Word Document and Perl

EchoAngel has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hello Monks, is there anyway for me to interface to create a microsoft word document (with some tables and different fonts) because I have to parse many files to get the data. So I'm thinking is there a way to do this all with an execution of a script. Note: that I'm on linux/unix.

Comment on Word Document and Perl

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Re: Word Document and Perl by gaal (Parson) on Jul 16, 2004 at 04:43 UTC
FWIW, Microsoft Word reads HTML (including tables and fonts). A hack I've used to make it look completely transparent is to save a document with no text but with all the potential styles as HTML from Word, then use it as a template for stuff to edit (/generate from script). This way you don't even suffer from import artefacts: if you mimic the HTML Word uses, your documents will look exactly like they would if you'd created them there.	[reply]
Re: Word Document and Perl by dfaure (Chaplain) on Jul 16, 2004 at 07:39 UTC
The "legacy" way to create a Word document would be using Win32::OLE in order to drive word to produce your document. This would work only on Win32. Choosing this solution, I would make a template document containing tags which I would "search&replace" with my datas. An other solution (linux friendly) would be to use RTF::Document which allows some bells and whistles without Word (same proposed solution applies also here). ____ HTH, Dominique My two favorites: If the only tool you have is a hammer, you will see every problem as a nail. --Abraham Maslow Bien faire, et le faire savoir...	[reply]