How to Edit a MS Word Document

[dpicella]

I want to add some text to the end of some Microsoft Word documents.  Is there a way to do this?

 

I'm on a Linux server and therefore can't use COM to open an instance of a Word application.

 

Basically, this would be like inserting some text such as a time stamp at the end of the .doc file.

 

If php can't do this, what about Perl?  Thanks!

[Goldeneye]

I don't know exactly how to edit a Microsoft Word document through PHP, but I can outline how it might be done.

 

<?php
    $str = 'The text to append to the Microsoft Word Document';
    $file_handle = fopen('/path/to/MS_Word_document.doc', a);
    fwrite($file_handle, $str);
    fclose($file_handle);
?>

 

I'm not sure that would work, but it should be a push in the right direction.

[dpicella]

Thanks!

 

Well... that did not work.  I did notice that the text does get added at the end of the file stream but it does not show up in word.  The word file seems to be encoded in binary format and not ascii.

 

Perhaps there is a Perl script that can edit a word file???

[Goldeneye]

Thanks!

 

Well... that did not work.  I did notice that the text does get added at the end of the file stream but it does not show up in word.  The word file seems to be encoded in binary format and not ascii.

 

Perhaps there is a Perl script that can edit a word file???

In that case...

Try

$file_handle = fopen('/path/to/MS_Word_document.doc', 'ab');

instead of

$file_handle = fopen('/path/to/MS_Word_document.doc', 'a');

[chaiwei]

"ab" means write the file in potability mode?

what difference with "t"?

[Goldeneye]

"ab" means write the file in potability mode?

what difference with "t"?

 

"b" forces binary-mode for the opened-file.

"t" has to do with line endings.

 

On Windows, using "t" will cause PHP to translate "\n" (the *nix linebreak) to "\r\n" (the Windows linebreak).

[l0ve2hat3]

if you can save the word doc as an xml file then you can edit it.

[dpicella]

In that case...

Try

$file_handle = fopen('/path/to/MS_Word_document.doc', 'ab');

instead of

$file_handle = fopen('/path/to/MS_Word_document.doc', 'a');

 

Unfortunately this does not work.

 

 

[dpicella]

I found this:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fwrite.php#53622

 

Which I also think is close.  If one wanted to find and replace some text I think you could use pack/unpack to edit a section of text but it would still not be the same as editing the file and appending some text at the end.

[dpicella]

if you can save the word doc as an xml file then you can edit it.

 

I think this is the way to go.  I am going to see if we can get our documents in the newer Open XML format.

[dgoosens]

hi,

 

I am not sure... but I think PHPLIVEDOCX will be able to help you out:

http://www.phplivedocx.org/2009/02/03/generate-pdf-docx-doc-and-rtf-files-with-php/

 

otherwise, go for the ODT format (OpenOffice) and use odtPHP

http://www.odtphp.com/