I have a short Template::Toolkit script meant to handle a mail merge between a csv file and a template.tex file.

The perl side of this is working fine for me (from almost the first moment I drafted it), but getting the LaTeX part of this right has been a hair pulling experience. perldoc makes sense to me in ways that spending the day reading LaTeX artciles has not.

I have two, perhaps three issues at this point:

(1) Making my letterhead render with the logo in the top left corner (even inside the generous margins LaTeX offers by default), with the copy from the letterhead centered in a box to its right, all above the horizontal line offered by the letterhead.tex template;

(2) sorting out where the \begin and \end{document} commands ought to go given that I have one .tex file seeking to include another .tex file; and

(3) figuring out how to make that indentation work for all the lines related to the pollwatcher which are pulled from the data.

My letterhead.tex file:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage[letterpaper]{geometry}
\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\addtolength{\headheight}{0.25in}

\begin{document}
\fancyheadoffset[L]{10pt}
\fancyhead[L]{\includegraphics{ggp_logo_100px}}%

\begin{minipage}[t]{5in}
\setlength\oddsidemargin{2in}
\begin{center}
\Large\textbf{The Georgia Green Party} \\
\normalsize
{P.O. Box 450012; Atlanta GA 31145 \\
404-574-3471 * ggp@greens.org \\
\underline{http://www.greens.org/georgia/}}

\bigskip

\small\emph{Ecological Wisdom * Grassroots Democracy * Social Justice 
+* Peace and Nonviolence \\
Decentralisation * Community-Based Economics * Feminism * Respect for 
+Diversity \\
Personal and Global Responsibility * Future Focus on Sustainability }
\end{center}
\end{minipage}

\end{document}
[download]

and my pollwatcher_408b1.tmpl file:

\documentclass{article}

% \include{letterhead}

\begin{document}
{The Superintendent of Elections \\
for [% County_Name %] County Georgia \\
[% County_Addr1 %] \\
[% County_Addr2 %] \\
[% County_city_st_zip %] \\

[% date %] \\

The undersigned, Chairperson(s) and Secretary of the Georgia Green Par
+ty, pursuant to our authority  under the Georgia Election Code, [% co
+de_authority %], designate the below individual as a poll watcher for
+ the [% Election_Date_and_Type %] and assign them to observe operatio
+ns at [% Precinct_Name %]; [%Precinct_Address %]. \\

\setlength\parindent{4em}
[% Poll_Watcher %] \\
\setlength\parindent{4em}
Birthday: [% Poll_Watcher_Birthdate %] \\
\setlength\parindent{4em}
[% Poll_Watcher_Addr1 %]; [% Poll_Watcher_city_st_zip %] \\
\setlength\parindent{0em}

We are yours for a just and sustainable future, \\




Thano Paris, Co-Chair \\




Harry Rezzemini, Secretary \\


\end{document}
[download]

And the trivial test script that is supposed to put it altogether (merging data from database awaits a working test of what is shown above), called: create_pollwatcher_letter.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;
use Template;
use Template::Plugin::Latex;

my $cfg = {
    INCLUDE_PATH => '/home/hesco/GP/GGP/PollWatchers/Templates'
  };

my $template = Template->new($cfg);

my $vars = {
                 County_Name => 'Camden County',
                County_Addr1 => '208 East 4th Street',
                County_Addr2 => 'P.O. Box 608',
          County_city_st_zip => 'Woodbine GA 31569-0608',
                        date => 'Monday, October 27th, 2008',
              code_authority => '21-2-408(b)(1)',
      Election_Date_and_Type => 'November 4th, 2008 General Election',
               Precinct_Name => 'Woodbine City Hall 03 Precinct',
            Precinct_Address => '310 Bedell Avenue; Woodbine GA 31569'
+,
                      County => 'Camden',
                Poll_Watcher => 'Jane Citizen',
      Poll_Watcher_Birthdate => 'January 31, 1956',
          Poll_Watcher_Addr1 => '197 Some Drive',
    Poll_Watcher_city_st_zip => 'Brunswick GA 31525',
              };

my $input = 'pollwatcher_408b1.tmpl';
my $output = 'test';
$template->process($input,$vars,"$output.tex", binmode => 1) || die $t
+emplate->error();

# my $result = `latex "$output.tex"`;
# $result = `dvips "$output.dvi"`;
# $result = `ps2pdf "$output.ps"`;

1;
[download]

Any and all advise is appreciated. Thanks,

-- Hugh