Linux Desktop Hacks

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Chapter 7, Terminal Empowerment

#53 Display PDF Documents in a Terminal

HACK

Note the one subtle addition, 2>/dev/null. This simply redirects any error

messages to the twilight zone so that they do not interfere with the presenta-

tion of the Word document. Store it as /usr/local/bin/viewdoc and make the

script executable with this command:

# chmod +x /usr/local/bin/viewdoc

Now all you have to do to view a Word document in a text console or termi-

nal is issue this command:

$ viewdoc document.doc

Not only does this technique preserve at least some of the formatting of a

Word document, but also, hyperlinks are live and you can activate them to

visit the URL from within the w3m viewer you’re using to view the docu-

ment. Figure 7-3 shows an example of a Word document viewed with w3m.

Note both the bold headings and the live link to http://www.bootsplash.de/files.

HACK

#53

Display PDF Documents in a Terminal Hack #53

You can view PDF documents in a terminal or console; no graphical desktop

is required.

This hack is similar to the previous one, which converts Word documents

into HTML. But this hack shows you how to convert PDF documents into

HTML. Then you view the HTML version with a text-based browser or

pager called elinks. (The previous hack used the w3m text browser, but

Figure 7-3. A Word document viewed in HTML text format

Display PDF Documents in a Terminal #53

Chapter 7, Terminal Empowerment

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