need to automate a task

[davidjpowell]

I have a word template which looks something like this

To go alongside this I have a directory of pictures which must be copy and pasted into the image frame. Text then gets added below.

The number of pictures, and the pages vary.

I'm trying to find a better and automated way to do this, so ideally I can point the software at a directory and tell it to add the number of pages, copy the frames and then insert the images.

Any ideas?

I use Word 2010, but could easily change for the right solution....

I've thought about using Access with a report, but fear the number of images (could be up to 200 per job) would break it quickly..

 

[finisterre]

interesting. I don't know of a package. I think I would start with a small java or C program, you might even be able to do it as a .bat file

One that writes html and file names and text samples into a text document - then save it as html, and then convert to word.

sounds tricky but fun.

 

[bolide]

There used to be a Quark Xpress extension that did exactly this in Quark

I would think there is a solution out there but it might not be for Word. There will be one for Framemaker, probably one for Adobe Acrobat and definitely one for InDesign

If you have a Mac you could quite possibly do it using AppleScript or Automator and Pages or InDesign. An AppleScript that you could drop a folder of images onto would be ideal

I could build something in Filemaker that could create & output pages as PDF - that's the kind of job Filemaker is brilliant at if you know how to use it

Nick Froome

 

[bolide]

The nice thing about a database solution is that you could enter the text directly into the database in a box under the image so you could get your line lengths & layouts looking good. Also you could re-order pages and/or images if required

Nick Froome

 

[bolide]

Here you go - PDF straight out of Filemaker, uploaded as a JPEG as the forum can't handle PDFs