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I have a .doc template I use for building CVs for many friends. I'm trying to automate this process using simple library/program, for exmaple, that can accept data like name, email, phone number, job title, and can create the .doc automatically.

What framework can be used for that to make it fastest i can?

Thanks, Tal

Tal Yitzhak
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1 Answers1

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Where exactly are keeping this template and are your friends plugging in the data or are you doing it all yourself?

No matter what, you're basically looking to do a data merge. An example of a data merge is a mail merge: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/294683/how-to-use-mail-merge-to-create-form-letters-in-word The same thing really applies to what you're accomplishing to do.

You can take a template, specify the fields that require variable data (aka the different information that's changing), and then just use a spreadsheet to pull the data from and plug it in.

Now the question you'll probably be wondering next is how data merges use spreadsheets. The way data merges work is that each column you set with data in it, that should correspond to the changing lines in your template. I strongly recommend you read up on this further - it's not that difficult to do once you get the hang of it.

The last question is probably how you'll compile the data into this spreadsheet. Are your friends going to fill out an online form perhaps? If so, you'll need an online form of some sort perhaps, so you'll need to use some PHP, have a database to store the information from the form, and then just go to the table and export the information as a .csv file after you see you have enough data populated in your database table to do a data merge.

If you don't have access to MS Office, I'm sure you can accomplish this in OpenOffice.org instead (which is free/open-source).

Hope this helps.

At my job we do data merges all the time - for mail merges, for letters that need to be personally address to individual recipients, and we do this for people who need to print dozens of different business cards for different employees. We take their business card template and just do a data merge from a spreadsheet to save time on needing to set up individual files. P.S. you can also use Adobe inDesign for this, if you know how to use it.

Nancy
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  • I'm building CVs for friends. I want to have an online form that you can fill in details like name, family name, email, and then it can generate a .doc based on my doc template. So whats best to use for that purpose? I assume a simple HTML Form that sends a POST request to python server that builds the spreadsheet maybe? – Tal Yitzhak Apr 22 '18 at 19:54
  • What you need is an HTML form to PDF plugin/solution instead for this. This way your friends can fill out the form, download the PDF and then open it in word. There are many many solutions for it. For example, there is a site that even does it all for free if you have up to a 100 users a month: https://www.jotform.com/fillable-pdf-form-creator/ – Nancy Apr 22 '18 at 20:08
  • Thanks, but I need to create a .doc file rather then .pdf one, because I want the file that is created to be edited before it is converted to PDF. Is there one popular that I can use that can do HTML Form to .doc? – Tal Yitzhak Apr 23 '18 at 07:09
  • PDFs can be edited just fine. No matter what it's still an HTML piece that you're opening up in word regardless if it's a PDF, HTML or DOC file. All you're basically doing is forcing an extension. Here is a very similar thread as yours for a poster who was trying to do the same thing as you: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/21880368/html-form-export-to-word-document?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=google_rich_qa&utm_campaign=google_rich_qa – Nancy Apr 23 '18 at 13:37