Transering the data from Word document

flash1

I need a piece of advice. Does anybody know how with use of PHP transfer the date from Word document into the WWW. I mean something like this:

User, who is very lazy 😃 wants to add his text from Word document (which is on his hard drive) onto the website in the same way as it looks like in Word (paragraphs, bold and italic text, etc.).
I'd like to make it as simple as possible. I think that the best solution would be creating the "Display" button which will be opening the dialog box so we could find and choose our Word document from the hard drive.
And the "Submit" button which would start processing of the data from document into the HTML version.
My main problem is the part with processsing the data, I came to the dead end and I don't know what to do.

If somebody have any sugestions how to solute this problem, I'll be thankful

tomhath

Not sure I completely follow what you are trying to do. But Word can save a document as HTML (File->Save As and pick HTML from the "Save As Type" dropdown)

128kb_com

First off, I wouldn't use anything in Micorsoft Word format - use an ASCII text file. Word format (.doc) aren't just regular text documents so you'll be doing all kinds of unnessesary parsing to extract the text.

Have you thought about Server Side Includes (SSI)?

flash1

tomhath You didn't understand me. I didn't have on mind making of html document, beacause it's a piece of cake and it could be done without PHP. I mean making a package of functions using which someone who doesn't know anything about HTML and webdesign could get the data from Word document (on the hard drive) and send them onto website.

Example:
Journalist, who writes articles for the newspaper, gets his Word written articles from house to work (or somewhere else where he has got the connection to the Internet) and send it using PHP application located on the website XYZ.
Using this application at first he selects the Word file and then submits the data. Next the data from Word are processed to HTML

I'm interested in:

Is it possible to make such application using PHP ?

If Yes

How to get the data from word?
How should process function look like?

128kb_com

flash1,

In order to parse a Word document format (.doc), you'll have to study the file format and make heavy use of regular expressions to etract the the text thats meaningful to the word doc, remenber its formatting, and transform it to html.

Yes you can do thid with php but you'll have to decide (with your code) which data you'll need to unpack/COLOR; and which to treat as regular text and then transform it with the same format (eg. bold, italic, numbered lists) into HTML.

This could be a big project. If no-one has allready made a word doc parsing PHP class then you'll either have to code it yourself or like tomhath sugested, to save as HTML.

nemonoman

Word files are a proprietary format. You can try to decipher the format, or you can pay Micro$oft a fee to get the deciphering license. You're in for a long haul, no matter what.

The alternative being suggested is best -- or better, at least. Save the articles as HTML, or if that seems too easy, then as RTF (Rich Text Format). Micro$oft supports RTF extremely well and you can with some effort create an RTF reader to parse RTF.

You will get nowhere trying to parse Word files on your own IMO. The same content saved on different computers can look very different, as Word includes info associated with the generating computer, for example, available fonts, style sheets (even if not used), etc.

Be smart and learn from people who have bloodied their heads by beating them against the Word brick wall.

essexboy

flash1, can the person wanting to update a website gain access to the original word.doc?

if so then you need a CMS (Content Management System) where the person can highlight and paste into a text box, the appropiate text.

We tried mambo server a few months ago and it has a new partner, mivo, i think

It will provide a real world MS word interface where any old Tom, Dick & Harry can cut 'n' paste their copy into a webpage.

links:

http://www.miro.com.au
http://www.mamboserver.com

oli

be smart & work with people who have broken thorugh that brick wall, adobe acrobat anyone?...