txt2pdbdoc(1)

NAME
txt2pdbdoc - Text to Doc file converter for Palm Pilots

SYNOPSIS
txt2pdbdoc [-b] [-c] [-v] document-name file.txt file.pdb
txt2pdbdoc -d [-D] [-v] file.pdb [ file.txt ]
txt2pdbdoc -V

DESCRIPTION
txt2pdbdoc converts a plain text file to a Doc(4) file in PDB (Pilot Database) format used by all models of the Palm Pilot. (It can also convert a Doc file to plain text.) Resultant PDB files can be downloaded directly to a Pilot during a HotSync.

The document-name is used in the Document List view of a Doc reader application on the Pilot.

OPTIONS

-b  Ordinarily, characters with an ASCII code less than 9 are removed and both carriage-returns and form-feeds are converted to newlines. This option suppresses that behavior.

-c  Ordinarily, text is compressed. This option suppresses compression.

-d  Decode the given Doc file to text either to a file or to standard output if no file is specified.

-D  Do not check the file type/creator of the file to decode. This option should be specified only if you know for sure that the file is in fact some sort of Doc file. Attempting to decode non-Doc files will result in undefined behavior and quite possibly crash.

-v  Verbose mode. For encoding, print progress and compression statistics per 4K of text to standard error as well as overall statistics when completed; for decoding, print progress in a ``countdown'' style.

-V  Print the version number of txt2pdbdoc to standard output and exit.

EXAMPLE
To convert a text file to Doc file: txt2pdbdoc 'Through the Looking Glass' alice.txt alice.pdb

EXIT STATUS
Exits with one of the values given below:

    0   Success.
    1   Error in command-line options or use.
    2   Unable to open source file.
    3   Unable to open destination file.
    4   Unable to read file.
    5   Unable to write file.
    6   File is not a Doc file.
    7   Doc file uses unknown compression type.

CAVEATS

1.  Document names are limited to 31 characters in PDB format. Longer names are truncated but have the 29-31st characters replaced by ``...'' to indicate truncation.

2.  The command isn't called ``txt2doc'' to avoid confusion about possibly having anything to do with Microsoft Word documents that use the .doc extension.

SEE ALSO
doc(4)

AUTHOR
Paul J. Lucas <pauljlucas@mac.com>