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LyXConverter

LyXConverter is a commercial ($29.95) Microsoft Word add-in from the Editorium that converts Word documents into LyX documents.

1.  Purpose

LyX is a terrifc tool for writing. But sometimes people write in Microsoft Word and then need to get their Word document into LyX, which is no easy task. That’s where LyXConverter comes in. LyXConverter creates a LyX document based on a Word document. It does this directly, in Word, without first exporting to LaTeX or going through other gyrations. The resulting LyX document is very clean, without instances of ERT or other odd artifacts.

2.  Features

LyXConverter converts the following Word features:

• Paragraph styles
• Local formatting: italics, bold, small caps, superscript, subscript
• Numbered lists
• Bulleted lists
• Pictures
• Tables
• Footnotes
• Endnotes
• Indexes and index entries (including main entries, subentries, subsubentries, cross-references, page ranges, and forced sorting)
• Tables of contents
• Comments
• Double returns (as vertical space)
• Special characters, including quotation marks, apostrophes, dashes, protected spaces, protected hyphens, nonbreaking spaces, nonbreaking hyphens, copyright symbol, trademark symbol, registered symbol, and many others

Note that LyXConverter doesn’t try to reproduce the formatting of your Word document in LyX. In fact, that would make little sense. Instead, LyXConverter converts your Word document into a LyX document so that LyX can do its own formatting—which, by the way, is vastly superior to anything that can be done in Word.

3.  Layouts and Modules

LyXConverter includes the full version of LyXBook, which is a collection of layouts and modules designed specifically for typesetting books in LyX. LyXBook includes:

• Six layouts
• Fifteen modules
• A user.bind file that creates special keyboard shortcuts for editing and formatting books
• Documentation (in PDF and LyX) for using the layouts and modules
• A sample book (in LyX) that uses one of the layouts: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

After installing LyXConverter, you'll find the LyXBook files (zipped) on your desktop. The version of LyXBook available here is a sampler that includes two of the layouts, the documentation, and the book.

4.  Documentation

LyXConverter comes with complete documentation (as both a Word document and a converted LyX document), which you'll find on your desktop after installing the program.

5.  Requirements

LyXConverter runs only in Microsoft Word for Windows, in Word 2003 through 2016. Converted LyX files require at least LyX 2.0.

6.  Download and Installation

You can download the LyXConverter setup file here. Unzip and double-click the file to install LyXConverter. LyXConverter is a commercial ($29.95) product but features a 45-day trial period. After installation is complete, restart Microsoft Word. You'll then see the LyXConverter menu at the top of your Word window in Word 2003, or on the Add-Ins tab in Word 2007 or later.

7.  Categories

• MSWord
• import
• Tool