Automating use of MS Word

[Jeremy Packman]

I want to be able to create a letter in word, not a mail merge, but to a single person. I want to be able therefore to automate the process of choosing a record from my Alpha 5 database of contacts, and then to automatically launch WORD and use a predefined word template to include the salutation, name,address etc.

Also, if possible, before launching word,but after choosing the record, to have a form to fill in with eg 'Subject','your reference' etc as fields to go into the word document.

I've read the various articles by Cal on integrating Word and Alpha, and although very comprehensive, seem to be more for mail merges than for single 'every day' correspondence.

Any suggestions??

Thanks in anticipation

[whanigsberg]

RE: Automating use of MS Word

Jeremy,

For a single record you might consider the clipboard.

In my address book, I have a button on the contact form which creates a properly formatted address on the clipboard. That is, it combines the fields with the appropriate carriage returns and suppresses blank fields.

I just open the word processor and manually paste in the address but you could pretty easily use sys_shell() to launch word and run a word macro to open a new document and dump the contents of the clipboard.

Perhaps someone has a more elegant approach to suggest.

Bill

[Willard]

RE: Automating use of MS Word

I hate to bust your bubble, but throw the notion that Word is you default letter generator! ALPHA is! Learn to use the RTF memo fields and create a letter that will print the current record where the name address and salutation are obvious and the body of the letter is the rtf memo field. Not only will you have a record of your last letter but you can type up a few letters within 5 minutes this way.There is an article on LearnAlpha.com called Letters, letters letters I believe that can give you a sampling of what is possible.

Once you Learn all the tricks to letters in Alpha, that goes for reports as well, you will be using Word less and less. Jack

[Thomas Henkel]

RE: Automating use of MS Word

We used an x-basic script to "dde poke" name, address, etc out to a Word Template. Then we performed a sys_shell to invoke word to print the letters. We send out over 5000 newsletters monthly in this manner. To insue that word finishes before we continue te cript, we have inserted an "idle loop" to kill some time before generating the next letter.

The script is in a5 ver1.02 x-basic, but it should be fairly simple to convert to ver4.

Attached:

dim db_name as C
dim name as C
dim Addr as C
dim addr2 as C
DIM zipper as C
dim case1 as C
dim wcode as C
dim ext as C
dim counter as N
dim filename as C
counter = 0
'debug(1)
dbh = db_reset("i:famisincmaster.dbf")
restart = ui_msg_box("BCBSS Newsletters","Is This A Restart?",36)
if restart = 6 then
caseno = ui_get_text("BCBSS Newsletters","Enter Case Number for Restart","*************")
if caseno = "" then
ui_msg_box("BCBSS Newsletter","Restart Cancelled",48)
goto theend
else
caseno1 = upper(alltrim(caseno))
end if
else
dbh = db_reset("i:famisincmaster5.dbf")
db_zap(DBH, .T.)
card_run("append", "USE=~Build for Newsletters~ SPAWNDB=i:famisincmaster5.dbf ")

'debug(1)
dbh = db_reset("i:famisincmaster5.dbf")
index_open(dbh, "i:famisincmaster5.mdx")
FOR i = 1 to 1200
trace(ltrim(str(i))+"/1200")
NEXT i
index_update(INDEX_HANDLE_GET(dbh, "CASENO"))
'debug(0)
caseno1="C000000"
end if
'goto theend
'debug(1)
dbh = db_reset("i:famisincmaster5.dbf")
index_primary_put(index_HANDLE_get(db_current(), "caseno"))
fetch_first(dbh)
'traceln("record = "+master5->caseno)
fetch_find(dbh, caseno1)
'traceln("record = "+master5->caseno)
While master5->caseno caseno)
END WHILE
sys_shell("c:OFFICEwinword.exe")
link = dde_initiate("winword", "system")
command_string = "[fileopen "c:My Documentsnewsletter.dot"]"
dde_execute(link,command_string)
link = dde_initiate("winword", ""c:My Documentsnewsletter.dot"")

WHILE .not.fetch_eof(dbh)
case1 = master5->caseno
name = w_upper(trim(master5->fname)+" "+trim(master5->lname))
if .not.isblank("master5->xtraaddind") then
Addr = w_upper(trim(master5->mailstreet))+", "+w_upper(trim(master5->xtraaddref))
else
Addr = w_upper(trim(master5->mailstreet))
end if
if len(trim(master5->mailzip))>5 then
zipper = left(master5->mailzip,5)+"-"+right(master5->mailzip,4)
else
zipper = trim(master5->mailzip)
end if
addr2 = trim(master5->Mailctysta)+" "+zipper
wcode = ut(master5->SUPERVISOR)+UT(master5->WORKERNO)
EXT = LOOKUPc("F",WCODE,"ext","G:BCBSSWORKERS.DBF","WCODE")
dde_poke(link,"CASE",case1)
dde_poke(link,"CASE1",case1)
dde_poke(link,"NAME",name)
dde_poke(link,"ADDR1",addr)
dde_poke(link,"ADDR2",addr2)
dde_poke(link,"EXT",ext)
dde_poke(link,"WCODE",wcode)
command_string = "[FILEPRINT]"
dde_execute(link,command_string)
FOR i = 1 to 5100
trace(ltrim(str(i))+"/5100")
NEXT i
counter = counter+1
fetch_next(dbh)
END WHILE
quitit:
'UI_MSG_BOX("BCBSS NEWSLETTERS","Printing is COMPLETE - "+str(counter,7,0)+ " Pages")
command_string = "[FILEEXIT]"
dde_execute(link,command_string)
dde_terminate(link)
theend:
'debug(0)
end


There is an awful lot of stuff here, but it really works well. There may be quite a bit of extraneous stuff here, but I dare not remove anything.

[Selwyn Rabins]

RE: Automating use of MS Word

the best solution to your problem is going to be OLE Automation, which we expect will be in A5V5 which will ship later this year.

[Jeremy Packman]

RE: Automating use of MS Word

Thanks Selwyn, you always seem to be one step ahead in making A5 the best database solution.

Jeremy