P
PeterNZ
Ok, here is what we do currently. We have an application which creates
complex contracts in Word 2000. And with complex I mean really complex as in
“Banking Industry Complexâ€.
We use Bookmarks for the Data and we use Special Bookmarks for Paragraphs
i.e. combinations of CtlStart, CtlEnd and Flag Bookmarks. We also have
repeating parts such as Signature Panels for each Customer involved. i.e. 3
Signature Panels if we have 3 customers.
The thing works quite – aehm stable – but has its problems. The biggest one
is, the developers have to do all the Word Template Changes. The reason for
this is, that the logic in the Doctemplates is meanwhile so complex, that we
can’t risk that the user stuffs it.
We are no on the verge of a huge re-design of our complete Department
Software. This will also involve a re-design of the Doc Creation App. We are
hoping (!) to get Office 2003 and use XML. Our vision is, to provide the
users with a way to edit the documents themselves and to enter all the
business logic we have in the documents i.e. “show this paragraph if the
product fulfils this and that criteria†or “for each customer show a
signature panelâ€. Of course our users are familiar with Word. And I we would
also be able to come up with a kind of an editor for our Word Templates which
will enable the user to do the editing and pull in the XML details etc. But
how can I for example extract an XSLT from a Word Document? Because that’s
our idea, to create the XML data in our Doc Creation App and use a Style
sheet to produce the final Word Document.
So in one sentence, the user should be able to do all the usual formatting
in Word plus adding the placeholders for the data and the App will provide
the XML Data file. So how can we get these two things together?
I am posting this because ewe thought there must be someone out there who
does something similar.
I am very keen to hear about your ideas and thoughts. And sorry for this
long post.
Cheers
Peter
complex contracts in Word 2000. And with complex I mean really complex as in
“Banking Industry Complexâ€.
We use Bookmarks for the Data and we use Special Bookmarks for Paragraphs
i.e. combinations of CtlStart, CtlEnd and Flag Bookmarks. We also have
repeating parts such as Signature Panels for each Customer involved. i.e. 3
Signature Panels if we have 3 customers.
The thing works quite – aehm stable – but has its problems. The biggest one
is, the developers have to do all the Word Template Changes. The reason for
this is, that the logic in the Doctemplates is meanwhile so complex, that we
can’t risk that the user stuffs it.
We are no on the verge of a huge re-design of our complete Department
Software. This will also involve a re-design of the Doc Creation App. We are
hoping (!) to get Office 2003 and use XML. Our vision is, to provide the
users with a way to edit the documents themselves and to enter all the
business logic we have in the documents i.e. “show this paragraph if the
product fulfils this and that criteria†or “for each customer show a
signature panelâ€. Of course our users are familiar with Word. And I we would
also be able to come up with a kind of an editor for our Word Templates which
will enable the user to do the editing and pull in the XML details etc. But
how can I for example extract an XSLT from a Word Document? Because that’s
our idea, to create the XML data in our Doc Creation App and use a Style
sheet to produce the final Word Document.
So in one sentence, the user should be able to do all the usual formatting
in Word plus adding the placeholders for the data and the App will provide
the XML Data file. So how can we get these two things together?
I am posting this because ewe thought there must be someone out there who
does something similar.
I am very keen to hear about your ideas and thoughts. And sorry for this
long post.
Cheers
Peter