What is the tool for this?

[Tim Chase]

On June  2, 2016, Karen Lewellen wrote:
> Oh my goodness!

Sorry, though I'm sure you've come to expect that my replies tend to
border on novel-length, or at least doctoral dissertation length.
(grins)

> Well fortunately for me it was a simple matter  of Ken the
> administrator at shellworld to install unoconv

Glad it was a simple process to get it installed.

> I have no idea weather it was new or old ppt, I did not create the
> thing.

As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, it's simply a matter of
checking the extension.  If it's .ppt it's the old format.  If
it's .pptx (with the "x" at the end) then it's the new format.

> once I found a rather terrific page on running the unoconv program
> the process likely took me all of 2 minutes.

Yeah, assembling the pieces the first time is always the hardest
part.  Once you know what needs to be done, you can roll it up in a
macro/function/shell-script and invoke it under some more memorable
name.

> I love that I could have chosen a different  format for the output,
> but between pdftotext when the file is a baby hippopotamus  as it
> was in this case, 

I didn't know how you planned to read it.  In some cases, the
plain-text may be easiest. But if you have a good utility for
navigating HTML documents (you seem to use lynx), it might provide
you additional information such as headings or the ability to follow
links.  But having options is always good.

> I truly honor the dedication of some, but speaking only for myself
> having to  do all those steps would keep me in another operating
> system for sure...my professional deadlines alone require swift
> solutions. 

There are some of us who do this sort of thing for fun, so when we're
not under the gun of a deadline, we like to experiment to help
others.  But now that you know how to convert PowerPoint files into
HTML or plain-text, you can just reference back to this email thread
rather than try and recreate the steps required from scratch.  And I
have no idea how I'd get such things done within Dos or Windows.  But
with Linux, all the pieces are readily available (grins).

-tim