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Re: Alternatives to Word (was: Re: Script problems with BBEdit 6.5)
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Re: Alternatives to Word (was: Re: Script problems with BBEdit 6.5)


  • Subject: Re: Alternatives to Word (was: Re: Script problems with BBEdit 6.5)
  • From: billp <email@hidden>
  • Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 21:30:05 -0600

Paul,

I have already harnessed VBA to a huge extent. I am just tired of
silly things Word does like write hundreds of temp files on my disk
(choking off memory and causing timeouts); the need to make Word
operate visibly in the foreground during operations where copying
and pasting from the clipboard from one window to another take place,
etc. I have had to architect a lot of stuff just to get around Word's
utterly stupid behaviors. Furthermore, I'm sure that my thousands of
VB commands (mostly search/replace strings) would execute much faster
in another program (of course, no longer in VB). Like AppleWorks.
But it all depends on the Tables getting converted right.

Bill

>Give up hope of the regular Word AppleScripting being able to do anything
>useful. It's far too buggy. But if you're prepared to learn VBA (and it
>sounds as if you may already know some) you can usually anything you want in
>Word by using the all-purpose 'do visual basic' applescript command, and
>follow it with an entire VBA script in quotation marks (or a variable set to
>it). It is entire possible to include variables previously set in your
>applescript in the VBA section, So if VBA Word knows how to refer to the
>various objects to which you refer, you can use them as is.
>
>--
>Paul Berkowitz
>
>> From: billp <email@hidden>
>> Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2001 19:16:05 -0600
>> To: "AppleScript Users list" <email@hidden>
>> Cc: "Craig Nansen" <email@hidden>, "Shane Stanley"
>> <email@hidden>
>> Subject: Alternatives to Word (was: Re: Script problems with BBEdit 6.5)
>>
>> I have a question - I would love to abandon MS Word as totally as
>> possible
>> in my workflow scripts. However, I don't think that's possible. If,
>> however,
>> I could have my script use Word for nothing more than a few preparatory
>> steps before having another word processor take over, that would be fine
>> with me.
>>
>> So, the question becomes - is there conversion tool out there that can
>> convert
>> Word files (with Tables intact, and I mean intact as columns and rows of
>> cellular
>> text information) to Apple Works or BBEdit files? And if so, can I
>> expect the
>> same level of power in the search/replace functionality that Word has (or
>> more)?
>>
>> I don't care about whether style sheets are properly preserved, just the
>> text
>> characters.
>>
>> And while on the subject of Word and problems with it...
>>
>> I run an automated typesetting service setting financial reports.
>> Most clients send Word for Windows files, and the tables are done
>> editably within Word (as a Table, with cellular rows and columns).
>>
>> My AppleScript performs a lengthy series of cleanup steps before
>> collapsing the tables into tab-delimited text with a carriage return
>> at the end of each line.
>>
>> What really screws me up is when a client sends over a Word file
>> wherein the tables have somehow been created in and linked to Excel;
>> you cannot, for example, select any text in the table within Word.
>> When you click somewhere on the table, handles appear (as on any graphic)
>> at the corners and in-between. Double-clicking takes you into Excel
>> where, finally, you can access the data at the character level.
>>
>> It is an utter pain in the ass to have to double-click each table, go
>> to Excel, select the appropriate rows and columns, go back to Word,
>> delete the chart, and paste the contents of the clipboard (which come
>> in as a Word Table - cells and editable text). I was able to figure
>> out from text that Word was displaying during the process that the
>> graphic was an "EMF file".
>>
>> What I cannot figure out how to do is to have AppleScript perceive
>> these things as the kinds of objects they are and to have them
>> automatically
>> converted to the Word Table format. Has anyone out there dealt with
>> this?
>>
>> I did record my actions using Script Editor, and the Visual Basic
>> commands that were captured basically called it "Object 25" or "Object 16"
>> or whatever. The problem is that the objects are not necessarily
>> sequential, nor all there. There may or may not be an Object 17 if there's
>> an Object 18. There might be a way to address the object if only
>> AppleScript could figure out what it was called before going after it.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for any help.
>>
>> Bill Planey
>> _______________________________________________
>> applescript-users mailing list
>> email@hidden
>> http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/applescript-users
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