Re^2: Mail Merge with Word 2007 and Perl

[roboticus]

cmiller2005:

The file is still in word format, so I can't imagine a way to use Postscript::Simple to create an EPS file from the mailmerge. I'd suggest instead telling Word to print to a file using a postscript filter (I think that's included by default in later versions of windows). Then you could use the resulting PDF or extract the postscript and further manipulate it.

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

[cmiller2005]

Hi roboticus,

Is it possible to merge a text file with a .eps file using Postscript::Simple? If so, could you give me some pointers. I appreciate all of your previous responses.

Carl

[roboticus]

cmiller2005:

Let's take a step back for a moment. What is it you're trying to do? If you're trying to get to an EPS file, you likely don't even need Word and may be overcomplicating things. Give me an overview of what you're trying to do, and maybe I can offer some advice on how to get from 'here' to 'there'.

I've never used Postscript::Simple before (or have forgotten it if I did), so I couldn't speak to merging text into an .eps file. But do you even need an .eps file, or is that just another step on the way to what you're trying to do?

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.

[cmiller2005]

Well, this is a sort of test for an entry level programming job I applied for. The guy sent me two assignments, the first was to do a mail merge with an Excel spreadsheet and a Word document. I accomplished that fairly easily, it had been a while though. Below is the second assignment.

Perl programming:

a. Save the data in the spreadsheet above to a tab delimited file.

b. Save the Word document template above to a PostScript EPS file.

c. Using the PostScript::Simple module, write a Perl script that merges the template with the data from the tab delimited file.

d. I’d like to see the Perl code, input data, EPS file, and the final output.

So, in reading over the documentation for Postscript::Simple it just didn't seem like the right module to do the job, but again, I am not that familiar with Perl and the guy knows this. From what I saw in the forums etc. and Google searches Win32::OLE seemed the best way to come close to what he is looking for, hence my previous post on doing a mail merge in Perl. But, in re-reading his instructions it seems he wanted the template converted to EPS format and THEN merge that with the tab delimited text file. I am assuming this would then produce the merged documents in EPS format also, although I am not altogether sure about this. I hope this makes sense.

Thanks for your replies and advice

Carl