Word based price list updating from FM11?

[Jason_CA]

Been scratching my head on this one, not sure how to do this, or if it's even possible..

If I have a price list catalog that is made of several word 2007/2010 documents (no scripts, or anything fancy in them yet), is there some way that I can get the document to automatically connect to my FM db to pull the latest price/description for a particular product, and insert that into the catalog? A plugin, VBS, XML, etc. I'm open to anything that may work.

I figure I would have to link it either by FM ID of the product, or match it by product's part number, etc. For example, the catalog shows something like this:

Part Size Description Price

ABC1 1" 1" Widget $12

ABC2 2" 2" Widget $14

ABC3 3" 3" Widget $16

I'd like to instead do something like this:

Part Size Description Price

ABC1 <<fm:size>> <<fm:desc>> <<fm:price>>

ABC2 <<fm:size>> <<fm:desc>> <<fm:price>>

ABC3 <<fm:size>> <<fm:desc>> <<fm:price>>

Any suggestions? Is it even feasible to pull data vs push it out? I see that Wim is very active on here and has a lot of great ideas, maybe I can call you out to throw your 0.02 in? :)

[GlennS]

Jason

Three ways I can think to approach this, depending upon your requirements...

1. Use FM as an ODBC source for Word, this involves loading the FM ODBC driver on your computer and then doing a SQL type search in word to display the results. You can automate this with Word Macros.

2. Use something like EzXlt from chapsoft.com to create XML templates that output from FM, new .rtf formatted documents that work very well with Word.

3. Use FM to create & run VBS ActiveX script that opens your documents and does a search & replace for your Word Parts with all the data from FileMaker records.

I have used all these methods fairly extensively and would start at the top and try each, as the last involves a fairly high level of "Wim" knowledge of ActiveX.

Hope this helps.

[Vaughan]

Been scratching my head on this one, not sure how to do this, or if it's even possible..

If I have a price list catalog that is made of several word 2007/2010 documents (no scripts, or anything fancy in them yet), is there some way that I can get the document to automatically connect to my FM db to pull the latest price/description for a particular product, and insert that into the catalog?

Stop using Word to store business data. The database should be the repository for the prices.

[LaRetta]

Hi Vaughan! I agree. Of course it isn't always easy to change corporations ... I've tried, LOL.

[comment]

Stop using Word to store business data. The database should be the repository for the prices.

I thought the question was in the opposite direction - i.e. how to get the prices out of the Filemaker repository into a Word document. Of course, one may ask what makes Word such an attractive format for exporting - instead of PDF, for example.