Feature request: Export TP to Word Outline

TaskPaper
12

Sorry man. I know the feeling. Let me see if I can help you out. This may only take you 5-10 minutes but it will simplify your life. You will only have to run the script once and get what you need.

  1. I am assuming you have already installed pandoc and ruby, and downloaded the TaskPaper-Ruby library. Now install this gem for ruby like this,
    gem install pandoc-ruby

  2. Inside your TaskPaper-Ruby library, create a file INSIDE the src directory with the name taskpaper+mmd.rb

  3. Include this source in that file,

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# TaskPaperRuby
#
# This extends Matt's library to produce Markdown
#
# Made by Victor Gutierrez

require_relative 'taskpaperdocument'

class TaskPaperDocument
  def to_mmd(only_type = nil)
    @root_item ? @root_item.to_mmd(only_type) : ''
  end
end

require_relative 'taskpaperitem'

class TaskPaperItem
  def to_mmd(only_type = nil)
    output = ''
    if @type != TYPE_NULL
      posn = 0
      # This is pretty self-explanatory. It doesn't work perfectly with the projects since it leaves an empty space
      remove_all_tags
      if @type == TYPE_TASK
        output += @content.to_s
        # This removes the task identifier which happens to be `-`. In order to do that, we remove the first
        # two characters in the string
        # output += (@content[2..-1]).to_s
      end
      if @type == TYPE_NOTE
        # Here the notes will be italiziced.
        output += "*#{@content}*"
      end
      if @type == TYPE_PROJECT
        # First, add an extra line before a project begins to create a better separation.
        output += TaskPaperItem.linebreak.to_s

        # This right here will add the right heading level according to where the project is in TaskPaper
        $i = -1
        begin
          output += '#'
          $i += 1
        end while $i < effective_level

        # Since we don't want the project marker from taskpaper which is `:` at the end of the string, we remove it
        output += " #{@content[posn..-2]}"

      end

      # Add a space after every item.
      output += TaskPaperItem.linebreak.to_s
    end
    @children.each do |child|
      output += child.to_mmd(only_type)
    end
    output = output.to_s
  end
end

The source is kind of self explanatory. I documented a couple of changes that you might want to make. I also made it easy to see the changes. So that for example, in the TYPE_NOTE, the text is italicized using Markdown. If you prefer to do bold or something, just change that using markdown.

Right now I also made it so that it removes all tags, but you can change that by removing the remove_all_tags line. I would recommend simply to document that line so you don’t forget later on.

Now, for the next part,

  1. Create a file inside your TaskPaper-Ruby library. Now, this is NOT INSIDE YOUR src, but the path above. Name it something you would remember. I am going to use, taskpaper-to-mmd.rb

  2. Add the following code,

#!/usr/bin/ruby

# TaskPaperRuby
#
# This script converts TaskPaper files to DOCX.
#
# Made by Victor Gutierrez
#
github_url = "http://github.com/mattgemmell/TaskPaperRuby"
#
# ==========================================================

require_relative 'src/taskpaperdocument'
require_relative 'src/taskpaper+mmd'
require 'pandoc-ruby'

# Handle command line arguments
if ARGV.count < 2
	puts "Usage: ruby taskpaper-to-mmd.rb INPUT_FILE_PATH OUTPUT_FILE_PATH"
	puts "(Input file should be a TaskPaper file. Output will be an Open Doc.)"
	exit
end

input_file_path = File.expand_path(ARGV[0])
docx_output_file_path = File.expand_path(ARGV[1])

# Ensure we have an input file to work with
if !File.exist?(input_file_path)
	puts "Couldn't find input file \"#{input_file_path}\". ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯"
	exit
end

# Load TaskPaper file
document = TaskPaperDocument.new(input_file_path)

# Produce MMD output from document
document_mmd = document.to_mmd

// Now, here we are using the Pandoc ruby library to write a docx file from the mmd file above
File.open(docx_output_file_path, 'w') do |outfile|
  outfile.puts PandocRuby.markdown(document_mmd).to_docx
end

// That is all!

Okay. The next step is easy, simply run your script. Something like

ruby ~/location_script/taskpaper-to-mmd.rb ~/location/input_taskpaper_file.taskpaper ~/location/output_docx_file.docx

It should work. Tell me if that helps.