alternative output

ChipRivers

I am reasonably new to the whole PHP thing but have got to grips with the basic production of dynamic pages using information from my database. But what I need to do now is simulate my output in a text document that can be saved and edited if required, such as a word document.

I have have found a few tutorials on the production of word docs but the commands seem to be a little basic. My question here is whether there are any other ways of producing such files with more comprehensive commands.

From the tutorials I found that with word docs you can replace a bookmark with a fixed string of text but I have not been able to find anything that allows you to control the layout. Specifically I would like to be able to add tabs and line breaks with in the document.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

justsomeone

Word uses a closed proprietary format so tryng to create Word docs from your own code is always going to be a tough battle. If you're running on a Windows, server, this may be easier using specialist dll's, I'm not sure - I tend to avoid Windows as far as possible.

Your original intention was to "simulate my output in a text document that can be saved and edited if required" so why not do just that? Use plain text format? You can easily use PHP to send HTTP headers to tell your browser that the coming file is text file so that it opens notepad or kate or whatever your preferred text editor is.

If you need more formatting than that, try searching for libraries to create open format documents in Rich Text Format - RTF. Word can read/write these, and as the format is open, it should be easier to find solid libraries.

ChipRivers

what mark up language / script is used for the creation of the rtf or word docs? What do I need to learn?

For example, in lines like thie:

$word->Documents[1]->SaveAs($new_file);

Is this all PHP? If so, where do I find out all of the possible commands available such as the Documents[1]->SaveAs();