How can I convert math-less latex documents into Microsoft Word?

Question

Like most people here, my resume/CV is in LaTeX, but there are always these annoying companies (or more often, recruiters) who will only look at resumes in Microsoft Word format. How can I translate my beautiful LaTeX document into .doc without making it look horrible?

Answer 1

There is a commercial product called GrindEQ which can also convert math. Another option is to import your LaTeX into LyX, and output as a Word document.

Aside from the free solution using LyX, you can use LaTeX2RTF, which works okay. Also latex2doc which is a bit more sophisticated. Lastly, there is Pandoc which is a more universal converter.

Your mileage may vary, which is why I am inundating you with choices.

Answer 2

Print or compile it to an image, then paste it in a word file. Then copy and paste the source and/or textual form, and paste it in the document invisible under the image.

This does 3 things:

1. Works independent of MS Word version. Pasting an image in a word file is not a new feature
2. Includes the text in the document. Many companies want this so they can do a textual search for keywords (to narrow down or sift resumes)
3. Sticks it to the Word users (makes me smile inside)

Then I usually go find a different company that likes computer nerds.

Answer 3

The tug.org page has a significant list here. This list is in two parts, including both LaTeX to 'PC textprocessors' and 'PC textprocessors' to LaTeX, you want to look at the former.

Answer 4

I've had mixed experiences with latex2rtf – it generally manages to produce something, but often misses important bits of structure.

I've had most consistent success with pandoc (as one of the other answers notes). I compared a couple of alternative routes, and its converter to Open Office seemed more reliable than its converter direct to Word. Thus convert with

% pandoc -r latex -w odt -o file.odt file.tex

Then open file.odt with OpenOffice and save it as Microsoft Word 97/2000/XP (.doc).

In the cases I tried, that managed to preserve quite a lot of document structure, emphases, and footnotes. The documents in question used almost no maths, but converting that would be probably unreasonable.

Answer 5

If you don't mind a third party user accessing your information (particularly something as sensitive as a CV), I have found converting a pdf to word to be an effective way of managing this. For example one free service is convertpdftoword. Although it makes the word document quite large, I've found that it usually preserves the formatting almost perfectly.