Thanks Brian. I knew the part about sending a report to a text file. That's what I am doing many times a day. I thought you guys might have a easier way to make a report from DP and then simply use control+V in Windows. Maybe a new option in the next version? It would be very handy.
Please send the message about the techniques and tools needed. I remember having a glance but at the time I didn't want to spend too much time on it. Now I am actually thinking to start sending bills by email. In Word. Gerard 2008/11/18 Brian Hancock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Hi Gerard, > > It depends on what you want to export. > > If it is just a section of the screen display then you can put DP into a > windowed (ie not full screen) state with (Alt-Enter), and then from the > window's System menu select Edit-Mark and then use the mouse to highlight > the rectangle you wish to copy and press Enter. This then sits as plain text > in the Windows clipboard. > > If it is a report then the easiest way is to export the data as text into a > file, open the file, select the contents and copy it to the clipboard. > > Getting data into Word can take many forms. You can do a simple mail merge, > using a variety of data export formats from DP, such as Comma separated, Tab > Separated. These both have the problem of not being able to take data with > embedded CR or LF such as in a DP memo AxAy field as the CR or LF is used as > a record delimiter. You can even if you have the appropriate converters > installed, use WP Secondary file formats. > > Mail Merge only enable you to use data in a flat file format, whereas more > complex "merges" will have multiple tables (panels) of structured data. For > example, an invoice or bill will have a header record, and multiple lines of > items making up the invoice. Word Mail Merge will not handle this type of > structured data. > > A far more powerful, but less straight forward way of merging DP data into > Word is via XML and XSLT. Word, from Word 2003 onwards. supports XML as a > document file type. You can save any Word document as an XML document, and > it will retain all the characteristics of the normal .doc format. You can > even name the resultant file as a .DOC file and by file association it will > be opened by Word and Word will detect it is in an XML format rather than > the proprietary Word .Doc format, and open and format it the same way. > > The XSLT file is the document template, and the XML file (named with a .DOC) > extension holds the data exported from DP. With the Dp created XML file you > place an instruction to associate it with a particular template file, and > when you open the .DOC file it merges the data as thought it were natively > part of the document. > > Unlike the flat file format required for mail merge, you can use highly > structured documents, with data from multiple panels. The documents can also > use boilerplating techniques which can be controlled from the DP > application, so for example you could have conditional paragraphs, or even > document sections in separate files and have its inclusion determined in DP, > making long complex documents possible. > > It opens up a vast new world and your imagination is the limit. For example > I found that I could place the template file on a web server, and in the DP > XML file include the full URL, thereby centralising templates. You do not > need to web enable DP for this. If you want to go with DP web enabled, then > another world opens up as you can deliver complex documents via the web. You > can even merge the XML data and the XSLT template at the server side without > even using Word, and then users can use the free Word Viewer to view the > "merged" document. All this can be totally transparent to the user, and > doesn't require any macros or templates to be distributed > > For example the following link will download a very simple previously DP > created XML file, which has a server based XSLT template assigned to it. > http://www.brileigh.net/stuff/DPNEWS.DOC If you open it in Word 2003+ it > will probably initially open it as a data only view, however in the XML Task > Pane you should see that a DPNews.xsl view is available. Select that to > "merge" the data, and look at the print preview (or Print Layout) to see the > final document. With web enabling of DP the DPNews.doc could have been > dynamically created as a results of user supplied data from their web > browser. > > I posted a message about the techniques and tools needed to get on top of > this back in December last year. I can resend it if you wish. > > Brian > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Gerard van Loenhout > Sent: Tuesday, 18 November 2008 4:27 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Dataperf] Pt4 Example of Merging DP data into MS Word > > Hi all, > > I have two questions. > > -How do I export directly to the Windows clipboard? > > -Can I export into a simple Word document template? > If so, can I get this template from one of you? > > > Regards > Gerard van Loenhout > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf > > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf > _______________________________________________ Dataperf mailing list [email protected] http://lists.dataperfect.nl/mailman/listinfo/dataperf
