Converting a Gutenberg ascii file to a Microsoft Word file

If you have downloaded one of the "plain ascii" files from Project Gutenberg, and wish to get it into a more attractive format, one possibility is to to invoke the web page here:
http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~lesk/spring06/lis556/guten/gut2rtf.html.

It will ask you for the name of the file containing the flat ascii; it will reply with a link to a converted file in RTF format. Microsoft Word or Open Office should be happy reading the RTF file and you can then edit the margins, sizes, etc. as you wish. By default, for example, you get 10 point type for the body and 15 point for the headings.

So the overall pattern is:

  1. Open http://www.gutenberg.org and navigate to the book item you are interested in.
  2. Having opened the web page for that book, right click one of the plain text download points and save the target (presumably named something like mntsm10.txt).
  3. Open the converter page and enter your email and the name of the file you wish to convert, presumably the one you just downloaded.
  4. Click "Send".
  5. The program should give you a webpage with a download link. Right-click that link and save the result as a file whose name ends in ".rtf". The name it uses is OK, but chosen merely to avoid duplication.

At present the email address is not used; it's there in case I find outsiders trying to flood the site and need to block them. [The problem is that some people involved in illegal file sharing look for places that let you upload; they might not discover that this site will let you upload, but then deletes the uploaded file immediately after it runs the converter.]

Project Gutenberg's formats vary quite a lot. Some years the paragraphs asking for money are at the front, some years they are at the back; some years they use the line "The Project Gutenberg Etext" and other years it's an "Ebook". So I'd appreciate knowing about files that don't work. If the error is systematic, I'll try to fix it.