MODI dead or worthless; Trying new document manager

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GeneM - 24 Sep 2008 18:44 GMT

At one time, Microsoft Office Document Imaging was my preferred document
manager, because I could use it to assemble multiple documents, from
different software apps, by printing to its .MDI print driver and then
manipulating, merging, and rearranging the output pages.

With the update of MS Office 2003 through Service Pack 3, that option
has died. We can still open .MDI documents in the MODI software, but if
we call Menu .. File, or Alt-F, or Ctrl-P, the program hangs, every
time. According my research, there is no cure for MODI. The Wikipedia
article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Office_Document_Imaging)
references some of the disabling changes in Ofc SP3. If I can't print
with it, it's worthless. And MS's new XPS Writer seemed to offer no
document manipulation, as I could tell.

So I am researching PDF document managers, especially PDF reDirect Free
and PDF reDirect Professional. Though I have had page truncation issues
with PrimoPDF and PDF995, my reading of the Pdox Community NG's suggest
that most such issues disappear if I make the PDF-writer software the
PC's default before starting Paradox.

I hope this wonderful community will offer gentle correction if I'm
parking at the wrong dock!

Thanks!

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Mark Bannister - 24 Sep 2008 20:21 GMT

> At one time, Microsoft Office Document Imaging was my preferred document
> manager, because I could use it to assemble multiple documents, from
[quoted text clipped - 20 lines]
>
> Thanks!

Gene:
We use ghostscript to merge documents. I have a paradox form where you
select the documents to merge and it creates a script for ghostscript.
Works great. If you get clever with ghostscript you can add water marks
and that sort of thing as well.
Ghostscipt will merge postscript or pdf files and maybe some image formats.

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Mark B

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Mark Bannister - 24 Sep 2008 20:33 GMT

Here's snips of code that do that work:
stExe = ""
scan mytc :
stexe = stexe + " \""+mytc."FileName"+"\""
endscan

sthold = "c:\\program files\\gs\\gs8.54\\bin\\gswin32 "+"@c:\\test.rsp"

ts.open("c:\\test.rsp","nw")

ts.writeline("-sDEVICE=pdfwrite")
ts.writeline("-dBATCH")
ts.writeline("-dNOPAUSE ")
ts.writeline("-I\"C:\\gs\\fonts;c:\\PSFONTS;C:\\Program
Files\\Adobe\\Acrobat 4.0\\Resource\\Font\"")
ts.writeline("-sOutputFile="+"\""+destfld.value+"\"")
ts.writeline(stExe)
ts.close()

if execute(sthold,Yes,ExeShowNormal) then
;launch adobe with created file
libMisc.LaunchFile(destfld.value)
endif

Old code. All the hard coded paths should be grabbed from the registry.

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Mark B

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GeneM - 24 Sep 2008 21:03 GMT

Thanks, Mark.
I'm still fussing with page truncations for now, then set up doc mgr.

> Here's snips of code that do that work:

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GeneM - 24 Sep 2008 21:05 GMT

Thanks, Mark.
I'm still fussing with page truncations for now, then set up doc mgr.

> Here's snips of code that do that work:

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Mark Bannister - 24 Sep 2008 21:11 GMT

> Thanks, Mark.
> I'm still fussing with page truncations for now, then set up doc mgr.
>
>> Here's snips of code that do that work:

Try printing using a Postscript driver. I used to do it with an Apple
color laserwriter PS driver and then convert to pdf. You can set up the
printer to print to a file just like pdf.

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Mark B

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GeneM - 24 Sep 2008 21:32 GMT

That process is new to me. I have no Postscript driver on the Dell PC
(Win XP), and I am not familiar on the PS-->pdf conversion, though you
wrote that GhostScript does the merge/conversion.

Does there exist a primer on choices and installation of PS driver? I
have not found any quick answers after Google searches.

> Try printing using a Postscript driver. I used to do it with an Apple
> color laserwriter PS driver and then convert to pdf. You can set up the
> printer to print to a file just like pdf.

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Mark Bannister - 24 Sep 2008 21:39 GMT

> That process is new to me. I have no Postscript driver on the Dell PC
> (Win XP), and I am not familiar on the PS-->pdf conversion, though you
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>> color laserwriter PS driver and then convert to pdf. You can set up
>> the printer to print to a file just like pdf.

You can find the instructions on the net. Essentially just install the
Apple laserwriter printer driver and via add new printers and then set
it up to print to a file. Ghostscript can handle the PS to PDF merging
and converting.

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Mark B

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GeneM - 24 Sep 2008 21:42 GMT

Sounds promising. I'll try it!
Thanks!

> You can find the instructions on the net. Essentially just install the
> Apple laserwriter printer driver and via add new printers and then set
> it up to print to a file. Ghostscript can handle the PS to PDF merging
> and converting.

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GeneM - 25 Sep 2008 17:01 GMT

Thanks for all the posts.

I finally got the 'Apple Color LW 12/660 PS' print driver installed,
from OS files, printing to a file. I found the output file in my
DocSet\User folder, the senior folder there, and don't know how to
specify a default folder location. But along another route ...

Using output from Corel-Draw, QPro X3, Pdox 9, WordPerfect X3, I'm
mixing documents from multiple sources to 25-30 page merged files. I
still found page truncation troubles on QPro X3 output to PrimoPDF, PDF
reDirect, pdf995, and trial version of Acrobat 9 Pro, BUT when I went
back to QPro .. Publish to PDF, it created fine, complete .pdf documents!

And given the apparent ease of document mixing with free PDF reDirect
and $20 Professional v2, for now I am more disposed to go that route
than to acquire and master GhostScript. I can get up to speed more
quickly that way, and the merge documents look good now.

Thanks again, and I'll cross fingers that this scheme continues to work.

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GeneM - 24 Sep 2008 20:35 GMT

Trying PDF reDirect now, I still get some truncation of print from
Quattro Pro X3, but none on Paradox print-outs, though I set PDF
reDirect as default printer before starting the QP or Pdox. I printed
the QP3 to PrimoPDF driver and got better pages, though still missing
the footer.

Hmm, Adobe Acrobat 9 for $270-320?

> So I am researching PDF document managers, especially PDF reDirect Free
> and PDF reDirect Professional. Though I have had page truncation issues
> with PrimoPDF and PDF995, my reading of the Pdox Community NG's suggest
> that most such issues disappear if I make the PDF-writer software the
> PC's default before starting Paradox.

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Denis Jobin - 30 Sep 2008 04:15 GMT

Gene,

I have been using pdfFactory for many years now with Paradox and I have
created more than 100,000 files. And I create them with programming.

I also use it with other software interactively. I have never had any
difficulties.

Just to let you know.

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