How to create a document based on a template to add db data

[vstud70]

Hi all,

I am using visual studio 2003 with installed VSTO with Office 2003.
I am trying to populate a template that I created with db data in order to create an invoices to our customers (similar to merge but more flexible).

I'm using bookmarks to populate the template and it works well,
Hoever I'm not sure how to initialize and move to the next page on the document...
Meaning How to append a new page to the filled document and re use the template page from scratch in order to populate it again for the second record and so on thru the loop.


it should look like :

Dear Mr. _______ (db field CsutomerName) Todays Date:_______
This is your invoice for: _________(orderDate). Total is: ______
Thank you for your payment Blah blah blah ...
......
more fields...



Regards
Stu

[nukefusion]

Hello vstud70,
How is your template set up? I'm not very familiar with the tools packaged with VSTO. Is the template a feature of VSTO or something that you've implemented yourself?

[vstud70]

Hi nukefusion,

It's a regular template, a .dot file ,that has some verbiage and
some bookmarks located where I would like to insert my d.b. fields.

As for VSTO, I'm not too familiar with it so much, I just installed it since to my understanding it will be easier to code with it relative to regular VBA code on the word document (and i 'm lacking vba experience). You can ignore that it is VSTO for that matter.

What currently I do is:
i. open the fname.dot template file once.
ii. I insert into the fname.dot file some fields from the database
iii. write the filled template, or save it (save as command) into a .doc file (a different file name)

What I'm not sure how to do is to repeat this process, as I scroll the dataset records that I pulled from the database.
do i need to clean the template so i can rewrite the next itteration fields, if so how, or do i close the template file and re open it to write into it again?
And how do i tell the application to write to the next page on the word document? (should i write page break to jump to the next page).

So i'm not sure how to loop this thing...
Let me know if makes things clearer.

Thanks in advance!

[nukefusion]

Ok, thanks for providing extra information. I guess I was just wondering whether you were opening up the document and processing it in .NET or using office automation to do it.

If I was processing the file in C# or VB.NET code I would probably:

1. Load the template into memory once
2. Make a copy of that template in memory
3. Insert DB fields into copy
4. Save copy as .doc
5. Repeat from step 2

If I was automating office I would:

1. Load the template
2. Insert DB fields into copy
3. Save copy as .doc
4. Close template without saving
5. Repeat from step 1

Presumably once you've added the fields to the template once, your placeholders are gone, so you'd either need to make a copy of the template somewhere as in the first example or reopen the template as in the second.

[vstud70]

Hi nukefusion,

Yes I should have mentioned that I'm using the VB.Net,
I believe that I'm doing something similar to what you have described.
However when you say save copy as a doc it will rewrite the old one and
I need it to append to the same doc file, basicaly adding a new word page each iteration.



part of this snip will be looped with the matching clients data(recordset)
'Note that the M11 is the template that is changed using the d.b. fields,
than append it all to the M3.doc and then I need to rewrite the template,
append it again and etc with the loop. Hope it make sense.

Here is a code snip:

'Start Word and open the document template.
oWord = CreateObject("Word.Application")
oWord.Visible = True
oDoc = oWord.Documents.Add("C:\Misc\MaillingLetters\M11.d ot")


' oWord.Documents.Add("C:\MaillingLetters\M1.dot")
oDoc.Bookmarks.Item("nameB").Range.Text = "client name1"
oDoc.Bookmarks.Item("lname").Range.Text = "client name1"

oDoc.SaveAs("C:\Misc\MaillingLetters\M3.doc")



If you get a chance see if you can change it and have M3.doc accumulate
the new pages that are derived from the M11 template.

Regards

[nukefusion]

Ok, thanks for the code snippet, now I can see that you want to do it using office automation. How about using the clipboard to achieve what you want using the following logic:

1. Create new document for holding records
2. Open template
3. Replace bookmarks with DB fields
4. Copy the updated template to the clipboard
5. Paste into new document
6. Close template
7. If there are more records repeat from step 2.
8. Save new document

[vstud70]

Hi,

Using the clipboard was a good idea even though I didn't use the clipboard property per se (directly) instead i copied the wholestory to the new document which is similar idea.
Also fyi, instead of closing and reopenning the templ I used the "undo" methos that I found. I used it to initialize my document. it's working like a charm.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and knowledge!