Conclusion

Import filters are a flexible way to integrate sources written in other formats, as long as there is an existing filter or knowledge of how to write one. Filters can be reused, they can be stored at a central location and be used by all authors working at the document.

Before writing a filter it is recommended to check if it was already written before. The best way to check for filter functions is to ask the PerlPoint mailing list, for filters that were not made public. Several filters are published on CPAN, too. Please see below for an overview.

Finally, the import filter interface is superseeded by a more general approach, which allows to make filters available by just installing Perl modules, so users do not even have to load the filter definitions with \INCLUDE. This approach is described in " Processing other formats" below.