Installing w2x

Requirements

XMLmind Word To XML (w2x for short) requires a Java™ runtime 1.8+. However, w2x is officially supported by XMLmind only on Windows 7, 8, 10 and 11, macOS (Intel® or ARM® processor) 13.x (Ventura) and 14.x (Sonoma) and Linux.

On Linux, make sure that the Java bin/ directory is referenced in the $PATH and, at the same time, check that the Java runtime in the $PATH has the right version:

$ java –version
openjdk version "21.0.2" 2024-01-16
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 21.0.2+13-58)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 21.0.2+13-58, mixed mode)

On Windows and on the Mac, this verification is in principle not needed as the java executable is automatically found in the $PATH when Java has been properly installed.

Install on Windows

  1. Download the setup.exe distribution.
  2. Double-click on the setup.exe file to launch the installer.
  3. Follow the instructions of the installer.

About Java on Windows

The setup.exe distribution includes a very recent —generally the most recent— private OpenJDK Java™ runtime. Therefore, you don't need to install Java on your computer. Moreover, if you have Java already installed on your computer, then your public Java runtime will be ignored by w2x.

If you prefer to run w2x using a different version of Java, you'll have to first delete folder W2X_INSTALL_DIR\bin\jre64\ in order to force w2x to use the version of Java installed on your computer.

Note that W2X_INSTALL_DIR\bin\jre64\ contains a 64-bit version of the Java runtime which cannot be used on a 32-bit version of Windows. This means that, on a 32-bit version of Windows, you'll still have to download and install a 32-bit Java™ 8+ runtime on your computer in order to use w2x.

Install on the Mac

  1. Download the .dmg distribution.
  2. Double-click the downloaded .dmg file to open it in the Finder.
  3. Copy the WordToXML.app folder, an application bundle represented by icon ???, anywhere you want. For example, drag&drop this icon to the /Applications folder or to your desktop.
  4. Start the w2x-app desktop application by double-clicking on the ??? icon (or use the Launchpad).
  5. The first time w2x-app is started, your Mac will generally ask you to confirm that you actually want to open an application downloaded from the Internet. Click Open to confirm.

    Don't worry, w2x-app has been digitally signed using a certificate issued by Apple itself. This confirmation is required for any digitally signed application not coming from the App Store.

  6. Move the downloaded .dmg file to the Trash.

About Java on the Mac

The .dmg distribution includes a very recent —generally the most recent— private OpenJDK Java™ runtime. Therefore, you don't need to install Java on your computer. Moreover, if you have Java already installed on your computer, then your public Java runtime will be ignored by w2x.

If you prefer to run w2x using a different version of Java, you'll have to first delete folder WordToXML.app/Contents/Resources/w2x/bin/jre/ in order to force w2x to use the version of Java installed on your computer.

Manual install on any Java 1.8+ platform (Windows, Mac, Linux, etc)

Unzip the .zip distribution in any directory you want.

C:\> unzip w2x-1_11_0.zip

C:\> cd w2x-1_11_0

C:\w2x-1_11_0> dir 
... <DIR> bin
... <DIR> doc
... <DIR> legal
...

XMLmind Word To XML is intended to be used directly from the w2x-1_11_0/ directory. That is, you can run the w2x command by simply executing (in a Command Prompt on windows, a terminal on Linux):

C:\w2x-1_11_0> bin\w2x
Usage: w2x [-version] [-v|-vv] [Options] [-liststeps] in_docx_file out_file

-version
    Print version number and exit.
-v|-vv
    Verbose.
-liststeps
    List the conversion steps to be executed and exit.

Use '-?' to list options.