python convert microsoft office docs to plain text on linux

Question

Any recomendations on a method to convert .doc, .ppt, and .xls to plain text on linux using python? Really any method of conversion would be useful. I have already looked at

Answer 1

The usual tool for converting Microsoft Office documents to HTML or other formats was mswordview, which has since been renamed to vwWare.

If you're looking for a command-line tool, they actually recommend using AbiWord to perform the conversion:

AbiWord --to=txt

If you're looking for a library, start on the wvWare overview page. They also maintain a list of libraries and tools which read MS Office documents.