open MS Word files

[Jan Schenkel]

--- Alex Rice <alrice at ARCplanning.com> wrote:
> 
> On Sunday, June 8, 2003, at 12:21  PM, Jan Schenkel
> wrote:
> 
> >
> > Hi Sims,
> >
> > Too bad you're on a PC, or this wouldn't have been
> too
> > hard to implement using AppleScript. On Windows,
> you
> > may have a shot at it using Dynamic Data Exchange
> > (DDE) calls.
> > Even though DDE isn't supported directly in
> RunRev,
> > there's the Externals Collection :
> > http://www.xworlds.com/metacard/external.htm
> > You can use Google to find a group where you can
> ask
> > for more info on MS Word DDE calls.
> 
> I have googled around a fair amount on this topic in
> the past, and got 
> nowhere. I have absolutely no idea what one can or
> cannot do with DDE 
> and how to get started with it. If anyone has that
> golden URL or book 
> reference I would be happy to hear it.
> 

Your best bet would be the Word DevelopersKit if you
can still find it somewhere. People claim that most of
the info is right there in the docs, though you'll
have to do some digging and it may not come
pre-installed.

> I have used the MS Office Automation APIs from VBA
> (in MS Excel) and 
> from Realbasic. It's pretty easy to learn since the
> API is documented 
> in the MS Office Help on Windows. The Realbasic
> implementation was 
> pretty slow and buggy. I'm guessing it's not an easy
> programming 
> problem.
> 

Espcecially not given Redmond's attitude of "We'll
tell you in our books to implement it this way, but
we'll use undocumented features in our own products".

> Also isn't DDE double-deprecated now? Someone told
> me it was the 
> predecessor of COM which is out of favor, now with
> .NET? Sheesh. 
> Richmond.
> 

Yes, it is deprecated, and _will_ disappear along with
a huge truckload of other APIs when M$ Longhorn comes
marching in.

> On Windows isn't there some kind of Scripting Engine
> Architecture?

Oh, a Scripting Engine Architecture -- like Apple's
OSA, you mean ? Nah, that would be far too easy. You
know, developers like you and me might make software
that can do more than their stuff.

> Now 
> Perl and Python on Win32 are (relatively more) first
> class citizens 
> than they used to be. They have nice distributions
> that hook into Win32 
> and COM APIs pretty extensively. The PythonWin
> distribution is very 
> cool. You can write Python scripts with native Win32
> API GUI and call 
> any old DLL. It's a cool trick. Runrev needs to hook
> into that stuff 
> too.
> 

That would be much appreciated indeed ; maybe Scott or
Tuviah can peek under the hood of those distributions
to up the support at engine level ?

> There has got to be some way for Runrev to
> communicate with other apps 
> on Windows. Especially MS Office.
> 
> Alex Rice
> 

Amen to that ! Not that I mind giving Mac users
certain Office integration features using AppleScript,
but then Windows users would complain why they didn't
get this kind of feature in their version.

Jan Schenkel

=====
"As we grow older, we grow both wiser and more foolish at the same time."  (La Rochefoucauld)

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