you might get from a reviewer. For things coming from another author who may end up making larger changes and reorganizations it'll probably break down miserably.

Upvotes: 2

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