convert multiple doc files to pdf

amaro · 2021-12-11 13:12:02

Hello everybody!

I have a bunch of old 'doc' files I would like to convert to 'pdf'.

In console I tried

'abiword'

abiword --to=pdf "*.doc"
abiword: error while loading shared libraries: libicui18n.so.65: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

'calibre'

ebook-convert "*.doc" "*.pdf"
Cannot read from /run/media/vb/Books/books_bg_spiralata/kastaneda/*.doc

'calibre' take 2

ebook-convert "/run/media/vb/Books/books_bg_spiralata/kastaneda/kastaneda2_don_huan.doc" "/run/media/vb/Books/books_bg_spiralata/kastaneda/kastaneda2_don_huan.pdf"
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/ebook-convert", line 21, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py", line 379, in main
    parser, plumber = create_option_parser(args, log)
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/ebooks/conversion/cli.py", line 332, in create_option_parser
    plumber = Plumber(input, output, log, reporter)
  File "/usr/lib/calibre/calibre/ebooks/conversion/plumber.py", line 758, in __init__
    raise ValueError('No plugin to handle input format: '+input_fmt)
ValueError: No plugin to handle input format: doc

'openoffice'

oowriter -convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export "*.doc"
bash: oowriter: command not found

'openoffice' take 2

swriter -convert-to pdf:writer_pdf_Export "*.doc"
bash: swriter: command not found

Any suggestions?
Thank you in advance!

Lone_Wolf · 2021-12-11 13:37:26

Icu is currently at version 70.1 , and in april 2020 icu 65.x was replaced by icu 67.x in repos .

Also openoffice hasn't been in repos for many years , most common office suite on linux nowadays is libreoffice .

When was your last pacman -Syu ?

amaro · 2021-12-11 14:48:52

last 'pacman -Syu' was about a week ago.
libreoffice is terribly slow and heavy IMHO compared to openoffice.
regarding 'icu' - 'libicui18n.so=69-64' is required by 'thunderbird 91.2.1-1'.

edit:

Qi thunderbird
Name            : thunderbird
Version         : 91.2.1-1
Description     : Standalone mail and news reader from mozilla.org
Architecture    : x86_64
URL             : https://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/
Licenses        : MPL  GPL  LGPL
Groups          : None
Provides        : None
Depends On      : glibc  gtk3  libgdk-3.so=0-64  libgtk-3.so=0-64  mime-types  dbus  libdbus-1.so=3-64  dbus-glib  alsa-lib  nss  hunspell  sqlite  ttf-font  libvpx
                  libvpx.so=7-64  zlib  bzip2  libbz2.so=1.0-64  botan  libwebp  libwebp.so=7-64  libwebpdemux.so=2-64  libevent  libjpeg-turbo  libffi  libffi.so=8-64  nspr
                  gcc-libs  libx11  libxrender  libxfixes  libxext  libxcomposite  libxdamage  pango  libpango-1.0.so=0-64  cairo  gdk-pixbuf2  icu  libicui18n.so=69-64
                  libicuuc.so=69-64  freetype2  libfreetype.so=6-64  fontconfig  libfontconfig.so=1-64  glib2  libglib-2.0.so=0-64  pixman  libpixman-1.so=0-64  gnupg

I see that 'abiword' was not updated. Will update it and check again.

edit 2:
Looks like 'abiword' still cannot do multiple files.

abiword --to=pdf "*.doc"
AbiWord: [*.doc] is not a valid file name.

Last edited by amaro (2021-12-11 15:22:48)

Lone_Wolf · 2021-12-11 15:13:48

thunderbird 91.2.1 was replaced by 91.3.0 on nov 3 . Current version is 91.4.0 .

Looks like your mirrors are outdated and/or stale.
Use https://archlinux.org/mirrors/status/ to verify if your mirrors are working correctly.

In order to figure out which commands are included in a package :

$ pacman -Ql packagename | grep /usr/bin

walkingstickfan · 2021-12-11 19:05:25

@amaro:

I know you seem to dislike LibreOffice, but it has a command line tool that appears to do exactly what you want to do. Checkout the following two links. The first link also mentions another command line tool named unoconv, and it's available in the Arch repos.

How to batch convert .doc or .docx to .pdf

How to Batch Convert Writer Documents to PDF in LibreOffice

Last edited by walkingstickfan (2021-12-11 19:12:15)

V1del · 2021-12-11 19:07:53

Also regarding your general problem. You prevent shell expansion by passing "*.doc" with the quotes, so unless the tool in question advertises being able to glob themselves you would pass it normally as *.doc

amaro · 2021-12-14 15:15:10

I ran 'pacman -Syu' and now the system is up-to-date.

First tried 'ebook-convert' from 'calibre' and it says it has no plugin to work with 'doc' files.
(I thought it was able to work with them but either I had the wrong impression or that was the case for its earlier versions.)

So I goooooogled a bit and found the right command for 'abiword' to convert a single 'doc' file to 'pdf'.

abiword --to=pdf  -o "/run/media/vb/Books/books_bg_spiralata/kastaneda/kastaneda533.pdf" "/run/media/vb/Books/books_bg_spiralata/kastaneda/kastaneda9_dreaming.doc"

Still when I tried to modify that command (after some more gooooogling and reading about the 'find' command) in order to convert multiple files I cannot make it work.

find *.doc -exec abiword –-to=pdf -o "{}.pdf" "{}" \;

(abiword:9571): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 10:47:11.540: IA__gtk_progress_set_percentage: assertion 'percentage >= 0 && percentage <= 1.0' failed

(abiword:9578): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 10:47:39.568: IA__gtk_progress_set_percentage: assertion 'percentage >= 0 && percentage <= 1.0' failed

It just opens the files one by one with 'abiword' but none of the files is converted to 'pdf'.

Anyway, any suggestions about that 'find' + 'exec' command?

Arch Linux

#1 2021-12-11 13:12:02

convert multiple doc files to pdf

#2 2021-12-11 13:37:26

Re: convert multiple doc files to pdf

#3 2021-12-11 14:48:52

Re: convert multiple doc files to pdf

#4 2021-12-11 15:13:48

Re: convert multiple doc files to pdf

#5 2021-12-11 19:05:25

Re: convert multiple doc files to pdf

#6 2021-12-11 19:07:53

Re: convert multiple doc files to pdf

#7 2021-12-14 15:15:10

Re: convert multiple doc files to pdf

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