[Tutor] Question about Python and Windows' Apps

[Pijus Virketis]

Billie,

>I have several form letters in Word and a flat file  database=
 in
>Excel for addresses.  What I am looking to do is to have a =
 onestop
>place for data entry.  It's not just  about mail merge because I=
 do
>have to make a couple of changes to the form  letter itself but
>basically the letters stay the same. I would like to   keep the=
 data
>entry information in another flat file in Excel for a few of =
 the
>letters to generate reports.
>Is this something Python can do.

Well, I think this should not be too hard to accomplish with=
 Python. 
Remember, it can be used for M$ Office automation tasks by=
 accessing 
the COM interfaces of, say, Excel and Word. So, in principle the=
 task 
would be very similar to writing this script in VBA, except=
 nicer, 
because you'll be doing it in Python. ;)

Here's a presentation on "Getting at your Office Data":

http://starship.python.net/crew/pirx/spam7/

Here's Chapter 12 of the superlative "Python Programming on=
 Win32" by 
Mark Hammond:

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/pythonwin32/chapter/ch12.html

I've found this material enough to get me started on my toy=
 projects. 
You might wish to buy the book mentioned above, if you're going=
 to 
work a lot with Office.

Cheers, 

Pijus


-- 
"Anyone attempting to generate random numbers by deterministic=
 means 
is, of course, living in a state of sin." -- John Von Neumann