How to format text for normal reading

[Mark]

On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 9:52 AM, user1 <bqz69 at telia.com> wrote:
> I am using ubuntu 10.10
>
> I have downloaded a lot of text files, both in text, html and e-mail
> format.
>
> I have put a lot of files together using the cat command.
>
> Then where it is html files, I have put some of those together using the
> cat command and then used the html2text command to format to text format.
>
> Some of those files I have gotten have a verry bad format for reading,
> sometimes with strange strings mixed in.
>
> I have tried sed and the sed users mailing list, but got no good replies.
>
> So, my question is do anybody know some good and simple programs to
> format such text, so I can read it in my text reader (I am using leafpad,
> as I find it easy to use and good for changing pages when reading.)
>
Never tried any of those things, but doesn't it make more sense to
convert the html files to text *before* you string them together?
Seems like that would solve both problems at once....

Mark