[Le Chaud Lapin]

On Mar 18, 9:15*pm, Le Chaud Lapin wrote:
Hi All,

I'd like to know what tool is most appropriate for a C++ programmer to
generate a 1-page .PDF file.

Naturally, the options a

1. Launching a pre-packaged tool using system() [or CreateProcess on
Windows] call.
2. Excecuting .PDF library functions.

In my experience, I have found 2 to be the simplest to work with from
a programmers point of view, especially in the case of errors.

What are you thoughts?

My thoughts so far from first observations is that libHaru is a clean
product, so I feel no compulsion to look anywhere else.

http://libharu.org/wiki/Main_Page

But...as typical with newbies, I probably asked the wrong question:

I need to be able to generate letters for our customers from a
database of contact info. I need to:

1. Generate, say, 10,000 letters from a generic .DOC template and of
10,000 specific addresses of our customers.
2. Add small piece of per-customer personalized information to the
middle of the letter, like account number - about 300 characters.
3. Generate a batch of the letters, deferring printing until later. I
need to have all 10,000 letters in electronic form.... I think...
4. Convert letters from .DOC or .DOCX format to .PDF.

I know that #1 is something many of you have done many times, as I
recall writing a macro in Word for a client in 1996 to merge mailing
lists and dump duplicates.

Initially I thought about using a .PDF C++ library like libHaru to
generate the final .PDF's programmatically, which I guess would not be
too difficult, then realized that my problem is so common, there is
probably an easier more straight-forward way.

Is there?

TIA,

-Le Chaud Lapin-

[Le Chaud Lapin]

On Mar 19, 10:34*am, Le Chaud Lapin wrote:
Initially I thought about using a .PDF C++ library like libHaru to
generate the final .PDF's programmatically, which I guess would not be
too difficult, then realized that my problem is so common, there is
probably an easier more straight-forward way.

Is there?

Yes, there is.

After reading HELP in Microsoft Word, I discovered that what I am
looking for is nothing more than a simple mail merge.

How embarrassing that I was about to swat a fly with a
sledgehammer.

-Le Chaud Lapin-