RE: Solutions for producing pretty letters

I wrote a VB program that populates a word document with heading/footer info
and allows the user to enter the content of the letter. The letter is then
saved as a .Doc or can be printed to a PDF printer and stored or emailed to
whoever.


-----Original Message-----
From: rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:rpg400-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of David FOXWELL
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 10:40 AM
To: rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Solutions for producing pretty letters

Hi,

We have an application that is used to generate letters to clients
automatically.

The header depends upon client information, date, type of letter etc.

The user types the body of the text in to a 5250 screen and each line is
saved in a PF on the i5. He is aided by function keys to insert many
repetitive clauses.

The finished letter is composed from client/contract information, type of
job, text saved by user, etc.

The user wants to be able to type in text as he would in a word processor,
with as much of that functionnality as possible ( bold text, images, etc).
With the 5250 screen, he has to justify each line manually.

I've thought about using Word with macros to replace the function keys, and
saving this as an XML file instead of each line in a PF. The RPG program
would have to wait until Word was exited again.

I'd like to hear about ways others of you may have used to evolve this kind
of system.

Thanks.