Re: mailmerge

It looks like you should just be able to leave off the name of the
printer and it ought to work to your default printer, though I have
never tried this personally. The command would be basically the following:
start lawyerless\abisuite2\abiword\bin\abiword.exe -m divlist.csv
intro.abw -p

I'm currently pretty busy but I will see if I can try this out soon -
otherwise perhaps someone else on the list can try it too.

Ryan

Lawyerless Solutions wrote:

> Here's what puzzles me most at this point: I have used Abiword with
> success in production since I first discovered the product about two
> months ago. (I originally looked for an alternative to Wordpad mainly
> because I needed a word processing product that included the ability
> to force page breaks.) In document creation and printing, Abiword
> doesn't ask me to identify a printer, whether run straight from XP or
> a DOS command line. So when in merge mode, why does Abiword even need
> me to pass a printer parameter at all? If I couldn't get Abiword to
> print at all, I would better understand the possibility of having to
> add PDFCreator or whatever. But the problem cannot be my printer or
> my platform interface to it, because Abiword prints just fine, except
> when attempting merging. Why can't Abiword send out a print stream
> created from a merge of two sources in the same way it sends print
> output coming from a single file source? Why even have that second
> parameter in the merge call sequence? I've been creating software one
> way or another for over 42 years (I'm fast approaching my 65th
> birthday), but maybe I'm missing something here. Please advise.
> ======================
> At 11:46 AM 12/7/2005, you wrote:
>
>> Make sure that HPLJ is the long name of the printer. Also, try
>> PDFCreator - if any printer works, it will. The .ps (PostScript)
>> output option is only available on Unix (without PDFCreator), sorry
>> for any confusion.
>>
>> I will give this a shot myself with PDFCreator when I get the chance
>> unless I hear back that it worked.
>>
>> Ryan
>>
>> PS. Press "Reply All" next time to send a copy back to the list, so
>> that it may be archived to help other users.
>> Lawyerless Solutions wrote:
>>
>>> I appreciate your prompt reply, but no matter what I try, nothing
>>> goes from Abiword to my printer (HP Laserjet). At your suggestion I
>>> have changed the second parameter to: -p HPLJ ..where HPLJ is the
>>> PrinterName recorded in Control Panel. Everything from every
>>> application prints properly, and that includes Abiword output from
>>> other than mailmerge.
>>> As to printing to files, the Abiword mailmerge description mentions
>>> printing to files including the numbering scheme (starting with 0)
>>> for "one .ps file for every set of values. . ." However, I don't
>>> wish to belabor the point, because my only intent that is absolutely
>>> necessary is simply to print directly to the printer.
>>> Can you somehow provide me with, or point me to, a sample or
>>> printout of an actual merged result printing? I have checked and
>>> rechecked to make sure that the .csv and .abw files going into the
>>> printmerge are properly referenced and internally correct.
>>> Any suggestions from anyone would be most appreciated. - Les
>>> ===================
>>> ,At 09:28 PM 12/6/2005, you wrote:
>>>
>>>> sum1_lists@yahoo.com wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Lawyerless Solutions wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Having spent significant parts of two days attempting to the
>>>>>> merge and print phase of mailmerge to produce output, I
>>>>>> reluctantly must give up and ask for your help.
>>>>>> As far as I can tell, I have correctly created the data source
>>>>>> (divlist.csv saved as plain text) and the document template
>>>>>> (intro.abw). These were done via Windows XP GUI. For the
>>>>>> merge/print, I created a DOS batch file that included the
>>>>>> following command to execute Abiword:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> start lawyerless\abisuite2\abiword\bin\abiword.exe -m
>>>>>> divlist.csv p out.txt intro.abw
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nothing happens output-wise. The problem as I see it, unless a
>>>>>> bug exists, must be in the way the second parameter is coded.
>>>>>> Please explain more clearly the second sentence of the third
>>>>>> paragraph under "Printing the merged result" in the mailmerge
>>>>>> documentation, especially the last clause of that sentence:
>>>>>> "...all the usual potential values for -p work, if you want to
>>>>>> print directly to your printer or filter or anything else."
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> It seems like you're trying to print to a file, which I don't
>>>>> believe will work. The -p switch is expecting a printer name (as
>>>>> reported in the control panel), so you'd have to use something like:
>>>>>
>>>>> abiword.exe -m divlist.csv -p PrinterName intro.abw
>>>>>
>>>>> or, if you're using the default printer:
>>>>>
>>>>> abiword.exe -m divlist.csv -p - intro.abw
>>>>>
>>>>> Now, if you do indeed want to print to a file instead of a
>>>>> printer, you may have to set up a special PCL or postscript
>>>>> printer in Windows. Is that your intent?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Please note that if you install PDFCreator, from
>>>> http://sf.net/projects/pdfcreator/ , it creates a "virtual printer"
>>>> that can be used to merge print to PDF.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Ryan Pavlik
>>>> AbiWord Win32 Platform Maintainer
>>>> www.abisource.com
>>>>
>>>> "Optimism is the father that leads to achievement." - Helen Keller
>>>>
>>>> -----------------------------------------------
>>>> To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to
>>>> abiword-user-request@abisource.com with the word
>>>> unsubscribe in the message body.
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ryan Pavlik
>> AbiWord Win32 Platform Maintainer
>> www.abisource.com
>>
>> "Optimism is the father that leads to achievement." - Helen Keller
>>
>

-- 
Ryan Pavlik
AbiWord Win32 Platform Maintainer
www.abisource.com
"Optimism is the father that leads to achievement." - Helen Keller
-----------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to
abiword-user-request@abisource.com with the word
unsubscribe in the message body.