[OS X TeX] Form Documents

[Maarten Sneep]

On 23 May 2005, at 19:41, Bob Kerstetter wrote:

> For 10 years we have been using Word and VBA to generate form  
> documents. We enter name, address, etc for one person, then use  
> that information to generate 24 different documents, each one  
> customized with the name, address, etc. for the one person.
>
> Is there some way of doing this with TeX, LaTeX, ConTeXt so:
>
> 1. The users have a Mac-like dialog box where they can tab forward,  
> backward, etc to enter the information about the person, then press  
> OK to create the 24 docs.
>
> 2. The user can do as number 1, but then select from a list the  
> docs they want to create.

There are several options for this. I think the easiest is to use a  
web-form with a web-server. The web-server will do most of the  
processing. The processing can be done in php or a cgi script (perl,  
python or even a compiled language). Perl, PHP or Python probably  
give you the best compatibility with future systems). The nice thing  
is that you'll be independent from the exact system used on the desktop.

> 3. The user can edit the text of the output PDF with Acrobat or  
> whatever and the lines still wrap and the pages still break. BTW,  
> the output is double spaced.

I don't quite get this. Are you saying the generated pdf should  
basically act like a word document, but be based in pdf?  I'm not  
sure this is possible to the level you may want or need.

My € 0.02,

Maarten

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