Filemaker Reports---> As Microsoft Word Docs instead of PDF?

[Jhestler]

Hi Everybody!

I've got an interesting dilemma here, and one that I think is very relevant to Filemaker's basic utility.

I'd like to design a database for a department of folks at my job. They currently use Microsoft Word to compile a project status report. Because the status of any particular project may change on a daily basis, the report must be constantly revised to reflect the changes in status.

Whenever the author of the report issues a new edition of the report, he executes the "compare documents" function in Microsoft Word that generates a document reflecting the distinctions between the prior version of the report and the current version of the report.

This comparison document (often called a "redline" or a "blackline" in the legal industry), very nicely reflects inserted text as bold blue font, and redacted text as red strikeouts. Used together, these features very nicely indicate exactly what was changed. Example: The wolves foxes ran down the hill.

My company colleagues would like me to overhaul the project status report system so that the author can enter data into a Filemaker database, and generate a soft copy of the status report (presumably, a pdf) with a single button. No problem there, as you know.

Here's the problem: how can the report author produce a comparison document reflecting the distinctions between the prior version of the pdf report generated by the database and the current version of the pdf report generated by the database?

First Idea:

Adobe Acrobat X! Adobe Acrobat X has a

compare documents

feature! I can just use that feature to produce the comparison between the two pdf files generated by the Filemaker database!

Why the First Idea Fails:

The compare documents feature in Adobe Acrobat X, as confirmed to me by an Adobe tech support rep, is virtually useless in this respect. The resulting document

doesn't

show insertions in

blue

, nor strikeouts in

red.

It doesn't reflect what was

changed

; it merely

highlights text

to indicate

something

has changed, but there are no indicators to clearly illustrate those changes. The user can't tell what's been changed unless she "mouses" over the highlighted text; the changes then appear in a temporary "pop-up" bubble. This is useless for 2 reasons:

1. The report (and the comparison document) needs to be sent to people who

aren't

going to be reading it on their computers. They're going to

print

it and take it into a board meeting, and they need to see

exactly

what's changed.

2. The changes may be of such

complexity

and

volume

that the result of the "mouseover" is incomprehensible.

The Kicker: Adobe Acrobat's compare documents function used to show insertions and redactions just like Microsoft Word does. They only recently diminished the utility of the function in this way.

Second Idea:

Is there a plug-in that will enable me to save Filemaker reports (maintaining WYSIWYG detail) as

Microsoft Word

documents? And can I execute the "compare documents" function in Word with respect to prior and current versions of these Filemaker-generated reports? I understand that at one time there was a plug-in that did this using style sheets or something?

This issue is important because while it's logical that many businesses would like to generate their reports from a Filemaker database, there currently seems to be no way to execute a compare documents function on two versions of the reports. It's especially important in the legal field, where legal professional are accustomed to examining redlines/blacklines.

I'm willing to consider any advisement you may have. Thank you!!!

Jay

[Lee Smith]

Please update your profile to reflect your OS and platform by using this link http://fmforums.com/forum/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=core&area=profileinfo

Lee

[mr_vodka]

Perhaps you can make use of this plugin?

http://www.360works.com/filemaker-pdf-plugin/

[Jhestler]

Thanks, Mr. Vodka; I'll look into that plug-in : )

J

[Jhestler]

After noodling around with a demo of the plug-in suggested by Mr. Vodka (thanks for that, sir!), I'm afraid that I've concluded that it won't do the trick.

The good news is that Adobe Acrobat X enables the user to export pdfs as Word files, included embedded images.

I was able to generate a report from Filemaker as a pdf, then convert the pdf to a Word document. In the same way, I generated an uodated version of the report, and then simply used the Compare Documents feature in Microsoft Word to produce the legal "redline" I've been looking for.

I'm going to play around with different variations of Filemaker reports to make sure that this is the final solution, but it's looking good...