> > > > I'm interested in what people do on this one. > > > > > > > > Suppose you output a report from your favourite genealogical program > > > > in say DOC or RTF format because you want to put it through some > > > > manual editing in a word processing program. > > > > > > > > What is it you want to do? Is it to tweak the content (sounds a bit > > > > dubious - why wasn't it right in the first place)? Or perhaps you > > > > want to massage the appearance in some way. > > > > > > > > Peter J Seymour > > > > > > This very very general question is rather irrelevant unless we know > > > what program you are using, what you expect to do or what problems > > > you are encountering. > > > > .... > > > > > bob gillis > > > > In clarification, I engage in family history research in a small way .... > >I have been trying to get a better grip on some of the more detail > >points among all this. The comments made by various posters have > > been quite helpful. > > > > Peter J Seymour <mozng@pjsey.demon.co.uk> www.gendatam.com > > Peter, > .... > In lieu of wp functionality, may I suggest you look at gdbi and how > it makes use of the lifelines reports/report language? If you > decide to adopt/adapt those/that, you have "instant" wp-like > functionality and allow your users the ability to create > customi{s,z}ed outputs. > > Sun-tanned Ol' Bob Melson I hadn't really been aware of GDBI but having found it, I find it is a fairly omniverous sourceforge project with various points of interest, if only academic. Gendatam Suite does have an internal scripting facility used for the newer style of reports and for forms and templates. I have been considering encapsulating the various standard report bulding blocks in subroutines accessible to scripting (easily done, it is just a matter of getting down to it)and this would further streamline the specification of reports. This would also facilitate the control of reports via user-setable options. It is really a question of just how far do you go in providing the user with choice. Peter Peter J Seymour <mozng@pjsey.demon.co.uk>