How to Convert Memo Fields into Embedded Word Documents

• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Macintosh, version 3.0b
• Microsoft FoxPro for Macintosh, version 2.6a
• Microsoft Visual FoxPro for Windows, version 3.0

SUMMARY

This article shows by example how to take the text from a memo field and create a Microsoft Word document that can be embedded in a general field to allow easy use of the data within Word. The sample code in this article does it by by scanning through the table and replacing the general field for the record with a word document containing the memo text for each record that contains data in the memo field.

MORE INFORMATION

For the code samples in thie article to work, you must have Microsoft Word version 6.0 installed and properly registered for OLE support. For the Macintosh code sample to work, you must run Microsoft Word 6.0 to set the file Creator and Type, and you must specify the class for the document in the APPEND GENERAL command.

Macintosh Code Sample

* This code creates a .dbf file that holds a memo and a * general field and creates an embedded Microsoft Word 6.0 document * in the corresponding general field (mygen) for any record where * the memo field (mymemo) contains text. It also reports the number * of converted memo values in the statusbar as it goes. * In the fname="MacHD:TEMPSTUF.TXT" line, replace MacHD with the * actual name of your Mac hard disk drive volume.

CREATE TABLE test ;

     (mymemo M, mygen G)

     VALUES ('Hello, this is a test')

     VALUES ('Test record number 2')

SET SAFETY OFF

fname="MacHD:TEMPSTUF.TXT"                && temporary file
 name

     IF MEMLINES(mymemo )>0               && text in the memo?
          COPY MEMO mymemo TO (fname)     && macro sub the filename

          B=fxsettype(fname,"W6BN","MSWD")
          * W6BN,MSWD is the Type and Creator for a Word 6 document
          IF B!=0
               WAIT WINDOW "problem with FxSetType()"
          ENDIF
     * Replaces the general field (mygen) with an embedded Word Doc
          APPEND GENERAL mygen FROM (fname) CLASS word.document.6

          COUNT=COUNT+1          && increment number created
          SET MESSAGE TO STR(COUNT)     && display count on statusbar
     ENDIF

DELETE FILE (fname)                         && remove temp file

Windows Visual Foxpro Code Sample

* This code creates a .dbf file that has a memo and a * general field. It creates an embedded Microsoft Word document * in the corresponding general field (mygen) for any record where * the memo field (mymemo) contains text. It also shows the number * of converted memo values in the statusbar as it goes. A temporary * file is created and then deleted from the FoxPro startup directory.

CREATE TABLE test ;

     (mymemo M, mygen G)

     VALUES ('Hello, this is a test')

     VALUES ('Test record number 2')

FNAME=maindir+"tempdoc.doc"               && Tempfile

     IF !EMPTY(mymemo)                    && Anything in the Memo?
          DELETE FILE maindir+"tempdoc.doc"
          COPY MEMO mymemo TO &fname
          APPEND GENERAL mygen FROM &fname
          COUNT=COUNT+1
          SET MESSAGE TO STR(COUNT)
     ENDIF

DELETE FILE maindir+"tempdoc.doc"          && remove temp file