                       Pc2mac and mac2pc
                       =================

Pc2mac and mac2pc are utility programs to allow people to transfer
Word documents using "private" character encodings such as Norman or
CSX+ between PCs and Macintoshes. At present such documents are
garbled in the transfer, as Word assumes that each file is in the
native encoding of the source machine, and translates it to the native
encoding of the destination machine.

It follows that these programs should *not* be used to transfer
documents using only standard PC or Mac fonts: if they are used, the
documents will be garbled.

The programs run only on PCs. This should be no problem, since by
definition a PC is always involved in the the process.

Use these programs with care! As of now I am not aware of any bugs,
but something unexpected could always happen. The chief rule is,
*never* run either program on your only copy of a document.

Details of how to transfer documents are given below. Please note
that they differ slightly, depending on the direction of the
transfer, so be sure to follow them carefully.

To transfer a document from a PC to a Mac:
------------------------------------------

1. Open the file in Word for Windows, and save it as Rich Text
   Format in a temporary folder, say C:\progs. I'm going to assume
   it is called "myfile.rtf". Copy the pc2mac program into the same
   folder.

2. Open a command prompt window (Start => Programs => Accessories),
   and change directory to the folder where the programs are ("cd
   \progs").

3. Type the command "pc2mac myfile.rtf".

4. Transfer the converted RTF file to the Macintosh and open it
   using Word. In some cases where Mac and PC font names are
   slightly different the file will look like gibberish. If this is
   the case, select the whole file (Edit => Select All) and change
   the font to the correct one.

5. You can now save the file as a normal Word document (File => Save
   As => Word Document).

To transfer a document from a Mac to a PC:
------------------------------------------

1. Open the document in Macintosh Word and save it as Rich Text
   Format (File => Save As => Rich Text Format).

2. Transfer the converted RTF file to the PC and open it using
   Word. It will look like gibberish -- do not worry. Save it again as
   Rich Text Format in a temporary folder, say C:\progs. Copy the
   mac2pc program into the same folder.

3. Open a command prompt window (Start => Programs => Accessories),
   and change directory to the folder where the programs are ("cd
   \progs").

4. Type the command "mac2pc myfile.rtf".

5. Open the converted RTF file using Word. In some cases where Mac and
   PC font names are slightly different the file will still look like
   gibberish. If this is the case, select the whole file (Edit =>
   Select All) and change the font to the correct one.

6. You can now save the file as a normal Word document (File => Save
   As => Word Document).

Please email problems to John Smith <john.smith@oriental.cam.ac.uk>.
