Has anyone used online conversion tools like FreeFileConvert or Vertopal for converting an OPML file to a DOCX (Word) format? If so, was it reliable and accurate? Do you have other recommendations?
Not tried OPML but my goto for document conversions is the command line tool pandoc https://pandoc.org/ but the developers do list OPML as both an input and output format. They, of course, also deal with DOC format. PLus if it doesn’t quite do what you want it is possible to write filters in Lua.
OPML is already a text file showing XML but specific for outlining. Below is a sample representing the outline in the screen shot, rendered and created by an outliner tool, OmniOutliner.
The OPML file is readable as text, but when I open in Word it presents an error “This file has custom XML elements that are no longer supported in Word Version 16.82. Saving the file will remove these elements permanently.” What Word shows is not what’s intended. But, OmniOutliner can read the OPML (if properly constructed), then can export into a whole host of export formats, including DOCX as an outline.
Whether OmniOutliner a good export of your file, can’t really tell as OPML is really just a set of instructions to a renderer as to how to present the outline. So get it into OmniOutliner (perhaps a trial copy?) and test.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<opml version="2.0">
<head><!-- <editor>
<sidebar width="203"/>
<column name="text" width="646"/>
</editor> -->
<title>Untitled</title>
<dateCreated>Tue, 20 Feb 2024 07:22:38 GMT</dateCreated>
<expansionState></expansionState>
<vertScrollState>0</vertScrollState>
<windowTop>384</windowTop>
<windowLeft>565</windowLeft>
<windowRight>1247</windowRight>
<windowBottom>1068</windowBottom>
</head>
<body>
<outline text="safasdfasdf"/>
<outline text="asdf"/>
<outline text="asdf"/>
<outline text="sadf"/>
<outline text="sadf"/>
<outline text="sadf"/>
</body>
</opml>
@Bmosbacker, you don’t say what you hope to get from a Word-formatted OPML file.
OPML is just a plain text file. You can view it in the TextEdit app or even in Safari on your Mac. A good programmer’s code editor like BBEdit will give you syntax coloring:
There are also lots of inexpensive XML viewers (aka Pretty Printers) in the Mac App Store that will give you syntactical indentation.
A programmer IDE (Interactive Development Environment) like Visual Studio, IntelliJ Idea, and Eclipse provide tools for editing OPML and other XML formatted documents.
What are you hoping to do with your OPML file?
EDIT TO ADD: The easiest approach would be to change the .opml file extension to .txt and open the (now) text file in Word. And then go to town editing, formatting, and saving it as a Word file.
1 Like
[quote=“karlnyhus, post:5, topic:36351”]
you don’t say what you hope to get from a Word-formatted OPML file … The easiest approach would be to change the .opml file extension to .txt and open the (now) text file in Word. And then go to town editing, formatting, and saving it as a Word file.
[/quote]
Thanks for the information. My apologies for not explaining what I’m trying to do. In my ideal world, I want to import a mind map or outline to Word or Pages with the result that the hierarchy is converted to style headings and sub-headings in the word processor document to minimize, though I realize I can’t eliminate the reformatting required. Copying and pasting an outline from mind mapping our outlining applications results in a mess to clean up in the word processor.
I did not realize I could open an OPML file in a text editor. I don’t know if that will accomplish the above, but it may be an excellent place to start. I’ll give that a try.
Thanks again for the help; much appreciated!
Thank you @Glimfeather. I’ve only used Pandoc within Obsidian; I was not aware of its conversion capabilities beyond that. Thanks for the information; I’ll check it out!