Microsoft Office Integration (Concept)

2.9	This piece of functionality has undergone drastic changes since writing this article and the information may be outdated or inaccurate as of now.

Native text for Microsoft Office applications is a powerful data integration tool in Grooper.

Easier access to the contents of files from the worlds most used business application suite.

About

Microsoft Office integration allows a Grooper user to leverage the native text of files generated in the Microsoft Office Suite such as Microsoft Word documents and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. This feature can pull the native text from and perform type-specific activities on these files.

Supported File Types

• Microsoft Word documents (.docx)
• Microsoft Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx)

Note: This feature does not support older, non-XML file types (.doc, .xls, etc.).

How to Use

To make use of this feature, ensure that Microsoft Office is installed on the machine running Grooper Design Studio.

Getting a Result

In Grooper Design Studio select a Batch that contains the desired documents. Select the document you wish to view its native text. Use the object command Word Document > Burst.... The Burst command will add a child document object for each page in the native file. The Convert command will give you the same native text as Burst, but will not create sub-document objects for each page. Instead, it will leave it as one document, with access to sub-pages view the Document Viewer. The Open command will literally open the file in whatever the native application is. The Render command will use the legacy "print to PDF" style approach. The Save As command will simply let you save the file to somewhere in your file system out of Grooper. In the subsequent Burst (or Convert) window that opens up, pick a style of native text viewing for the Output File Type property. PDF will present the text in the style of a rendered .pdf. Plain Text will present the text as if line by line in a .txt file. Rich Text will use the Microsoft proprietary text formatting to present the file.

Viewing the Results

In the image below you can see a Burst version of the document copied a few times showing a result for each PDF, Plain Text, and Rich Text.

Version Differences

Prior to Grooper 2.9 files from the Microsoft Office Suite had to be rendered (essentially a "print...") to PDF in order to view contents and use activities more effectively.